Alexander Morozov: "...the Orthodox press remains a rather strange and generally archaic phenomenon"

Executive Director of the New Politics Center Alexander Morozov discusses the state of affairs in modern Russian Orthodox journalism. In his opinion, “despite the fact that Orthodoxy in Russia undoubtedly continues to experience an upsurge, the state favors the Church, and there are enough funds from sponsors to build colossal cathedrals in Voronezh and Kaliningrad, not to mention the oil-bearing dioceses, "The Orthodox press remains a rather strange and generally archaic phenomenon. Periodicals comparable in level to secular ones can be counted on the fingers of one hand."

A. Morozov sees two reasons for this. Firstly, "sociological studies show that the Orthodox are not too interested in periodicals, including church periodicals (this was shown by the studies of M. Lukina and V. Chesnokova)". Secondly, “they don’t pay in the Church as they do in the world,” so church publications have no chance to attract professional journalists. vocational training, but ready to work "for the glory of God", i.e. free of charge. As a result, "the lack of professionals affects the language, design, and presentation of the material. Active parishioners, having undertaken to make a newspaper, start with the best intentions - to make it interesting. But they quickly fall into a specific language standard. The lack of church culture is affecting - after all, these are all people recently converted. Some of them are too unsure of themselves, others, on the contrary, quickly become extremely self-confident. There are ten Orthodox editors who are able to speak in church publications in the language of modern journalism in all of Moscow."

“On the whole, the level of church consciousness is extremely low,” states A. Morozov. “And it is quite natural that any mysticism and pseudo-Orthodox mythology, which is filled with Orthodox - or as they are sometimes called "near-church" - newspapers, affects the poorly prepared church consciousness. < ...>

The river of oil revenues is still flowing past theological education and past the Orthodox media. <...>

Investing money in a newspaper or magazine, in the creation of a patrological institute or a church-historical scientific center is a matter for the future."

Sources

• Morozov A. Church media is still in decline // New policy. 2004. 17 November.