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References

2016). LinkedIn could soon be banned in Russia. https://www.rt.com/business/364186-linkedin-russia-possible-ban/

Russian Social Media. https://www.translatemedia.com/translation-services/social-media/russian-social-media/

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How is globalization impacting the media in the country ?

One of the observed impact of globalization to the media in Russia is how it is giving a wider opportunity to Russian people on finding jobs that they can be part of and with higher amount of salary. However, this has been observed to also have given negative result such as how there are also social media users, specifically in Russia, who does not have any experienced skill in communicating in social media which affects their chance to fail in their business ventures. (“Social Media Lessons from Russia and UK”) Despite of the possible effect of globalization to many areas of the world, including the developed countries, it somehow creates barriers to Russian people, especially to those who are only fluent in their own language. This is because of how globalization evidently provides opportunities to internationally linked business ventures which allows them to continue and rise higher with the success they are aiming for.

Another issue that can be observed would be how Russia is observed to be firm with their laws even though it may affect possible economic development to their country. One of the recent example for this would be how LinkedIn has been reported to be soon banned in Russia because of how the company has failed to fulfill a law that obliges them to keep data on Russian users in the country. “Apart from not moving servers to Russia, LinkedIn collects and sends information about people who are not users of the network without their consent, according to the Russian internet watchdog Roskomnadzor” (“LinkedIn could soon be banned in Russia”, 2016). Globalization has somehow no strong impact to Russia by how its government tends to control everything that tries to penetrate in their system. This shows how the Russian government is to be observed as great in its leadership but somehow lacking in the part of minding the feelings that humans have been intentionally given.

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What is trending in your country (Russia) and why?
As stated earlier, Russia is one of the leading countries known to be largely using the social media and one of the most used social network sites that are used by Russian people includes Vkontakte. Vkontakte is observed to be a social network site which users must be fluent in the language of Russia before you can create your own account. Facebook Instagram, Twitter and YouTube are also one of the highly used social media tools used in Russia. Although Russia is sometimes observed to be a tourist spot and where big global events are held, what is observed to be always trending in this country is the latest news about how the Russian government performs their governing in different areas of the world. The Russian government is highly controversial such as how they are involved with the issue related to Hillary Clinton and how they, specifically identifying Putin their leader, are also linked to the newest president of the United States. These are the most trending issues in Russia amidst all the various news that can be seen in the social media.
Moreover, Russia is also observed to be highly despised by many people because of their inhumane actions in Syria which has killed many children already and has resulted to having numerous Syrian refugees who are not deserving what they receive from places that receive them. These issues are observed to be the most trending topics about Russia simply because of the power of media. Media can easily control what is happening even though sometimes it is not what really is happening. It is also the media that has given a strong identity to Russia upon how the government is behaving unfairly especially to the innocent children affected by their aggressive actions. Overall, the most rending issues in Russia, the same way with other parts of the world, are those that people consider as highly interesting and affects way more than how other normal situation does.

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On this last image, this is the typical news that several news providers publish about Russia. Some of the other accounts that I have observed to be publishing the very actions that the Russian governments are doing includes the New York Times, NASA, and RT. We can evidently observe how media highly affects the perception of other nation tends to change because of how they present their news such as how they are tend to only provide news where Russia is involved in a negative situation.

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On this second image, this was from a Twitter user who tweeted about how a Russian man has saved a drowning dog even though it kept biting him. Although I did not investigated whether the account is a Russian or not, this has given me a realization that not every people can just give a single identity to anyone. Despite of how Russians are instantly linked to how their government seemed to be so cruel, people are still people who do what they know they are capable of doing – such as sharing what they know is right and lovable in the sight of all.

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This image was from Instagram and it shows an image of a Russian actor who proudly wears a costume representing his country. This is just one of the typical social media users, whether a Russian or not, who publishes whatever they like to publish. As for this Instagram user, he has represented his country by appreciating and embracing the culture that he has through education and arts. I have also seen accounts from Facebook, some of them were public accounts that publicize their career in arts such as becoming a model, while some publicizes their business ventures and proudly representing their country.

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Stage 3

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Find some accounts on social media sites | Who owns the accounts? | How do they represent their city/country?
In Russia, the largest social network is observed to be Vkontakte, with having 110million users recorded in 2011 where majority are teenagers. Mail.ru is already observed to be developing having an estimated 30 million users as well as Odnoklassniki. These are just some of the widely used social media tools in Russia followed by the famous ones including Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and Twitter. In this case, I have managed to find some accounts on social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter, where I found some interesting facts about how they represent Russia.

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How is Russia represented on Social media?
Russia is known to have the second largest internet population in Europe where there has been an estimated 61.5 million recorded on December 31, 2011. They have followed the lead of Germany with 67.4 million users. This has been observed because of how Russia has also a massive population with having an estimated population of more than 130 million people. According to an article, Russian internet users spend an average of 25.5 hours online throughout the month of May in 2012. In view of this, we can then observed that majority of these people carries their country as well as to how they represent it in social media. However, despite of the large number of internet users in Russia, the truth about how the Russian government performs its responsibilities is one of the most visible scene when Russia is on the topic. This then leads to how the most powerful media groups on internet gives the identity of Russia just by highlighting limited situations or current news that is happening in the country.

For instance, one of the most highly used by people in Russia is Blogging which has been reported by BBC that, in 2011, there were an estimated 40 million blogs in Russia with having seven to ten percent of them updating their blogs at least once a month. Accordingly, the audience of these blogs reaches to around 15 million. These blogs are observed to be used “as a way to exert freedom of speech against government.” Moreover, “[m]ost Russians are strongly patriotic and take great pride in being able to withstand harsher environmental, social and political situations than others would be able to cope with” (“Russian Social Media”). This has been also the way that other nations view the identity of Russia, they are to be seen with strong personalities especially with how their government is observed to have the strongest one.

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Stage 2

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References
Bykov, Y. (2014). The Fool. Russia: Rock Film Studio. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYGOmxbX0hM

Holden, S. (2015). Review: ‘The Fool’ is Yuri Bykov’s look at corruption. New York Times.

Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/16/movies/review-the-fool-is-yuri-bykovs-look-at-corruption.html

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Yuriy Baykov, Director of “The Fool”

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The city mayor upon knowledge of the impending crisis

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Who owns or commissions the show and how does this impact the quality, content and points of view?
The film was written and directed by Yuriy Baykov who has been involved in several other socially-relevant films. As an independent writer and director, Baykov’s views were not influenced by the government and reflected true happenings in society.

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Are there any stereotypes that are reinforced by the show/media or does it challenge stereotypes?

In this movie, rich and poor stereotypes can be seen. The rich were portrayed as privileged, powerful and very influential. As seen in the movie, the rich people in town were invited to the party of the mayor and were living lavishly. Meanwhile, the poor were portrayed as nuisance in society and therefore neglected by the government. As seen in the movie, the city inspector did not care about the impending disaster believing that the poor people living in the structure are menace to society and should therefore die.

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Does it represent Fact or Fiction?

Which sectors of society are included/excluded?

“The Fool” depicts everyday life in Russia under the autocratic reign of Vladimir Putin (Holden, 2015). Primarily, the movie portrays the social issues and problems in Russia and how the main character (Dima Nikitin) struggled to correct the social menace. The setting and the characters were all fictional but the social issues tackled in the movie (i.e., corruption and red tape in government, poverty, inequality, drug and alcohol addiction, delinquency, violence against women and children, unemployment and others) were facts and actually happening in the country.

The main character, Dima along with his wife and son.

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What kind of gender roles are depicted ?

The setting of the movie was in an impoverished town.  The main character who is a town plumber discovered a dangerous crack in the wall of a nine-storey structure that was home to more than 800 people who belong to the poor sector of the society most of which were pensioners, jobless, addicts, and petty thieves. While talking with the other city workers, the main character learned that funds allocated to the repair and maintenance of the building were lost due to corruption in government. Based on his assessment, the building could collapse anytime and therefore many people could die. Consequently, corruption in government has been the major challenge for the main character in addressing the issue.
Because of fear, both of Dima’s mother and his wife were against his goal of exposing the problem. Driven by his ideals and principles, Dima tried to expose the problem to the city officials including the mayor and the city council, which happens to be celebrating the birthday of the mayor. Dima’s boss, the city inspector confirmed the danger, causing panic to the corrupt city officials who used the funds for the building repair and maintenance for their personal benefit. In this movie, the city mayor was a female who was portrayed to be gentle and with a heart. Meanwhile, the male characters in the movie, including Dima and his father as well as the city inspector were portrayed as firm and strong-willed.

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The scene showing Dima’s discovery of the crack in the building

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The Fool

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References:

Rosabel, D. (2016). Digital in 2016. We Are Social. Retrieved from

http://wearesocial.com/sg/special-reports/digital-2016

Russia country profile. (2016). BBC News. Retrieved from

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17839672

Russia country profile series. (2014). MarketLine. Retrieved from www.marketline.com

Russia profile – Overview. (2016). BBC News. Retrieved from

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17839881

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Media Development

Consistent with theory, media development in Russia has been influenced by several factors including the following: physical and geographic characteristics, cultural traits, economic conditions, governmental influences, media qualities, and technological competencies (Factors Affecting Media Development, 2016). Being close to Europe, which is a highly urbanized and developed region, Russia’s media also rapidly developed. Cultural traits may also be considered a major factor in media development evidenced by the leadership of social media website VKontakte in the country instead of the global leader Facebook (Rosabel, 2016). Furthermore, the economic condition of Russia also contributed to media development. Majority of the population of Russia can afford media devices.

Based on data, 95% of the population owns a mobile phone; 61% owns a smart phone; 80% have a laptop or desktop computer; and 33% have tablet devices (Rosabel, 2016). Next, governmental influences have also driven media development. As noted in the recent report, TV is the leading source of news in the country considering that two of the major TV stations in the country were owned and operated by the government. Meanwhile, media qualities also drive media development. In the case of Russia, media is well developed especially when noting that the government owns and controls the media (Russia profile – Media, 2015). Finally, technological competencies are seen in the availability of advanced facilities and infrastructure in the country. As seen in Russia, satellite TV has seen growth because of the presence of advanced infrastructure in the country.

Meanwhile, the process of globalization also largely influenced media development in a country. In the case of Russia, media has developed and improved when Russia opened its door to the international community. Political and economic dimensions of globalization have ushered in new types of media into the country.

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Media Overview

Russian TV is dominated by channels that are either run directly by the state or owned by companies with close association with the Kremlin. Beginning with the government-owned or operated TV stations, Channel One and Russia One were two of the three main federal channels while the state-controlled energy company Gazprom owns the other major TV station NTV. Other TV stations in Russia were Centre TV which is owned by the Moscow city government; Ren TV which is a Moscow-based commercial station with strong regional network, majority of which is owned by media holding NMG; and RT, which is a state-funded, international English-language news channel (Russia profile – Media, 2015).

At present time, TV is the main source of news information for majority of Russians. As such, the pay-TV market experienced fast growth in recent years, with satellite broadcaster Tricolor leading the market. Additionally, the government is also in the process of bringing in digital TV to every Russian home. There are also hundreds of radio stations in Russia with state-run networks competing against music-based private FM radios. The market leader is privately-owned music station Russkoye Radio (Russia profile – Media, 2015).

The internet domain in Russia is .ru (Russia Country Profile, 2014). About 87 million Russians have access to the internet in 2014. However, though still less tightly controlled than traditional media, the Kremlin has engaged in efforts to restrict online freedom (Russia profile – Media, 2015). In 2016, the number of active internet users climbed to 103.1 million representing a penetration rate of 72% (Rosabel, 2016). The leading social media website in Russia is VKontakte, with active social media users estimated at around 68.5 million (Rosabel, 2016). Meanwhile, mobile connection was estimated at around 247.2 million suggesting that people in the country owns more than one mobile device. Active mobile social users were estimated at around 42.5 million (Rosabel, 2016)

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The economy of Russia is highly dependent on oil and gas, which are the country’s major export products. As oil and gas prices started to fall in 2013, Russia’s economy was negatively impacted with its economic prospects beginning to worsen (Russia profile – Overview, 2016).

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Based on 2014 data, Russia has an estimated population of 142.63 million. The population is very diverse composed of 77.7% Russians, 3.7% Tatar, 1.4% Ukrainian, 1.1% Bashkir, 1% Chuvash, 1% Chechen, 10.2% other nationalities, and 3.9% unspecified (Russia Country Profile Series, 2014). The official language is Russian but there also several other minority languages in the country.

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The Russian Federation (Russia) is known as the largest country on earth in terms of surface area (Russia Country Profile, 2016). It is located in Northern Asia, between Europe and the North Pacific Ocean. The country also borders the Arctic Ocean.