Dzirkals Lilita, Gustafson Thane, Johnson A. Ross. The Media and Intra-Elite Communication in the USSR

Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation, 1982. — 155 p. — ISBN: 0-8330-0461-1 — (Rand Reports. R-2869)Between 1978 and 1981, The Rand Corporation conducted a comparative study of the role of the media in intra-elite communication in Communist countries. Western analysts of the political process in "closed” Communist systems necessarily rely heavily on the published and broadcast output of the mass and specialized media. These media are in part propaganda organs, but they also have other functions. A generation of Sovietologists (and specialists on other Communist states) has had to base much of its analysis of policies and politics on interpretations of media nuances. Yet the assumptions of Sovietologists about the relationship between the media and the political actors whose behaviour or attitudes are inferred from media content have received little attention. The Rand study was initiated to fill this need. Its emphasis is not on techniques of content analysis, which have received considerable attention in the past, but rather on the process by which politically significant material appears in Communist-country media, that is, how such material originates, gains approval, and is edited and censored before it appears as a written or spoken product. The study tests the validity of the usual Kremlinological assumption that the media of the USSR or other Communist countries are utilized as an instrument of power struggle and policy debate by contending leaders or groups. It seeks to establish the degree to which and the circumstances under which partisan views of particular leaders, groupings, or institutions may find expression in the controlled media. In contrast to the many studies based on content analysis alone, and in an effort to test the often unexamined assumptions of content-analysis studies, this study is based primarily on information obtained from extended interviews with émigrés formerly involved in the media process — writers, journalists, editors, censors, and government and Party officials. The study focuses on the medium in the expectation that this will enhance the analyst’s ability to interpret its message.Summary and Conclusions: How to Read Soviet MediaAssumptions of Western Sovietology
Research Approach and ScopeExternal ControlsParty Supervision
The Role of the Ministries and State Committees
Glavlit and Specialized CensorshipThe roles of the Chief Editor and the Editorial Process in the Soviet MediaFunctions of the Chief Editor
The Chief Editor’s Status and Career Background
Transmission of Orders to the Chief Editor: How is it Done?
The Significance of Changes in Chief Editors: The Case of Alekseev
Interaction of Political Authority and Editorial Process: The Case of Moskovskaia Pravda
Interaction of Political Authority and Editorial Process: The Case of Literatumaia GazetaDiscussions, Debates, and Controversies in Soviet MediaThe Perspective of Our Respondents
Leadership-Directed Campaigns and Orchestrated Pseudo-Controversy
Infringing on the Privileges of the Powerful
Stepping on Institutional Toes
Debate Among Specialists and Institutions
Involvement in Institutional and Policy Conflict
Factional Debates and Esoteric CommunicationA Note on Methodology
Review of Sovietological Literature