One Profession, Multiple Identities: Russian Regional Reporters' Perceptions of the Professional...

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One Profession, MultipleIdentities: Russian RegionalReporters' Perceptions of theProfessional CommunityWilson Lowrey a & Elina Erzikova ba Department of Journalism , University of Alabamab Department of Journalism , Central MichiganUniversityPublished online: 02 Sep 2013.

To cite this article: Mass Communication and Society (2013): One Profession, MultipleIdentities: Russian Regional Reporters' Perceptions of the Professional Community,Mass Communication and Society

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One Profession, Multiple Identities:Russian Regional Reporters’Perceptions of the Professional

Community

Wilson LowreyDepartment of JournalismUniversity of Alabama

Elina ErzikovaDepartment of Journalism

Central Michigan University

Drawing on perspectives on occupation and identity, this study examinesRussian regional journalists’ perceptions of their professional community.Different journalistic values derived from a fierce professional competitioncontributed to reporters’ view of the community as disjointed and polarized.The study also found that type of ownership influenced journalists’ identityand the way they conceptualize practice. Although journalists of privatenewspapers believe a newspaper should be a profit-generating enterprise, stateowned=supported newspapers’ reporters think a quality paper should informcitizens regardless of profit concern. In this province, state-owned or supportednewspapers have well-defined missions, whereas the paper that struggles tosurvive as privately owned lacks clearly articulated goals.

Wilson Lowrey (Ph.D., University of Georgia, 2000) is a Professor in the Department of

Journalism at the University of Alabama. His research focuses on the sociology of media occu-

pations, organizations and institutions.

Elina Erzikova (Ph.D., University of Alabama, 2009) is an Assistant Professor in the

Department of Journalism at Central Michigan University. Her research interests are located

at the intersection of journalism, public relations, and political communication.

Correspondence should be addressed to Elina Erzikova, Department of Journalism, Central

Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI 48859. E-mail: [email protected]

Mass Communication and Society, 0:1–22, 2013Copyright # Mass Communication & Society Division

of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication

ISSN: 1520-5436 print=1532-7825 online

DOI: 10.1080/15205436.2013.770031

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INTRODUCTION

In the post-perestroika period, Russian media have been gradually losingtheir independence from the government, and financial hardship has playeda key role (Federal Agency for the Press and Mass Communications ofthe Russian Federation, 2010). Regional governments subsidize the media,and they expect journalists to perform public relations duties in return.As a result, a new journalistic identity has been emerging. Feeling no lovefor government bureaucrats, many journalists nevertheless routinely dis-seminate government information (Erzikova & Lowrey, 2010).

Evidence suggests that these journalists believe that working for localauthorities is a lesser evil than working for independent newspapers thatare perceived as ‘‘yellow’’ or sensational. In their eyes, pro-governmentalroles are constructive because information from the government is ‘‘yellow-free,’’ and it offers an opportunity to practice what they see as serious,thoughtful journalism. They think such journalism can educate the massesmorally, and can help unify Russian society (Erzikova & Lowrey, 2010).

Yet not all journalists fall into this camp. Others think only newspapersthat can support themselves financially deserve readers’ attention and thatsubsidized media render professional media competition unhealthy. Accord-ing to this view, privately owned media find their ways to the hearts andwallets of the readers: They focus on attracting and entertaining readersrather than on providing moral guidance, and they strive to address every-day needs rather than inform about government decisions (Erzikova &Lowrey, 2010).

It appears that although these two categories of journalists compete forthe same readers and resources, they hold distinctly different professionalideologies, logics, and identities. These differences threaten the cohesivenessof the professional journalistic community, given that ‘‘occupational com-munities represent bounded work cultures populated by people who sharesimilar identities and values that transcend specific organizational settings’’(Van Maanen & Barley, 1984, p. 314).

This study examines journalists’ perceptions of the cohesiveness andautonomy of their occupational community within a single Russian province.These journalists tend to split normatively according to type of ownership,into camps of ‘‘state journalists’’ and ‘‘private journalists.’’ Findings indicatethat newspapers owned by the government or by powerful oligarchs (whohave both state and commercial backing) have clear, but different missions,whereas one independent paper that is privately owned struggles to survive,lacking clearly articulated goals as well as resources. Across all types ofpapers studied in this province, reporters say the journalistic professionalcommunity is disjointed, and they offer the following reasons: differing

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organizational goals, a lack of professional autonomy due to dependence ongovernment, competition over scarce resources, generational differences, andthe absence of a universally shared ideology.

Diminished journalistic autonomy can result from this disjointedness andfragmentation, particularly in the face of powerful governmental and econ-omic institutions seeking more control over public space and greater jurisdic-tion over information work. Many of the challenges these Russian journalistsface—particularly harsh economic conditions, generational differences, andideological fragmentation—are shared by journalists around the world,including stable news systems in Western nations. Findings here offer alesson: When struggling journalists are also strongly dependent on govern-ment and have little autonomy, professional community may not survive.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Historical Professional Identity of Russian Journalists

Journalists across countries and cultures all strive for professional self-legitimatization in society (Deuze, 2005), and Russian journalists are no dif-ferent. Comparative studies have indicated that some traits are valued acrossmultiple cultures, most notably a responsibility to serve the public (Deuze,2005; Laitila, 1995; McQuail, 2005; Nordenstreng, 1998; Weaver, 1998); ahigh degree of autonomy in decision-making, freedom, and creativity(Deuze, 2005; McQuail, 2005; Nordenstreng, 1998); and pursuit of truthful-ness (Deuze, 2005; Laitila, 1995; Weaver, 1998).

Weaver, Beam, Brownlee, Voakes, and Wilhoit’s (2007) well-knownnational study of U.S. journalists identified four major perceived journalisticfunctions that are fairly consistent with these traits: interpretive (investigat-ory and analytical journalism), adversarial (watchdog journalism),disseminator (neutral, wide distribution of facts), and populist mobilizer(participatory journalism). The most recent analysis of these data showedthat the interpretive function was the most widely embraced and that,between the early and late 2000s, journalists’ support for the adversarial roleand the interpretive role—questioning and investigating government claims,in particular—were on the rise. Journalists also said they valued autonomyhighly, consistent with cross-cultural studies of roles. However, they saw theirautonomy as eroding, largely because of increasing economic stress on theirorganizations (Beam & Meeks, 2011; Beam, Weaver, & Brownlee, 2009).

Russian journalists have embraced many, though not all, of these traitsand values. They have valued truth telling, autonomy, and public service.Yet scholars recognize that unique aspects of each region influence values

RUSSIAN REGIONAL REPORTERS’ PERCEPTIONS 3

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and roles (Hanitzsch, 2007; Reese, 2001; Weaver, 1998). This regionalinfluence is evident in Russian journalism, its multiplicity of perceivedroles, and its 300-year turbulent history (Zassoursky, 2007). Historically,the Russian press has embraced neither adversarial nor neutral disseminatorroles. From its beginning, the Russian press played the roles of propagandistand organizer of public opinion on behalf of state reforms and indepen-dence, and the first Russian newspapers were ideological rather thancommercial (Esin, 2000).

In the 1930s, the USSR became a totalitarian state with the ideologicaldepartments of the Community Party fully in control of the mass media.The Party controlled media content regardless of ownership type (the Com-munist Party, the state or professional and public organizations), and thepress performed public relations functions (Vartanova, 1996). Further, thepress actively formed and sustained the cult of Stalin and treated harshlythose who disagreed with the regime (Ovsepyan, 1999).

At the same time, the press became ‘‘one of the most powerful agents ofmoral education,’’ making a journalist a judge, defender, prosecutor, inves-tigator, and an educator all at once (Sagal, 1978, p. 171). Journalism wasperceived as a persuasive art form, associated with journalists’ deep personalinvolvement in their craft, which offered ‘‘torture and sleepless nights’’ dur-ing story writing (Sagal, 1978). Although the identities of journalist as moraleducator, as artist and as PR agent were strengthened during Communisttimes, these had roots extending back to the first Russian press systems,which were highly partisan and subjective (McNair, 1994).

During perestroika, journalists followed Mikhail Gorbachev’s call for ‘‘adegree of ‘openness’ surrounding the political class’’ (McNair, 1999, p. 21).To journalists this suggested a Russian analog to the Western notion of‘‘watchdog’’ journalism. It appears that in today’s Russia, however, aggress-ive investigative reporting is an infrequently embraced journalistic form(Bogdanov, 2005).

Current Professional Identity of Local Russian Journalists

In recent years, the Russian media environment has grown more complexand murky. News producers have had at least two legitimate frames ofreference about the outside world by which to guide news processes and deci-sions: (a) Western enlightenment principles, suggesting that society, politics,and economics are naturally pluralistic, competitive, and oriented towardindividuality, and (b) a traditional conformity to authority, and a tendencyto view the external world as mostly threatening. The latter frame of referenceseems to be gaining dominance. These dueling, fluctuating environments ofWestern notions of market-oriented pluralism and traditional Russian


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authority also play out at the regional level. But despite Schillinger’s (1989)admonition that Soviet media should not be viewed as monolithic, provincialRussian media remain understudied.

Since 1991, Russian regions have been establishing their own politicalidentities in response to a weak central government (Moses, 2004). Accord-ingly, ‘‘the centrifugal tendencies of the post-Soviet period have enhanced theautonomy and importance of the provincial media’’ (Davis, Hammond, &Nizamova, 1998, p. 77). According to official statistics, in 2010, 3,575newspapers and magazines were published in 83 subnational units in theRussian Federation; 631 of them were regional and 2,944 were municipal.

However, experts say only 60% of all registered press in Russia is beingpublished on a regular basis (Federal Agency for the Press and Mass Com-munications of the Russian Federation, 2011). As a rule, more than 50% ofall publications in a typical Russian region are gratis press with an advertis-ing or=and infotainment content; about 30% are sociopolitical papers andmagazines that prioritize original editorial content (Federal Agency forthe Press and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation, 2011).

The 2008 recession forced provincial news organizations to increase theirentrepreneurial efforts in order to survive. However, a cost of sustainabilityhas been the erosion of the news media’s social importance, as sustainabilityis due partly to media tabloidization, which tends to marginalize the newsmedia in the eyes of audiences and officials (Federal Agency for the Pressand Mass Communications of the Russian Federation, 2011).

The juxtaposition of private ownership, Western models, and traditionalRussian government authority has led to uncertainty and a variety ofinteresting consequences at the regional level. According to Matveeva(2007), the dual power of private oligarchs and government in the provinceshas resulted in incoherent goals, unclear roles, and broken communicationbetween journalists and audiences. Neither owners nor reporters strive toreflect the audience’s interests. However, according to Koltsova (2001,2006), this lack of clarity offers at least the possibility of a pluralistic,dynamic environment: ‘‘All agents, including media producers, possess someresources and can exercise power’’ (Koltsova, 2001, p. 333). As mentioned,the provinces generally support both government-controlled and privatemedia, and there is evidence of multiple ideologies and norms—a mixedblessing, as this may encourage diversity of content as well as a fragmented,weakened journalistic community.

Problems have also emerged from the sheer volume of new publicationsresulting from Western-style private ownership (Erzikova & Lowrey, 2010).Many new publications in the provinces have struggled financially, andthe field has seen an influx of young journalists who were not socializedduring perestroika, and who are enamored of entertainment content and less


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critical of official sources (Erzikova & Lowrey, 2012; Pasti, 2005; Svitich &Shiryaeva, 2010).

Today, the majority of provincial journalists do not challenge authority(Davis et al., 1998). According to Romanovich (2006), 29% of reportersand 44% of editors in the Voronezh region said they were forced into silenceby political or economic powers, whereas Verkhovskaya (2006) noted thatjournalists of the Orel province preferred to report positive news instead ofuncovering and discussing regional problems. Bogdanov (2005) estimatedthat the ‘‘real journalism,’’ or public service journalism, makes up 5% to10% of newspaper content, leaving the rest of the space for governmentPR and paid stories that aim to defame individuals or organizations. Regard-less of the level of economic and political development, all Russian regionsare dominated by bureaucrats that compose up to 70% to 90% of the regionalpolitical class (Gaman-Golutvina, 2008). Given the importance of officialsources to journalists, this implies a pro-government media discourse inthe Russian provinces (Svitich & Shiryaeva, 2010).

Occupational Community

Clearly Russian regional journalists have encountered substantial challengesto their ability to assert autonomy and social influence, and to obtaincoherent journalistic roles. Yet these journalists still may be said to possessoccupational identity and to inhabit an ‘‘occupational community.’’Occupational communities consist of people who consider themselves to bedoing the same sort of work and who share norms and values that applyto daily work matters (Fine, 1996; Trice, 1993; Van Maanen & Barley, 1984).

Occupational communities often have organizational foundations, andthey rely, to some degree, on organizational resources for their survival,but they may also flourish beyond organizational walls and work hours.They draw on their own skills, codes, and language to demonstrate they haveparticular areas of knowledge and expertise that others lack, thus legitimat-ing their control over aspects of the organization’s work (Bloor & Dawson,1994). According to Van Maanen and Barley (1984), ‘‘although a position isorganizationally created and sanctioned, the work that comprises such aposition often has a history of its own and, therefore, a context that is notorganizationally limited’’ (p. 291).

The concept of the occupational community stems from The ChicagoSchool’s ‘‘process perspective’’ of professions, which emphasizes factors thatshape changes in occupational legitimacy, and the steps occupations take tobuild and maintain legitimacy (Hughes, 1958). This notion of occupationand profession departs sharply from the traditional scholarship on newsas a profession, which is mainly concerned with criteria that journalism


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needed to measure up to in order to ‘‘qualify’’ as a profession (e.g., Gerald,1963; McLeod & Hawley, 1964). In sociology, the approach graduallyshifted from a focus on static professional traits to the more dynamicemphasis on degree of occupational cohesiveness, on degree of professionalpower or control, and on the antecedents and consequences of this cohesive-ness, power, and control (e.g., Abbott, 1988; Hughes, 1958).

The identities of occupational communities may alter, weaken, or frag-ment, depending on objective pressures such as a lack of government supportor sanction for the occupation, and the degree to which the market is domi-nated by a central power and is homogeneous (VanMaanen & Barley, 1984).Changing technologies, changes in the larger culture, and pressure from rivaloccupations can also pressure and undermine occupational communitycohesiveness (Abbott, 1988). Occupational communities may also seek toredefine themselves rhetorically, emphasizing some tasks, goals, or even pastevents at the expense of others (Abbott, 1988; Lowrey, 2006; Thornton,Ocasio, & Lounsbury, 2012). U.S. journalists, for example, have sought tomaintain their legitimacy and cohesiveness partly through the constructionof historical narratives about U.S. journalism and journalists (e.g., Schudson,1993; Zelizer, 1993).

The relative strength and cohesiveness of occupational communitiesinfluence the degree to which such communities can remain autonomous.Stronger occupational communities are better able to renegotiate andrestructure their goals, their ethical principles, and their definitions ofsuccess in the face of changes in the media environment (Abbott, 1988;Van Maanen & Barley, 1984). Stronger communities are better able to tran-scend the normative environments of other dominant institutions, such asgovernment units and private companies. Weaker, more fragmented com-munities are more vulnerable to the agendas of these powerful institutions(Tolbert & Hall, 2009).

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Clearly the political, artistic, and journalistic landscapes are shifting underthe feet of Russian regional journalists. This study seeks to shed light onthe nature of this disruption in one Russian province, how the journalistsin this province are trying to maintain occupational community in its midst,and what forms such collectives might take. Our discussion to this pointsuggests the following research questions:

RQ1: In what ways do Russian regional reporters form and maintainprofessional community?


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RQ2: Which factors contribute to strengthening the community, and whichfactors hinder its development?

METHOD

This longitudinal study is based on data from interview, focus group, andobservation data gathered in 2007 to 2010 from four newspaper newsroomsin a region in central Russia. In the 1990s, transitional reforms intensified theregional differentiation and deepened socioeconomic disparity amongregions (Markin &Nelyubin, 2008; Moses, 2004). Since then, Russian subna-tional units have been conveniently divided into two categories: donor regionand recipient region. The province under consideration is an economicallydepressed ‘‘recipient’’ region with a relatively low attractiveness for inves-tors, including media moguls: The region is not among 15 Russian subna-tional units that launched more than 55% of the total number of newmedia enterprises in 2010 (Federal Agency for the Press and Mass Commu-nications of the Russian Federation, 2011).

Sample

The total circulation of newspapers published in the region in 2010 was over600,000 copies a week. Regional (oblastnaya) press accounted for 50% of theoverall circulation, so-called network (setevye) papers (federal or cross-regional publications) for 27%, and municipal (gorodskie) and county(raionnye) publications for 23%.

Four newspapers from the region were selected for analysis. Findings inthis study cannot be generalized beyond this sample. The papers chosen werethe region’s oldest sociopolitical papers with a circulation of 10,000 or morecopies a week; they also differed by ownership type. To assure confidentialityof participants, the papers’ names were replaced with pseudonyms.

The first newspaper included in the sample, theCityWeekly, was launchedduring perestroika as a new type of regional publication, free from politicalinfluence. In its heyday, City Weekly’s circulation reached almost 100,000copies a week. These days, the paper barely makes 12,000 copies a week.Although the City Weekly does not praise the governor as do the rest ofpapers, the paper does not pursue a watchdog role, fearing powerful officialsmay bankrupt the publication.

The second publication, the Patriot, is the oldest newspaper in the region.It was the organ of the regional Committee of the Communist Party inSoviet times. Today the newspaper lives off the regional budget and enjoys


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other forms of preferential treatment from the government (e.g., accessto sources of information, help with distribution). The Patriot’s reportersperceive that they have a mission to assist the regional government toadvance the region economically.

The third newspaper, the Private Gazette, does not produce a profit, eventhough its owner is a well-known local media oligarch, whose ‘‘empire’’consists of profitable broadcasting stations and advertising newspapers.The oligarch said he is interested in the Private Gazette as a political andfinancial tool during elections. Between election campaigns, ad supplementssupport the publication. The paper’s reporters are poorly paid, and theyseek opportunities to earn extra money writing publicity stories for thegovernment and private organizations.

The fourth newspaper, the Regional Tribune, is a local branch of aMoscow mainstream publication. Unlike other (weekly) papers in the sam-ple, theRegional Tribune is published 5 days a week. Like the Private Gazette,theRegional Tribune promotes government activities on a contract basis. TheMoscow owner mandates that the branch produce news with an entertain-ment component, and sell ads. The Regional Tribune is the only paper inthe sample that makes a profit.

Before perestroika, this region (like other Russian provinces) had twosociopolitical newspapers. These were organs of the regional CommunistParty and Komsomol Committees, and there was no competition betweenthe two papers. Today, at least a dozen of the region’s newspapers considerthemselves ‘‘sociopolitical,’’ quality papers. Although they have different own-ers, from state to private, they compete for the same readers. Moreover, sincethe 2008 economic crisis, there is little ad revenue, and the regional media com-pete for one monolithic ‘‘advertiser’’—the government. News outlets hope fora ‘‘slice of the pie’’ in the form of both state revenue and information subsidies.This fosters competition and conflict, both outside and within news outlets.

Data gathering. Over the 4-year period (2007–2010), 86 semistructured,in-depth interviews have been conducted in newsrooms, offices, and informalsettings. There were 56 respondents, as some respondents were interviewedmultiple times. Owners, editors, and rank-and-file journalists from fourregional papers as well as government officials, public relations managers,press secretaries, and former newspaper employees participated in thestudy. Depending on the roles respondents played, interviews lasted from30 minutes to 5 hours, and averaged around 112 hours. Direct observations,including participation in newspaper meetings, and close reading of the latestnewspapers’ issues supplemented data gathering. As an attempt to usemultiple sources to validate data (Yin, 2009), two focus groups were conduc-ted in each of four newsrooms.


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A slight majority of participants were women. Respondents’ professionalexperiences ranged from 1 to 30 years; only six participants had a universitydegree in journalism. Others’ degrees were obtained in engineering, Russianlanguage and literature, history, public relations, medicine, and military. Allresearch participants signed informed consent forms, approved by theresearcher’s Institutional Review Board, prior to interviews.

FINDINGS

The research questions asked about ways Russian regional reporters in thisprovince form and maintain their professional community, and factors thatshape these dynamics. Findings suggest that factors that hamper communitydevelopment outweigh factors that contribute to it. The majority of parti-cipants said they thought a journalistic professional community does not existin the region. Typical was a comment by a vice editor of the City Weekly:There is ‘‘no journalism—no community.’’ He said newspapers influencedby the government are mass propaganda rather than news media: ‘‘I amashamed to call myself a journalist. I call myself a ‘staffer’ since I cannotperform journalistic functions.’’

A number of factors have had an impact on the level of journalisticcommunity in this region, including ownership, dependence on governmentfunding, conflict across the region, and varying perceptions of culture andideology.

Newsroom and Ownership Factors

Most respondents said they did not perceive a sense of professional com-munity, even within their newsrooms. Older reporters said they have littleinterest in socializing with young reporters, who they say lack professionalcommitment, whereas young reporters said they resented that the seasonedreporters did not contribute more to newcomers’ journalistic education inthe workplace. Both interviews and observations offered evidence. Duringone interview, a seasoned journalist of the City Weekly, commenting onhis young colleague’s effort to find a job in Moscow, said, ‘‘I will not lift afinger to prepare her for a Moscow job.’’ When she passed his office, theolder reporter asked, ‘‘Are you still here?’’ and the young reporter fired back,‘‘Can’t wait to get rid of me?’’ Later she said the paper had been much moreoppressive than nurturing: ‘‘This paper presses me out of the paper and prov-ince.’’ Likewise, during one of the researcher’s interviews at the PrivateGazette, a young reporter stopped talking, obviously because an older col-league showed up in her office. She said she feared her story ideas would


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be stolen by colleagues, which she said was common practice in thatnewsroom.

Some respondents attributed the lack of professional community todifferentiated ownership. A City Weekly reporter said, ‘‘While other pro-fessional communities—teachers, medical doctors—have common values,the regional reporters don’t because they worship different gods.’’ Althoughall participants said they regarded their newspapers as ‘‘quality’’ papers, themeaning of ‘‘quality’’ differed across ownership types, as did perceptions ofthe audience. For the government-backed Patriot’s reporters, a ‘‘qualitypublication’’ would ‘‘analyze the social, political and economic situationin the region, bring constructive criticism, and find inspiring examples; inshort, contribute to the consolidation of civil society.’’ In other words, thejournalists for this state-owned paper had a shared agenda with the localgovernment—the paper was ‘‘institutional’’ in nature, promoting orderand government policies and decisions (Cook, 2005), and readers wereenvisioned en masse, as a chaotic collective to be ordered, and evencontrolled.

In contrast, the staffers of both private papers (the Private Gazette andRegional Tribune) defined a quality paper as one that is ‘‘attractive for read-ers enough to make them pay money for it,’’ as the editor of the PrivateGazette put it. Thus, reporters at these papers actively seek content that willinform readers in an entertaining manner, perceiving that elements of a ‘‘yel-low’’ press (i.e., a marketing or sensationalistic approach) are necessary forcatching reader’s attentions. The newspaper content should result in profit,according to management of private newspapers. As the general manager ofthe Regional Tribune said, ‘‘Our rule is every story has to be sellable.’’

Reporters of the City Weekly distanced themselves from both ‘‘state’’ and‘‘private’’ colleagues. The City Weekly ownership type is complicated.Officially, the paper is the organ of the city administration; however, officialslost control over the paper since the administration stopped providingfinancial support to the paper in the early 2000s. The City Weekly doesnot have a powerful owner in the way that many other regional papers have,and it appears the absence of an official proprietor corresponds with a con-fused, weak mission. Reporters had difficulty defining their professionalgoals and values. During a focus group, they agreed that they ‘‘write forthe sake of writing’’ without a clear goal. Of interest, government elite donot seem to perceive this lack of definition as a neutral or benign condition.City Weekly reporters said political candidates and prospective advertisersoften told them that government officials had advised them to avoid thepaper. An older and experienced reporter from the paper said one business-man told him ‘‘his 5,000 rubles for an ad would not rescue the paper, but itwould get him in trouble with the government.’’


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Resource Conflict and Professional Animosity

Regardless of type of ownership, reporters said the regional governmentwields power over newspapers by controlling access to revenue, as well asto official sources of information. According to Van Maanen and Barley(1984), such a centralized market environment weakens occupationalcommunity. It erodes the ability of occupational members to control their‘‘client relationships’’ (sources and advertisers, for journalists), and thereforedecreases autonomy. For example, the government formed a ‘‘gubernatorialpool of journalists,’’ a group of local reporters who are invited to attendgovernment-sponsored news conferences and to participate in ‘‘press tours,’’accommodating government officials in their trips across the region. Anotherexample is the administrative support of the Patriot, and a governmentalmandate that rural (state-owned) newspapers must supply the Patriot withfirsthand information. This is a way to save resources and to diversify thepool of news stories for the Patriot. A shortage of stories about rural life isa threat to the legitimacy of these papers that claim the moniker of‘‘regional’’ papers. The practice undermines the autonomy of the otherpapers, and further fragments journalists in the region. The governmenteffort evoked outrage among nongovernment reporters, but the outragewas kept safely within their newsrooms. However, it still contributed to awidening gap between government and private reporters. As a PrivateGazette reporter said, ‘‘They [state-supported publications] win the compe-tition without even participating in it!’’

Yet it is not only the government that divides the local reporters into‘‘ours’’ and ‘‘outsiders.’’ Newspapers themselves sort reporters accordingto whether the government trusts or distrusts them. For example, a pro-government paper published a story about the regional professional journal-ism competition and mentioned only the winners whom the governmentfavored. None of the City Weekly journalists were named. The City Weekly’sreporter who covered the award ceremony said he had learned his lesson:‘‘No way I will mention anyone from other papers next time.’’ Reporters saidthat an unwritten rule mandates that journalists ‘‘do not belittle competitors,and do not praise them as well.’’ Although the government encourages animpression of unity among media in the region, there were violations of thispolicy. For example, a private newspaper with Moscow roots remarked thata 16-page Patriot issue had 18 pictures of the governor. Another pro-government paper ‘‘barked back’’ by defending its counterpart and sayingthat only 17 photos were detected. Yet formally evident animosity was rare.

However, a great deal of animosity among reporters is evident in onlinechat rooms. A young reporter for the Patriot said, ‘‘If someone wants toassess relationships among local reporters, he needs to visit a specific website


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and see how they attack each other. Every ‘writer’ has a nickname there, butalmost all of them were blown out [revealed] in fiery debates.’’ Reporterssaid that this ‘‘damn website’’ with its lack of civility prevents them fromenjoying socialization with colleagues during official events, such as cel-ebration of National Press Day. Although reporters themselves host anannual party in an attempt to unite the community, many journalists leavethe party with ‘‘bitter feelings,’’ realizing that the local reporters have littlein common. As a young City Weekly reporter said, ‘‘About what will I talkto Sergey [a ‘‘private’’ reporter]? He is obsessed with ‘yellow’ journalism.Yes, he is my peer, but I can’t stand his shallowness.’’ And young reportersexpressed a disconnect with their ‘‘serious’’ colleagues. One young reporterat the Patriot said she perceived them as ‘‘being too proud’’ because of theirproximity to the government.

Regional reporters realized that the journalism community lacks unity,but their efforts to cohere professionally were sporadic and weak. Forexample, the regional branch of the Union of Journalists, a professionalorganization that performed ideological duties in the Soviet times, has notheld meetings for at least 10 years. Interviews with journalists from the CityWeekly and Private Gazette showed that they did not know the name of thehead of the Union, even though this position is automatically granted to theeditor of the government-friendly Patriot newspaper.

Hypothetically, a strong professional journalistic organization can con-tribute to strengthening professional community. However, this might notbe possible here, given that the local government effectively appoints thehead of the organization. Although such an organization could increaseinteraction among professionals, it is doubtful that it would enhance theautonomy that a professional community needs in order to negotiate itsshifting environment and to chart its own course. At any rate, it appearedthe journalism community lacks a professional dialogue, whether formalor informal. The participants acknowledged the need for more meaningfuldiscourse within the profession, but they doubted it would be possible forthese practitioners, who work in the ‘‘hostile environment of competition,’’even within their own news organizations.

Low salaries fuel this hostility. Monthly earnings for the province’sreporters consist of both the meager base salary and the honorarium paidto journalists for published stories. The monthly honorarium can be twiceas much as the salary. A senior reporter for the pro-government Patriot,who believed a professional community begins with a cooperative ratherthan competitive atmosphere in the newsroom, said journalists perceive eachother as ‘‘bread snatchers’’: ‘‘If a reporter leaves, others secretly celebrate:‘More space for my stories.’ ’’ The same attitude was evident in the PrivateGazette: Reporters divided newspaper issues into ‘‘my and other’s pages’’


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and carefully watched for trespassers. A recent journalism graduate said shewas confronted by her older reporter, who stated, ‘‘You owe me a quarter ofthe page.’’ The older reporter later explained, ‘‘That girl [the recent graduate]originally asked to share with her a quarter of my page, but in the end, shesubmitted a half-page story. My honorarium suffered.’’

In contrast, staffers of the private Regional Tribune’s did not appear to viefor space, mainly due to a well-defined newspaper and task structure. Forexample, they had a so-called commercial reporter, a staffer who workedon paid publicity stories about regional business enterprises. Another experi-enced reporter was a liaison between the paper and government, lobbying forthe paper’s interests, signing financial agreements, and writing publicity stor-ies. Although there was less discord among reporters at the Regional Tribune,compared to other papers, they did not appear unified. Its reporters per-ceived their paper as a ‘‘brand’’ (because of their Moscow parent), but thesense of pride was not enough to encourage collective cooperation. Repor-ters’ efforts were directed toward pleasing their Moscow boss rather thanbuilding a professional community in the region. During a focus group inthe Regional Tribune, the editor said that for his boss, the newspaper is ‘‘amoney-making tool.’’ He said in order to keep the paper operating, ‘‘we haveto stuff a certain number of pages every day [with content].’’ Daily pro-duction overtook all other considerations. According to a Regional Tribunereporter, the staff is ‘‘constantly in the process of solving routine problems;we don’t have time and energy to think about such a noble issue as pro-fessional unity.’’ Such an environment discourages cohesiveness, and it isalso likely to undercut the autonomy that occupational community requires.

One of this study’s striking findings is that the Patriot reporters appearedto be the most satisfied practitioners. Compared to their colleagues fromnongovernment papers, the Patriot journalists had a reasonable workloadand stable salary. Reporters seemed inspired by readers’ beliefs that thepaper might solve their problems ‘‘because it’s the government newspaper.’’Staffers said they help ordinary people in their everyday struggle while otherreporters ‘‘run around searching for ‘yellow’ facts.’’ Patriot journalists saidthey thought empowerment from the regional government gave them someinfluence with officials. Bureaucrats answer to newspaper inquiries becausethe Patriot is strongly associated with the governor. As a vice editor said,‘‘To disregard us means to disregard the governor.’’

The Patriot has official permission to go after public officials who fail toperform their duties, but it may go no further. The editor was recently firedafter criticizing an official whom the governor favored. The staffers wereshocked, but they did not rebel against the governor’s decision. Theirresponses suggested they knew the ‘‘rules of the game’’ and that the editorwas in the wrong for breaking them. This is more evidence that cohesiveness


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without autonomy does not necessarily foster occupational community—inthis case, the cohesiveness derives from control that is top-down, rather thanbottom-up.

Overall it appeared that the Patriot operates under the governor’sshadow, and proximity to political-economic power leads these journaliststo believe they are almost as powerful as the governor. Yet one seasonedrespondent called this situation a ‘‘hostage effect,’’ meaning the reportersjustify the government policy because they are ‘‘stuck in the provincialpaper.’’ During a newspaper meeting, a newly hired young reporter said that‘‘to write objectively is difficult and rewarding at the same time’’—to whichan older reporter rolled her eyes and remarked, ‘‘We will see what he willthink in a month. . . .We are not writing here, we are creating myths.’’The fact that other reporters did not intend to support their young colleaguein his quest for idealistic professional norms signals, among other things, aweak professional community within the newsroom.

Ideological Factors

Theory on occupational community suggests cohesiveness is strengthened bynormative frameworks and social identities that transcend organizationalwalls (Van Maanen & Barley, 1984). The shared perestroika era offered sucha normative framework for many, though not all, of these journalists. Intalking about professional community, older journalists often appealed toperestroika, seeing it as a golden time—the ‘‘freest time’’—for journalismin Russia. While discussing a small newspaper owner who got into troublefighting the regional government, focus group participants distanced them-selves from the owner by agreeing the owner should be defined as a business-man rather than as a journalist, because ‘‘he is not from the perestroikatime.’’ A seasoned reporter for the private Regional Tribune said, ‘‘Journal-ism is not a drive anymore. Our tragedy is that we want to turn the professioninto a business.’’ It appears then that most journalists perceived the businessowner’s bid to challenge government authority as grounded in self-interestedcommercial norms rather than in the journalism community’s ‘‘goldenage’’ norms.

Perestroika has become a legendary time for these journalists, and thosewho practiced journalism in that period are perceived as authorities. Thisis similar to the way U.S. journalists retell stories of journalists’ performanceduring Watergate in order to maintain and strengthen legitimacy and auto-nomy (Zelizer, 1993). Yet this view of perestroika as a golden age is embracedmore strongly by the older journalists, who lived it, than by the youngerjournalists—evidence of fragmentation in the community according todifferentiated experiences. A number of young Russian reporters said that


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to acquire respect, they should write stories that would be noticed by oldercolleagues. A young female reporter for the Private Gazette said, ‘‘You don’thave a right to belong to the community because you have been hired by apaper yesterday; you earn the right [only through] dedicated work for years.’’This division by age has also been seen in U.S. journalism—for example, agenerational divide split staffs during the Vietnam era (Schudson, 1978),and more recently, the rate of adoption of new technologies in newsroomshas revealed an age gap (Stepp, 2007).

Anti-Western sentiments are also a powerfully uniting factor among theseregional reporters. Although participants did not offer a completely consist-ent idea of what Western journalism represented, generally they viewed it asthe mere dissemination of facts with no authorial interpretation, and theysaw it as damaging to Russian journalism. It undermined a cultural codeof the profession: that is, reflexivity as a way to address acute social prob-lems. Older reporters thought the West was partly responsible for a new gen-eration of journalists who cannot think and feel, two important prerequisitesfor the journalistic profession in Russia. They thought that the Westernmodel of numerous privately owned media outlets had led to an increasein entertainment-oriented media. These were often staffed by new youngjournalists who have recently flooded the field, and who were not socializedto the field during perestroika (Erzikova & Lowrey, 2012).

Western-style information without comments (unframed, unbiased infor-mation) attracts neither reporters nor readers, according to study participants.They said that reporters must express their opinion through conclusions andthrough the tone of their stories, and readers must respond through feedback.Regional journalists equated journalism without bias with an indifferent atti-tude toward work, a criticism that harkens back to an old professional ideologythat embraces analytical journalism as the most legitimate, admirable form. Asan experienced reporter of the City Weekly said, ‘‘If you don’t have an opinionworth sharing, work for TV. The brain is not needed there, just legs.’’

Finally, some participants said that weakness in the journalism pro-fessional community is a reflection of apathy and incoherence in society asa whole. Because ‘‘society doesn’t need quality journalism,’’ reporters are dis-couraged from having a strong professional community. ‘‘We lost our read-ers to TV a long time ago. TV formed a low taste and primitive needs, whichare sofa, football, and vodka,’’ the vice editor of the City Weekly concluded.

CONCLUSION

Reporters in the region freely move from one paper to another, and it seemsreasonable to think this situation might foster occupational-level values and


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norms that transcend the level of the news organization. According totheoretical accounts of occupational community, such a nomadic practice(most of the participants in the study worked together at some point in theircareers) could have helped to maintain a region-wide professionalcommunity (Van Maanen & Barley, 1984). However, this study showedweak community. Reporters seemed most united in the perception thatthe community is fragmented and polarized.

Interviews and observations revealed that journalists had unclear andill-defined roles. Recent research in the West indicates that the adversarialand interpretive roles have gained importance (Weaver et al., 2007), but thesewere not embraced by journalists in this study. Journalists generally thoughtthey should disseminate information to help ordinary people solve theireveryday problems, vaguely suggesting an embrace of disseminator andpopular mobilizing roles. However, journalists varied across newspapers intheir approaches to fulfilling these roles. The most disparate approaches wereexemplified on one hand by journalists at the government-run Patriot, whoplaced the government front and center in the lives of ordinary peopleand on the other hand by Private Gazette journalists, who emphasizedlight, entertainment-oriented coverage of important sociopolitical issues.Reporters thought the ‘‘right’’ approach was only that practiced by theirnewspaper, and they tended to view other papers as less than legitimate,revealing an underdeveloped sense of local professional community. Find-ings reinforced Koltsova’s (2001) observation that Russian journalism hadgrown more pluralistic since Soviet days, but that goals were becomingincoherent, and ideas about audience and mission varied greatly. Also, a dis-abling dependence on subsidies from bureaucrats and oligarchs had grown,and this undermined cohesiveness and control over journalistic work. Thisfinding is consistent with the proposition by Van Maanen and Barley(1984) that a centrally dominated market tends to weaken occupationalcommunity.

There was some evidence that ideological orientations could support theunity of the journalism community—in particular, anti-Westernism, andthe perception of perestroika as a common golden era. Yet a generationalgap divided journalists in their perceptions of perestroika, and journalists’anti-Western rhetoric, can be partly explained as a desperate attempt atself-affirmation and adherence to traditional cultural values. In the past 10to 15 years, a number of studies have found that social nostalgia has becomea mass phenomenon in Russia, as citizens yearn for Soviet-era ideals intheir search for strong eternal values during turbulent times (Gavrilyuk &Malenkov, 2007; Zborovsky, 2005). In this regard, the journalisticcommunity appeared little different from the masses. Literature on occu-pational community suggests that for thriving communities, the work has


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a meaningful history of its own, which transcends organizational environ-ments (Hughes, 1958; VanMaanen & Barley, 1984), but for these journalists,the prevailing ideologies and visions of the past seemed out of touch andfleeting, and they were not universally embraced.

Certainly these ideological orientations influenced journalists’ occu-pational community less than social-structural factors. Differences in typesof newspaper ownership, competition over scarce resources controlled bythe regional government, and generational differences were particularlydestabilizing. These structural differences fostered conflicting visions of read-ers as citizens or as consumers, which widened divisions. Local journalists donot have a stable professional identity or set of goals that transcends resourceconstraints, organizational goals, and generational disparity, and depen-dency on government and the professional fragmentation that accompaniedit also weakened the potential autonomy of the journalistic community. Allof these factors undermined journalists’ ability to chart their own course inresponse to shifting environments.

Different organizational agendas among these state-backed and privatenews outlets were reflected in different criteria for evaluation of professionalwork—more evidence of weak occupational community. Journalists seemedmore organizationally bound than occupationally bound, a key obstacle tooccupational community (Van Maanen & Barley, 1984). State journalistssaid they believed that by covering government activities, they gave readershope for a better future for the region and the country. This blending ofpolitical public relations and journalism has been an alarming trend in theRussian media system in recent years, though the trend is hardly unpre-cedented: Propagandists and agitators’ functions were embraced by journal-ists in both the Soviet and pre-Soviet era. It appears that this old tendency isresurgent as the regional government uses the news as a tool in its efforts todemonstrate dynamism in the region to the federal government.

In contrast, reporters for the private newspapers said that readers whoexperienced the relatively free press of the 1990s would question the legit-imacy of journalists who advocated for the government. According to privateoutlets’ reporters, ideally a ‘‘real’’ paper should survive without governmentsubsidies and should provide readers with an independent assessment ofsocietal trends. But this idealistic position was undermined by the pragmaticneed for money. Journalists tended to respond to their environment reflex-ively, pursuing desperately needed resources, and they said they had littletime to bother with high-minded ideas about professional obligations. Thissupports findings by Svitich and Shiryaeva (2010) that Russian journalistshave become more financially pragmatic since the perestroika era. Both the2008 economic crisis and the consolidation of government control followingperestroika forced private papers to seek financial help from the government


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and to shelve, though not forget, their ideals about professional autonomy.Although state reporters said they believed that government officials andjournalists must work together for social consolidation and order, privatereporters perceived the journalism–government relationship as a temporarymarriage, forced on them by necessity. The shadows of their normative idealslingered.

Of interest, the paper in this study that was the least dependent oncentralized government resources—the City Weekly—was also least ableto articulate its mission. City Weekly journalists seemed trapped in limbo,with no resources, no meaningful goals to animate them, and no auton-omous space within which to act. In contrast, journalists for thegovernment-backed Patriot stated their mission most coherently. On onehand, this suggests that a ‘‘strong owner’s hand and vision’’ (as aPatriot reporter put it) that provides journalists with concrete tasks couldbenefit journalists at the City Weekly. On the other hand, although suchbacking may provide meaning for individual journalists with their particularoutlet, it tends to undermine the broader professional autonomy that isessential to supporting ongoing, meaningful news investigation for a demo-cratic society.

Clearly, these complex economic, political, and social conditions do notfavor the growth of journalistic occupational community in this region. Adearth of nongovernmental financial resources and the formal and informalconstraints that accompany government funding both encourage divisivecompetition among journalists. This divisiveness is exacerbated by theprovince’s ongoing dismal economic situation and the recent economicdownturn, which encourage dependency on, and fierce competition for,government funding. The government has successfully framed this financialassistance as a ‘‘mercy,’’ making journalists feel guilty for living off statemoney, and this has made it more likely journalists will express toleranceof government officials’ censorship and less likely they will assert a desirefor autonomy, at least openly.

Regardless of type of ownership, reporters held on to some normativeideals, and held out some hope for the future. Many said they thoughtthe viability of journalism as a profession depended on stable, outstandingperformance over a period of many years. The current conditions were seenas clearly inhospitable to occupational community, coherent journalisticroles, and professional autonomy, but also as dynamic and therefore tem-porary. In the meantime, in this turbulent and censored media environment,journalists clambered for any temporary foothold—allegiance to perestroikaideals, shared animosity of Western journalism, even pride in their con-nections with powerful bureaucrats—that might slow the slide towardprofessional oblivion.


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