Institutionalization of the "Civil society" Concept in the context of the functioning of modern Russian media

The article analyses development courses of the civil society in post-Soviet Russia. Special attention is paid to the role of mass media in the formation of not only mass consciousness and public opinion, but also in the context of political science researches. The author discusses such inherent attributes of the civil society as publicity, voluntary associations, political activity, and believes that the mass media plays a significant part in each of them, especially in the first and third ones. Considering the specifics of treatment of the civil society problems in the contemporary Russia, the author notes that the media could focus more on the actual civic issues, rather than on the political struggle.