ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out the theoretical framework and the key conceptual contributions of the study. The theoretical framework is organised around three key topics: Media Systems and Terms of Reference; Journalism: Culture, Role conceptions, and Relationship with Power, Culture, and Society; and Mediatisation of Conflict and National Identities: Conflict Reporting and Nation-Building. The media system of a country is closely linked to its economic, political, and cultural context. Russia is a good example of the processes that often take place in countries with historical traditions and contextual conditions different from those of the established democracies of the West, but which nonetheless interact with/are exposed to "professional journalism" as known in the West. An essential part of the mediatisation process as far as journalists are concerned is the balancing of the conventional rules of reporting with/against journalists' own national identities.
