Glasnost, Perestroika and the Soviet Media

Soviet journalists are at the center of the tumultuous changes taking place in the USSR today. As Stalinist regimes across Eastern Europe are dismantled, the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev have transformed Soviet political, social and economic life. Glasnost,Perestroika and the Soviet Mediaexamines the implications of these changes for the Soviet news and television media. It traces the development of Soviet journalism through the writings of Marx and Lenin, the distortions of Stalin and Brezhnev, and the reforms of the Gorbachev era, culminating in the new press law, which provides greater freedom of the press and freedom of information. The discussion is accompanied by analysis of the content of Soviet print and television journalism, including chapters on Soviet news coverage of the superpower summits in Rejkyavik and Moscow, a comparison of Soviet and Western reporting of international affairs, and the impact of glasnost on Soviet media images ofwomen.