Party control of regional printed media during the Perestroika period

The article classifies and analyses the press management approaches by regional party organizations during the Perestroika times taking as an example the Arkhangelsk and Vologda regions. The research is based on the archival data which are officially used in a scientific study for the first time. It is well known that after the Soviet power establishment, the total and system management on both soviet and regional levels becomes the determinant feature of the press activity. The researcher concludes that despite the proclamation of democratic and publicity standards, the mass media control by the leading party remained the same. An editor designee was appointed by a regional party committee and then had to become a committee member him- / herself. Quarter editorial plans and calendars, immediate plans were discussed and approved by the party ideological divisions. The party leaders constantly visited editorial offices and took part in editorial party conferences. The party committees controlled the selection, placement and training of journalists. The members of ideological divisions constantly controlled the correspondence of the press content to the party policy. They also researched the press working efficiency and elaborated recommendations on its improvement. When the Perestroika started, the regions began using press-conferences as a method of awareness raising and clarification of vital economic and political issues. They were conducted in regional and city party committees. Such issues as change of publication frequency, increase or decrease of newspaper volume, establishment of new newspapers, subscription control were also under the authority of party committees. In the second half of the 1980s in the European North of Russia, the model of interaction between the editors and the party committees was the same as in the rest of the USSR. It is confirmed by the research of the materials from Voronezh, Lipetsk, Tambov, Kursk, Belgorod regions and Krasnoyarsk territory.

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