ABSTRACT
To say “media production” or “practices of power” is to imply some regularities in these processes. But what regularities may be observed in a society that is experiencing an intensive social change? In a society where everything is fluid and unpredictable and escapes both academic analysis and everyday experience of participants? Is it possible to study such a society? As an insider who has tried to do it, I would answer yes, to some extent. And, what is more important, it is very worthwhile: it is not often that history gives us a chance to create an account of a rapidly changing social reality – a reality in which institutions emerge before our eyes, revealing their roots in society and unmasking the most covert patterns of social organization. Moreover, I believe that these patterns are not specific to Russia; my guess is that they are typical of some other or may be even all media systems, with the only difference that Russia is a more convenient place to reveal them. If this assumption is right, Russian experience may tell us something about the phenomenon of news production in general.
