The advent of social media has substantially affected several facets of daily life in regions where they are readily available. One such feature is that of the distribution and consumption of news through social media which has led to the emergence of citizen journalism. In Russia particularly, this has had a positive effect, limiting the suppression of information, increasing citizen participation and increasing citizen trust in the news.

However, before we dig deeper into the role citizen journalism plays in Russia, it is necessary to discuss the concept of citizen journalism and what it actually is. The characterization of citizen journalism is a process formed by a collective as described by Luo and Harrison (2019). In this sense, citizen journalism is undertaken by all social media users to varying extents. It is also important to identify and distinguish between Western neoliberal ideas and what this news actually is. In that, when looking at the perspective of the Western reader, news is assumed to be intrinsically balanced and unbiased (Simons, 2016). The term “news”, however, is not necessarily so. Though, citizen journalism in Russia has had some effect in altering this unbalanced state.

Russian citizen journalism serves to limit the suppression of information by mainstream news outlets. It does this through the democratisation of a field increasingly dominated by authoritarian individuals with close ties to the government (Simons. 2016). At this stage, it is important to distinguish between the type of news seen in Russia as compared to Western Europe. Russian news in many ways serves the purpose of infotainment (also referred to as soft news) rather than information, with the deliberate suppression of certain pieces of information (Simons, 2016). Thus, a positive effect of citizen journalism is the provision of news stories left uncovered by mainstream outlets. However, this is not the only positive effect social media has had on Russian news.

Citizen journalism through social media has led to an increase in the participation of ordinary citizens in the news. This has in turn led to greater interest on the part of citizens. The goal of this increased participation is to create a free press which fosters political debate and the collective management of the nation-state. However, the effect of this theoretical process of collective management is ill-defined.

Nevertheless, when analysing the role of citizen journalism in the Russian political scene; specifically, it has led to an increased trust in certain forms of news. The degree of Russian trust in television news declined significantly from 71% to 57% between 2010 and 2012 (Simons, 2016). In contrast, trust in social media increased from 9% to 15% in the years following, indicating renewed trust in news, though from a different source (Simons, 2016).

In conclusion, social media has led to citizen journalism playing a positive but ill-defined role in the Russian news environment by limiting the suppression of information, increasing citizen participation and increasing citizen trust in the news.

Reference List:

Luo, Y. and Harrison, T., 2019. How citizen journalists impact the agendas of traditional media and the government policymaking process in China. Global Media and China, 4(1), pp.72-93. (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2059436419835771)

Simons, G., 2016. The impact of social media and citizen journalism on mainstream Russian news. Russian Journal of Communication, 8(1), pp.33-51. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/296684013_The_impact_of_social_media_and_citizen_journalism_on_mainstream_Russian_news