The Center for Media and Communication Studies presents a public lecture on
Religion and Media in Russia
by Dr Victor Khroul
Associate Professor, Journalism Faculty, Moscow State University
Date: Monday, January 23 2012, 4:30 PM
Location: Room 202 Monument Building, Central European University, Nador u. 9.
Can we understand religion without media? Can we understand media without religion? How do they interact in the public sphere as two social sub-systems? Dr Khroul will put these questions into the context of contemporary Russia and will offer some perspectives on the relationship between media and religion and some thoughts on the challenges, problems and hopes.
Dr Khroul underlines the role of mass media in the "mediatization" of religions in Russia, demonstrates dysfunctions and "system errors" in the process, and addresses some of the trends, dysfunction and corruption in the coverage of religious life in Russia. Drawing on areas such as public opinion, autonomy of journalists, agenda-setting and management problems, Khroul will assess a set of key tensions for moral control of media: axiological (the lack of value consensus in Russian society), evaluative (absence of a moral monitoring in mass media and public sphere) and communicative (the absence of a well-articulated dialogue of value systems). Khroul suggests that religions have to become active and transparent participants in public debate in order to achieve value consensus in poly-normative society.
Victor Khroul is a Senior Researcher and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University. Alongside his position at Moscow State University, Victor is Professor at the Saint-Petersburg Catholic seminary and correspondent for Russian Information Agency "Novosti". He has written extensively about media, religion and journalism in Russia, including such articles as “Catholic Media in Russia: Self-silencing after Rapid Development”, “Historical Consciousness and Russian Media Audiences”, “Communications, Freedom and Religion in Russia: Challenges and Hopes”, and “Catholic Presence in Russian Media: Lost Chances and Promising Future”.
Victor Khroul is with the CMCS on a 3-month CEU Professorial Research Fellowship awarded by CEU's Special and Extension Program.