The author of the article deals with the participation of mass media and journalism in the process of building of civic society in Russia. Mass media should be treated not so much the instrument of civic society forming as the laboratory of social thoughts and as the organizer of public discourse. In this connection there is a necessity to concentrate the attention on the internal resources and problems of mass media, namely the uplifting of the professional level in Russian journlism, as well as the developing of their culture in the spheres of philosophical, sociological and hystorical thinking.