A Vicious Circle in Soviet Media- Audience Relations

Abstract

This article presents the results of an analysis of interaction between the youth-oriented mass media of Byelorussia and their audience in the mid-1980s. The media attempted to exercise social control mainly by forstering traditional, uniform models of reality and activity, reflecting the requirements and interests of only a limited part of the audience. This created a vicious circle, restricting both the influence of the media and the ability of citizens to take an active part in social life through utilization of mass communications. This process is manifested as a tendency in the flow of letters and other submissions from the audience to the media and as a more rigorous law in the flow of published materials back to the audience from the media. This is probably characteristic of mass communication generally; however, it becomes more active and acquires the character of public opinion manipulation under a bureaucratic administrative system. It is argued here that an objective scientific analysis of the conditions responsible for the circle can help to break it by exposing the dynamics underlying relationships between political control bodies, the media and the audience.