Challenges to the mediatization of religion in Russia: towards a normative model

Examining the development of religious media in Russia for last decades, author states low academic interest to this field of study and finds two main challenges to religious media. The first is deeply rooted in the post-communist religiosity - mostly nominal than practicing, the second challenge is caused by low impact of religious values on Russian media system in general and Russian TV in particular. Values dialogue faces three general problems: a) lack of values consensus, b) lack of religious selfarticulation and c) low level of social dialogue in the public sphere. Supporting British scholar N. Couldry’s call to the models of normative debate, author proposes a normative model of religious institutions and media professionals dialogue optimization, based on “pluralism - dialogue - consensus” concept of J. Habermas. The proposed model is focused on the basic principles of transparency and availability of the well-articulated religious values in a public sphere and presumes certain expectations from the religious institutions and media professionals. If “operationalized” from theoretical level to practical empirical indicators, the model could serve as a tool, matrix, check-list for the evaluation of the present condition for dialogue between religion and media in particular society.