Electoral Politics and the Role of the Media

The media environments in Russia and the US are almost mirror opposites. In the US, mainstream media can cut away from the sitting president on live television or poke fun at him on their opinion pages. In Russia, mainstream media are in the president’s pocket, and independent media are happy just to stay alive. The internet and social media, often seen as sources of polarization in the US, are a lifeline for the embattled journalists in Russia as well as Belarus. Yet, we have a lot to learn from each other—and to disagree upon.

Sarah Oates, Professor and Senior Scholar at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, 
University of Maryland, and Maria Snegovaya, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Kellogg Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Virginia Tech, join Maxim Trudolyubov to discuss the state of US and Russian media and their role in our countries’ politics.