The Faculty of Journalism held a section during the X Russian Forum of Business Media

On April 11, 2019 the Faculty of Journalism, MSU conducted a session ‘Digital Journalism’ within a framework of X Russian Forum for Business Media. The event was organized by Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, Union of Journalists of Russia and international news agency Russia Today.

The lecturers and scholars from the Faculty presented the results of their research.The session was moderated by the Dean of the Faculty, Professor Elena Vartanova. Dr. Andrey Virkovsky reported the results of the “The Digital Future of the Russian Media” project, which inluded 49 in-depth interviews with top managers of leading Russian media companies. Dr. Virkovsky supposed that advertising business model would remain the most common and the state would continue to play a leading role in the media market.

Dr. Anna Gladkova spoke about the place of ethnic media within the modern media sphere. She pointed out that ethnic media try to adapt to the demands of digital era despite the funding issues.

Dr. Denis Dunas shared the data of youth media consumption study. He emphasized that ‘digital’ youth do not divide life into virtual and real parts. He also noticed that modern media has expanded its functions and can be used for satisfying more sophisticated necessities including socialization and self-actualization.

The speech by Dr. Sergey Vartanov was dedicated to mathematical modeling of market equilibrium in an information economy. He noted that considering the media as a product we can construct models of consumer behavior.

First Deputy General Director of Russian television and radio broadcasting network for the management, operation and development of the network Victor Pinchuk described the perspectives of digital TV in Russia. According to his speech, from April 15, 2019, 100% of Russians will receive access to 20 digital channels and 3 radio stations.

The digital director of Vedomosti Sergey Paranko noted that only niche media with developed brands could remain economically viable in the digital era. He also shared the suggestion that the subscription model effectively used by Vedomosti would not work for all media.

After the session speakers answered the questions and gave recommendations to the regional publishers. In conclusion Deputy Dean for Research Dr. Mikhail Makeenko spoke about the difficulties that regional TV channels will face during the transition to digital television broadcasting.

Photo: Georgy Nikanorov.