Autocratic Journalism

At the close of the nineteenth century, the tsarist government faced an increasingly restive reading public, well-informed on a variety of issues through the proliferation of mass-circulation newspapers. A punitive censorship served as the basis for the autocracy's policies toward the press, but by 1900 it had long outgrown the requirements for dealing with a society undergoing modernization. As public opinion tacitly began to be recognized as a factor in national development, some officials realized that they must adapt to the changing journalistic demands of Russia's readers. Hoping to gain public support for the government, they knew that the prohibition of certain controversial topics would not generate the backing they sought. Following the example of successful commercial publishers, they argued that the government should take an active lead in supplying news

Agency (philosophy · Autocracy · Censorship · Democracy · Government (linguistics · Journalism · Media studies · Modernization theory · Newspaper · Political science · Politics · Public opinion · Social science · Sociology · Variety (cybernetics · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Public Administration