Russia is located in north-eastern Europe and northern Asia, and it is the largest country in the world with an area of 17.0754 million square kilometers. (Cia.gov,2015)

Demographic

Russians are approximately around 81% of the country's population and the remaining 19% of other ethnic, Russia birth rate is one of the highest rates in the European countries, but also the death rate is the most. (Wikipedia, 2015)

Languages

In Russia there are more than 100 global languages, approximately 81% of the country speaks Russian language, Tatar language is in second place after their mother tongue as 3% of Russia's population, the Ukrainian language comes third with 1% of the population of the country. (Bbc.co.uk, 2015)

The Moscow Times printed in the English language and it’s a daily newspaper launched in Russia in 1992 publish around 35,000 copies. (European Journalism Centre (EJC), 2015)

Russia is one of the largest countries in the world in oil and natural gas production. And it's also the most prominent exporter of metals such as steel and aluminum. (Indexmundi.com, 2015)

Russian media do not create any active role in the development of the country's economy; on the other hand it might provide a high support economic growth of Russia (Russianmediamarket.com, 2015)

Access to Internet / Phones / Communication Technologies

Russian's access internet for many reasons like: getting information, communication, news, education and shopping. (European Journalism Centre (EJC), 2015)

78% of Russians population around 196.6m uses Mobiles communication devices according to 2009 and this percentage is increases from 2005. (European Journalism Centre (EJC), 2015)

# of TV Station # Radio Station / ISP

Russia is the first country in the world in terms of the number of television stations, as the country has around 7306 stations, according to statistics released in 1998. (Wikipedia, 2015)

Radio Rossii is the most famous radio channel in Russia launched in 1990, and broadcast around 174 original programs. (European Journalism Centre (EJC), 2015)

Russia has a large number of ISPs. The most popular ISPs were: Er-Telecom, MST Russia, Center Telecom and Rosetelecom. (zeendo, 2013)

Internet users / social media / broadband users

Number of internet users in Russia continues to increase each year. (internetlivestats, 2014)

The Broadband users were 26.3 million subscribers in 2013 according to Daily telecom. (Wikipedia, 2015)

Although the Constitution of Russia, the law of 2009 provides for freedom of expression, freedom of the press and media in the country, but the law also contains a great concept for preventing extremism and Russian authorities are often used to silence critics of the government and this encourages self censorship. (Freedomhouse.org, 2015)

What is the political theory?

The Authoritarian is the political theory of Russia. The main purpose of this theory is Encourage the dictatorship of the party and contribute to the success and continuation of the system. Media in light of this theory are the instruments of government across the country and allowed to criticize the media. (Karthik, 2015)

How are journalists treated? What pressures are journalists under? Why?

Since 1990 journalists in Russia get Mistreatment and they face legal threats, because of their work. (Cpj.org, 2015)

There are many attacks towards Russian Journalists according to the news there was case of an attack on a journalist in Saratov city of Russia. The Committee to Protect Journalists let all authorities to discuss the crime. (Cpj.org, 2015)

Free Flow of information

Russia protecting copyright aims to raise the prices of Internet server providers. Union has proposed granting licenses to providers of opening online service for users to download songs, pictures and movies for non-restrictions or limitations. (Rt.com, 2015)

Internet in Russia needs to protect from piracy and threats by filtering and blocking. Minister of Communications is seeking to develop a plan in October 28 and its ready now, but they did not specify the date of implementation yet (openDemocracy,2015)

According to the Bloggers law, a name given to the Federal Law 97-FЗwhich provides for a period of six months،can store user data dissemination of information and provides a challenge for the three foreign companies, Google, Facebook and Twitter. (openDemocracy, 2015)

Russian data users can access the legal departments of the foreign internet companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter only by formal apps. (openDemocracy, 2015)

In 2014 the nation was trying to protect the copyright and anti-piracy network and work on blocking sites that contain piracy through the government. (Rt.com, 2015)
Russian citizens petition issued in December last year to prevent taxes online because it would impose the payment of taxes on some citizens that not downloading anything from the internet. (Rt.com, 2015)

The facts of the Political Theory:

There are some facts that affect the media in Russia:

1.Laws that protect freedom of opinion

Freedom of expression continued in Russia that is subject to attempts to control them by the state and the reduction of alternative views. Some laws have been criticized by human rights defender to stop freedom of expression in the media and the Internet. (Gov.uk, 2015)

2.Increase advertising through commercial pressures 

Digital advertising in Russia is observing quick development remarkable. Russian news agencies: visual, audio or print, which is located by observing these developments to move fast in order to plan a strategy to compete with new competitors mode. (Anderson, 2015)

Channel 1 is the first television channel among in Russia. It established in 1995 and located in Moscow. It owned by Three-quarters of Russian Government (75%) and, National Media Group (25%). Channel 1 has more than 250 million viewers worldwide. In addition, it’s classified as one of the most enjoyable and successful channels in Russia and the reason behind that might be because it produces many famous films and TV shows. (Wikipedia, 2015)

Yandex is one of the most powerful search engines all over the world as it occupies the fourth place globally. According to information Comscore as of April 2012, there were 150 million search operations; the number of visitors is more than 50.5 million visitors a day for each company's services as of February 2013. (Wikipedia, 2015)

Yandex get 90% of their income through contextual advertising, a company spokesman says “we display our advertisements through the Internet because we will get the specific people that interested in our service or product, while advertising thought the TV, we aims to achieve a wider audience”. (RusBase, 2014)

What influence does the government have?

Do they own any channels/newspapers/magazines?

How do they regulate the media?

Moscow Government owns some of the offline Russian Media, such as, Tverskaya 13 which is the Moscow government newspaper [print media]. In 1923, the Vechernyaya Moskva's newspapper published and it’s issued daily. Government of Moscow also own some TV and Radio like, TV Tsentr which  established in 1997 and it’s a federal channel, Moskva 24 established by the VGTRK appears 24 hours and Radio-Tsentr Company which is classified as a sport radio station. (Sputniknews.com, 2012)

Russia has three main laws that regulate the mass media communication, 1991 the mass media law which issued in 1991 and communications law in 2003, whereas the law target extended in 2006 to protect the information and issues a new law on information. There were some updates and changes on the mass media law, such as, the federal laws that were placed on media activities. Actions can be issued by the president or the government to regulate the media in Russia. (European Journalism Centre (EJC), 2015)

How do the people influence the media?

Are people active on social media?

Find 3 different examples of “citizen journalism”

Russia is one of the most active countries in using Social Media. 89% of Russians have accounts on the Social Media's websites. People in Russia influence media by using social media to express their opinion and feelings. VKontakte is the most popular Social Network used in Russia with 78.2%, followed by Odnoklassniki with 38.2%. (Kennedy, 2015)

There are many famous journalists in Russian such as, Anna Politkovskaya who was considered as one of the famous journalists. Politics, freedom of the press, human rights some of the subjects that she wrote about. She got the most Notable award in 2001. Unfortunately, she was died at age of 48 years old in 7th October 2006 in Moscow city. (IMDb, 2015)

Natalya Estemirova is also one of the famous journalists. Her occupation is in Human rights activist, journalist, teacher. She died about 52 years old in 15 July 2009. (Wikipedia, 2015)

In addition to Anna Politkovskaya and Natalya Estemirova, Dmitry A. Glukhovsky is also journalist and an author. He works for EuroNews TV in France and lives in both, Germany and France. He speaks several languages. (Metro Wiki, 2015)

Owns Onexim Group, the group control the RBK media holding and RBK TV. Also it publishes the RBK daily newspaper. It owns F5, Russian Pioneer and Snob magazines.(2015)

Owns RODIONOVA PUBLISHING HOUSE, it published in 1996. it owns glossy men’s magazines XXL and FHM, Krestyanka and parenting magazine Moy Malenky .(2015)

Kennedy, A. (2015). Marketing Globally with Social Media: Is Facebook all you need?. Retrieved 8 May 2015, from http://webmarketingtoday.com/articles/kennedy-global-social-media/

Social Media Trends in Russia and Social Networking came together with the usage of internet in 2013. Russia went to shed light on the social media where it considered way to debate, and protest and surveillance in the new world stage. (Zinovyeva, 2015)

As the Social media users increases in Russia and the name that it got as the most active worldwide, Russia is moving toward a mobile-dominated future. (Obandigital.com, 2015)

According to the data of comScore site, the junkies in Russia are considered to be more Russian citizens to use of social media because they are using it more than twice the world average level, and 9.8 hours per month is a hard record to break . (Prabhu et al., 2015)

The Trends and Evidence

Social media trends have become an important and play a big role in the world in general and Russia in particular. Where that means that help investors to communicate with consumers through modern technology, which is much easier than trend areas. Social Media Use, Mobile Phone Usage, Annual Growth and E-Commerce by Device as an example of media trends in Russia.

The Social Media and Internet in Russia have been taken the lead with highest number of Users of the internet among Europe. (Rt.com, 2015) Also in 2015, Russia become in the fourth place with the largest usage of Smartphone. (Dazeinfo, 2014) With regard to e commerce, which began in 2010, the electronic system on the growth and development of retail is expected to reach stores to the normal range With new shops began to spread in Moscow and the growing demand online purchases. (Slideshare.net, 2015)

We Are Social,. (2015). Digital, Social & Mobile Worldwide in 2015. Retrieved 23 May 2015, from http://wearesocial.net/blog/2015/01/digital-social-mobile-worldwide-2015/

Internet users in Russia has been Increased as we can note from statistical I described the number of Internet users has increased about 7 million users in 2014. (Internetlivestats.com, 2015)

Internetlivestats.com,. (2015). Russia Internet Users - Internet Live Stats. Retrieved 23 May 2015, from http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/russia/

Lunden, I. (2015). Mail.ru Takes Over ‘Russia’s Facebook’ Vkontake In $1.47B Deal, Settles Durov Suit. TechCrunch. Retrieved 23 May 2015, from http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/16/mail-ru-pays-1-47b-to-take-over-vkontake-russias-facebook-settles-durov-suit/

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Indexmundi.com,. (2015). Russia Economy Profile 2014. Retrieved 24 April 2015, from http://www.indexmundi.com/russia/economy_profile.html

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Statista,. (2015). Russia: number of social network users 2012-2018 | Statistic. Retrieved 24 April 2015, from http://www.statista.com/statistics/278410/number-of-social-network-users-in-russia/

 Wikipedia,. (2015). Internet in Russia. Retrieved 24 April 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Russia

Karthik, P. (2015). What are the The Four Theories of the Press?. Preservearticles.com. Retrieved 25 April 2015, from http://www.preservearticles.com/what-are-the-the-four-theories-of-the-press.html

Cpj.org,. (2015). Russia - Committee to Protect Journalists. Retrieved 25 April 2015, from https://cpj.org/europe/russia/

Freedomhouse.org,. (2015). Russia | Freedom House. Retrieved 25 April 2015, from https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2013/russia

Rt.com,. (2015). Kremlin rejects copyright defenders’ initiative for ‘internet tax’ - report. Retrieved 25 April 2015, from http://rt.com/politics/233007-russia-internet-tax-rejected/

openDemocracy,. (2015). What is really going on with Russia's new internet laws. Retrieved 25 April 2015, from https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/alexandra-kulikova/what-is-really-going-on-with-russia%27s-new-internet-laws

Gov.uk,. (2015). Russia - Country of Concern - GOV.UK. Retrieved 25 April 2015, from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/russia-country-of-concern--2/russia-country-of-concern

Anderson, K. (2015). Knowledge Bridge | Competition grows in Russia’s rapidly growing digital ad market. Kbridge.org. Retrieved 25 April 2015, from http://www.kbridge.org/en/competition-grows-in-russias-rapidly-growing-digital-ad-market//

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(2015). Retrieved 8 May 2015, from http://russiaprofile.org/media/file/78/20078.pdf

Kennedy, A. (2015). Marketing Globally with Social Media: Is Facebook all you need?. Retrieved 8 May 2015, from http://webmarketingtoday.com/articles/kennedy-global-social-media/

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Zinovyeva, E. (2015). Trends in social media in 2013. Russia Direct. Retrieved 22 May 2015, from http://www.russia-direct.org/analysis/trends-social-media-2013

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Prabhu, L., Kallas, P., Kallas, P., Kallas, P., Kallas, P., & Kallas, P. et al. (2015). Social Media in Russia. DreamGrow Social Media. Retrieved 22 May 2015, from http://www.dreamgrow.com/social-media-in-russia/

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Lunden, I. (2015). Mail.ru Takes Over ‘Russia’s Facebook’ Vkontake In $1.47B Deal, Settles Durov Suit. TechCrunch. Retrieved 23 May 2015, from http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/16/mail-ru-pays-1-47b-to-take-over-vkontake-russias-facebook-settles-durov-suit/

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