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Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis Uppsala Studies in Media and Communication 15 The Performance of Participation in Russian Alternative Media Discourse, Materiality and Affect in Grassroots Media Production in Contemporary Russia Kirill Filimonov Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Lecture Hall 1, Ekonomikum, Kyrkogardsgatan̊ 10, Uppsala, Friday, 12 February 2021 at 13:15 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in English. Faculty examiner: Prof. Dr. Bart Cammaerts (London School of Economics and Political Science). Abstract Filimonov, K. 2021. The Performance of Participation in Russian Alternative Media. Discourse, Materiality and Affect in Grassroots Media Production in Contemporary Russia. Uppsala Studies in Media and Communication 15. 200 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-513-1091-6. This doctoral dissertation analyzes participation in alternative media, taking the reader to the Russia of the late 2010s. Bringing together discourse theory, media and communication studies and political theory, it approaches participation in media production through the lens of performativity. The conceptualization of participation as a performance helps explore the material, embodied and spatial enactments of discourses that sustain the fragile and unstable process of production. The data of this study comprise several months of participant observations, interviews with media producers, and textual analysis of media content. The research employs a case-study method and focuses on media that explicitly delegate their participants the right to co-decide on matters of content production and internal organizing process. The three cases under study are Russia’s oldest anarchist medium Avtonom, the student medium DOXA, and the web-based zine Discours. Data analysis integrates qualitative content analysis and a discourse-theoretical approach, informed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theory alongside its subsequent developments within the Essex School. The study looks into the distribution of power in alternative media amidst an internal diversity, material constraints, and an antagonistic relationship with the state. The analysis constructs a model of participation, which shows its embeddedness into multiple and partially overlapping communities. A vibrant sociality and the potential for a further expansion of the media communities emerge as two of the key conditions of the participatory process. Furthermore, participation is supported by an ongoing performance of a multiplicity of identities, in which the more elitist articulations of journalism are intertwined with some empowering and counter- hegemonic notions of media production, media producers, and the audience. Retaining a critical-explanatory focus, the dissertation explores the limits of power-sharing, such as the persistence of journalistic professionalism, the scarce resources of the media and vulnerability inflicted by the state. The static representation of the state as the major confronting force reveals the paradoxical nature of social antagonism: while mobilizing the limited resources, it also reduces participatory intensities and triggers a politics of trust that restricts access to media production. This dissertation offers a number of theoretical and empirical contributions to several fields. Some of its key insights relate to participation beyond institutional politics, the hybridity of mainstream and alternative media, the interconnection of discourse, materiality and affect, and an empirical applicability of discourse theory. Keywords: discourse theory, performativity, participation, alternative media, journalism, state, materiality, affect Kirill Filimonov, Department of Informatics and Media, Kyrkogårdsg. 10, Uppsala University, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden. © Kirill Filimonov 2021 ISSN 1651-4777 ISBN 978-91-513-1091-6 urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-427501 (http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-427501) To my mother Irina and my sister Ilona Contents Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................. 15 1.1. Foreword and research questions ................................................ 15 1.2. Setting the scene: Key developments in Russia in the 21st century ................................................................................................ 18 1.2.1. Political developments ........................................................... 18 1.2.2. The state and the media .......................................................... 21 1.3. Case studies ................................................................................ 24 1.4. Disposition .................................................................................. 26 Chapter 2. Poststructuralism and discourse theory ....................................... 28 2.1. Embedding the study within social constructionism ......................... 28 2.2. Discourse studies and ontology ......................................................... 30 2.3. Poststructuralist approaches to discourse .......................................... 32 2.4. Discourse theory and its key concepts ............................................... 34 2.4.1. Discourse and articulation .......................................................... 34 2.4.2. Contingency and dislocation ...................................................... 35 2.4.3. The subject and its positions ...................................................... 37 2.4.4. Antagonism and constitutive outside ......................................... 38 2.4.5. Hegemony and war of position .................................................. 39 2.4.6. Towards the non-discursive in discourse theory ........................ 41 2.5. Performance as discursive-material bridge ........................................ 42 2.6. Affect, discourse and performativity ................................................. 45 2.7. Power ................................................................................................. 47 Chapter 3. Participation and its performances .............................................. 51 3.1. Defining participation through power ............................................... 51 3.2. Participatory intensities ..................................................................... 52 3.2.1. Representative models of democracy ........................................ 54 3.2.2. Maximalist-participatory models of democracy ........................ 55 3.2.3. Participation and democratic leadership .................................... 57 3.3. Participation as a performance .......................................................... 58 3.4. Participation and affect ...................................................................... 60 Chapter 4. Alternative media, journalism and the state ................................ 64 4.1. Alternative media and journalism ...................................................... 64 4.1.1. Hegemonic discourses on journalism ........................................ 66 4.1.2. Counter-hegemonic discourses on journalism ........................... 68 4.2. Alternative media and the state ......................................................... 74 4.2.1. Hegemonic discourses on the state ............................................ 75 4.2.2. Counter-hegemonic discourses on the state ............................... 76 Chapter 5. Methodology, method and research design ................................. 79 5.1. Research methodology ...................................................................... 79 5.1.1. Situating the study in the qualitative research paradigm ........... 79 5.1.2. Discourse theory as a qualitative methodology ......................... 80 5.1.3. Case study .................................................................................. 82 5.1.4. Ethnographic participant observations ....................................... 83 5.1.5. Interviews ................................................................................... 84 5.1.6. Qualitative content analysis ....................................................... 85 5.2. Research design and ethics ................................................................ 86 5.2.1. Data collection ........................................................................... 86 5.2.2. Application of DTA ................................................................... 90 5.2.3. The coding process .................................................................... 91 5.2.4. Ethical considerations ................................................................ 92 5.2.5. Positionality ............................................................................... 93 5.2.6. Research quality, validity and reliability ................................... 93 5.2.7. Limitations of the method .......................................................... 95 Chapter 6. Configuring participation: Subject positions in alternative media production ........................................................................................... 97 6.1. Multiplicity of subject positions ........................................................ 98 6.2. Articulations and performances of professional journalism in alternative media practice ....................................................................... 100 6.2.1. Articulations of professional journalistic discourse ................. 100 6.2.2. Enactments of journalistic