Regional mass media as a source for studying the problems of social and economic development in 1994-2004. Case study of Western Siberia cities

Features of regional mass media as sources for the history of social and economic development of the cities of Western Siberia are considered. The last decade of the 20th century is a landmark in the historical development of Russia. The changes were due to the significant events in our country: restructuring of social, economic and political life, collapse of the Soviet Union, privatization and transition to market economy. All these events found reflection on pages of newspapers and magazines. The mass-media during 1994-2004 became an important tool of management of public consciousness, formations of new priorities and directions in political, social, economic and cultural progress of the society. Periodicals are also a source for studying problems of social and economic progress of regions. Concerning the studied region it is possible to ascertain that from 1994 there were essential variations in social and economic shapes of regions. During these years certain randomness in progress of regions and cities was observed, many of them looked for own ways out of the crisis situation and to progress of regional economy. Regional mass-media were particularly important here. They helped form public opinion in the regions, focused people's attention on figures and events socially meaningful for the region. The role of the newspaper periodical press has significantly grown. Readers first of all pay attention to the completeness of the provided information, reliability of the stated facts, description of events in the country and abroad. It is also important that newspapers give information about entertainment and leisure. Thus, mass media organically enter the social and economic space of regions and depending on predominance of this or that objective the type of the edition is defined. It has to be noted that regional mass-media are an interesting source for studying the social and economic processes in the cities of Western Siberia. Thus, regional mass-media are an adequate source of information on the history of social and economic progress of the cities of Western Siberia only if other sources of information are also used.

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