Our conceptualisation also demonstrates how digital authoritarianism extends beyond the use of digital technologies for repression, to shaping the conditions for the (re)production of journalistic practices, relations and strategies.

Our research stresses the significance of paying attention to less visible patterns rooted in the country’s journalistic culture that can be a factor in shaping digital innovation uptake in authoritarian states and the particular challenges faced by media-in-exile.

Both pro-state media, forming a non-critical public, and oppositional media, creating a leadership-critical public, may use similar technologies and practices for optimization. Yet, their different perceptions and tailored use of these tools lead to the production of distinct algorithmic publics.

By examining three media outlets – RT, RBC, and Meduza – we illustrate digital innovation across the political spectrum, revealing a complexity of digital authoritarianism better captured by Authoritarian Algorithmic Publics.

Contrary to politically-determined perspectives on media development in autocracies, our findings suggest that political loyalty is a poor explanatory factor of digital innovation uptake.

Based on >50 in-depth interviews with media professionals in Russian media we elucidate how media professionals’ perceptions of advanced digital technologies, rooted in a journalistic culture shaped by the conditions of authoritarianism, affect the development of digital journalism in autocracies.

When I asked what Newman what he’d etch in marble for a new generation, he didn’t hesitate: “It’s all about collaboration. See others not as competitors but as people who can push you forward.”

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