Intercultural integration and informational infrastructure
Peaceful development of large and fractious interethnic nations and regions is facilitated by and may require a shared informational infrastructure that meets the following conditions: public service orientation; independence of major state and corporate centers of power; contributing to the functioning of nationwide institutions of economic, political and cultural importance; and commanding benign public perception. With specific reference to the Russian news agency Interfax, this article explores the ‘black box’ of the often touted but seldom explicated relationship between news agencies and national or regional ‘development.’ It finds that Interfax has played an important role in the establishment of a political and economic, horizontal informational infrastructure that meets the above conditions. The article concludes that Interfax contributed to a new informational paradigm, synchronizing with macro processes of political and economic reform, and enveloping a heteroegenous swathe of Russia, the former Soviet Union (FSU) and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The agency thus helped create conditions conducive to regional, interethnic stability.