Directory of Journalism Schools in the Former Soviet Union

        We present, here, a list of journalism schools in the former Soviet Union.  Commonly, these schools have eliminated communist-related subjects from their curricula. Fields of practical journalism have been expanded to include advertising, public relations and media management.

        Some of the well-established journalism schools, such as those in Vilnius and Kiev, have gained the status of Institutes within their universities, and with it a new independence. Yet, given the economic difficulties in all post-Soviet republics, most of the schools confront drastic financial conditions which preclude their purchasing new textbooks, furnishing labs and classrooms or repairing or up-grading their existing facilities. University professorships in Russia are now one of the lowest paid and least prestigious professional jobs.

        The focus of research and curricular reform in many schools is more on local issues, such as the Cossack press at Rostov State University, Tatar journalism in Kazan, and the Caucasian press in Vladikavkaz. International journalism receives less and less attention in the provincial schools but has expanded, due to assistance from the West, at Moscow, Petersburg, and Far Eastern State Universities, as well as at the Moscow Institute of International Relations.

        There have been few distinctive changes in journalism education in the schools in the Central Asian republics, except for a stronger emphasis on national culture, press and broadcasting, while in the Caucasus, universities are often neglected due to regional warfare. The journalism departments in Sukhumi have closed along with the rest of Abkhaz State University.

        The Moscow State University School of Journalism has maintained its substantial scale.  Thirty professors, fifty-five associate professors, and 73 instructors teach some 1,120 day-time students, 500 evening students (who combine studies with professional work in Moscow), and 600 correspondence students (who visit their instructors several times a year). There are nine departments at the School: Press; TV and Radio; Business Journalism and Advertising; Editing, Publishing and Computing; Sociology of Journalism; Newspaper Technology; Literary Criticism and Literary Journalism; History of Russian Journalism and Literature; and History of Foreign Journalism and Literature.

        More than 1,000 out of the 1,120 students of the Moscow’s School of Journalism are ethnic Russians, while the next largest group—Ukrainians—is just 30. 

* The first comprehensive survey of the Baltic media has just been published in English by Nota Baltica in Tartu, Estonia. Towards a Civic Society is edited by Prof. Svennik Hoyer of the University of Oslo, Dr. Epp Lauk and Prof. Peeter Vihalemm of Tartu University under the auspices of the recently created Baltic Association for Media Research. Printed, edited and translated with the financial backing of Norwegian foundations and agencies, the book covers developments in the mass media of what is today Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from the beginning of publishing until mid-1993. The edition contains numerous tables, maps, and a selected bibliography and is must reading for any scholar or student of Baltic journalism. The book has 366 pp., in hard cover. Its price, to the best of our knowledge, is $6 ($18 with postage), and can be ordered from Dept. of Journalism, Tartu University, 18, Ulikooli, Tartu, EE2400, Estonia.

** A book in English on the developments in journalism on the road from totalitarianism to democracy, mass media pluralism in, and relations between government and mass media with a focus on the Slavic republics of the former USSR has just been released in Kiev, Ukraine. Media in Transition is edited by Belarusian sociologist Dr. Oleg Manaev and Ukrainian philosopher Dr. Yury Priliuk and features articles from both Slavic and Western scholars. The book is 300 pp. in hard cover and sells for US$40. It can be ordered from Mr. Taras Zakidalsky, 505 Annette Str., Toronto, Canada, M6 PI SI.

Last Updated: 11/20/99

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