Populist Representations of Russia’s Education Reforms in the Russian Media

Abstract

Educational change and policy have been greatly simplified and popularized by Russian media, which results in the reproduction of superficial perceptions of the education system, its goals and actors, preventing Russian public from getting the sense of reforms and processes within the system. Representations of education policy in top-rated media are reduced to celebrations of national achievements and criticism of commercialization trends in higher education. This article analyzes the historical, cultural and structural factors behind the populist representations of education policy in Russian media, including the specific functions of the latter in the context of the enlightenment policy inherited from the Soviet era and the heavy dependence of commercialized media on the mass consumer of information. Those factors complicate the public debate on education policy, making it the prerogative of narrow elite groups. The article also describes the key popular frames used by media, including online media, associated with representations of higher education policy in Russia.