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Chapter 3 - Election news and angry viewers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Ellen Mickiewicz
Affiliation:
Duke University, North Carolina
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Summary

The myth of Vladimir Putin's victory in 2000 tells of a man from nowhere made President solely by television. This myth easily took root in Russia, because it fused with the Soviet belief in the extraordinary power television exercised over its viewers. During Soviet times, the head of the Communist Party was often on television, when he was, he was always featured in the first story, and if he met with his fellow Politburo members or greeted them on arrival from a foreign trip, or was seen off by them, with a three-kiss protocol, all the members had to be named, each time in order of status. The newsreader carefully read through the list of over a dozen names, being quite sure never to stumble. Sometimes the group might be seen more than once in a news show, and, according to the rules, each one was named again in the same order. It was during the partially more liberalized time of Mikhail Gorbachev that the head of news tried out an experiment: he named them all only during their first appearance and then referred to them collectively. The Politburo acted immediately and forbade the innovation.

Just being on television was assumed to have a powerful impact on viewers. By the time Gorbachev became a prominent member of the Party's top circle, many of his colleagues were old, some were visibly weak, and some were sick. None of those weaknesses mattered; the power was in the projection.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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