Influence on the Media: Part 1

Mikhail Gorbachev was a strategic thinker during his reign, changing the functioning of the media through Glasnost to openly communicate the Communist Partys’ and Supreme Soviets’ political ideas to the public. Such decision making by Gorbachev was particularly effective in changing the content produced by the media, ensuring greater government transparency and hence open public discussion on the faults of the Soviet system.

In the 1980s, the Soviet press had less advanced print media technology to communicate their ideas but they worked at a subsidized scale which allowed the wide distribution of media publications throughout the USSR. Most editors of the Soviet press were also members of the Union of Journalists (controlled by the Communist Party) which indicated significant bias and Pravda along with other newspapers published limited reports on meetings of the Politburo, the Soviet’s policy-making committee.

Pravda, 23rd August 1991

Under Gorbachev, Politburo reports expanded to provide more details on the leadership's thinking about domestic and foreign affairs, and granted more power to editors to publish topics similar to the West on morale problems in the army and crime.

This strategic reform was influenced by the recognition in the faults in the structure of the Soviet system, as opposed to Yuri Andropov, who believed during his brief reign as General Secretary of the Soviet Union that economic stagnation could be fixed by greater worker discipline. Gorbachev changed the functioning of the media to preserve socialist ideas as well as effectively communicate Glasnost and Perestroika.

"Publish everything. There should be pluralism of opinions. But the thrust should be such that the line of perestroika and the cause of socialism are defended and strengthened"

Glasnost allowed the media more freedom of expression, and editorials complaining of depressed conditions and of the government’s inability to correct them began to appear. Gorbachev repeatedly called on the media to support perestroika and not to discredit it, and in doing so he freed the Russians to speak their mind without fear, and hence leveraged his strategic thinking in ensuring openness and transparency in the press.

In Part 2 of 'Influence on the Media', it will be discussed how leaders today use modern technology and information systems to influence the media, and how Mikhail Gorbachev would adapt his influence to the modern day.