Social Aspects of Citizen Journalism in Russia.

This paper examines the main modern approaches to the citizen journalism in Russia and defines its key features at the present stage. The publishing activity of the citizen journalists of two Russian platforms "Ridus" and "LiveJournal" was analyzed over a time span of five months in 2017. The analysis results were used as a basis for describing peculiar content features of the Russian citizen journalism, its nature and specifics of information presentation, and for identifying the areas of concern. The paper also deals with social aspects of the citizen journalism as a tool of the civil society enabling the development of a firm civil standing of the audience and encouraging professional media to perform its functions as a social communication institution at a higher quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]