Ethnic issues in the media. Scientific work: Social issues in the modern press Media and social problems

We sent this questionnaire to 113 colleagues working in print, television and electronic media, asking them to take advantage of the opportunity to let off steam and relieve their souls. We promised them anonymity in exchange for frank (which we really hoped for) answers to our not always convenient questions. This is what came out of it.

What do you think is the biggest problem with modern media?

A broken business model that doesn't guarantee enough funding for journalists to do their jobs well.

A broken business model that forces media to pander to audiences.

The need to entertain readers and create sensationalism to keep them interested.

Prioritize efficiency over accuracy.

Narrow-minded or insufficient life experience of reporters and editors.

Tendency to inflate and inflame conflicts.

Inability or unwillingness to hold those in power accountable.

Superficiality.

Bias.

Fear of violating corporate interests.

Ignorance.

Show off, overly aggressive journalistic style.

Excessive reliance on anonymous sources and information that cannot be verified.

Bias.

Infographics:

The main reason why people began to trust the media less:

49.56% - Our political discourse has become more polarized.

20.35% - People do not trust most institutions these days.

5.31% - People believe that "pocket" media serve corporate interests.

5.31% - The media stirs up so much bad stuff.

19.47% - other.

Other answers suggested by the respondents themselves:

People believe that the media serve the interests of certain parties.

The Internet has given people the ability to set their own news agenda, regardless of the veracity of what they see.

Republicans and conservatives have maligned the media for decades because the media reflects objective reality rather than the ignorance of politicians who cannot face inconvenient facts.

We highlight differences rather than similarities, promote disunity without building bridges.

Should newspapers and other media give up the fight to uphold political objectivity?

75.45% - no.

Respondents' comments:

Readers look for objectivity only in the texture: what, where, when and how. Any analytics is expected to be subjective.

- “Objectivity” is a bad goal. The right goal is the truth. And its search requires ambition and unbreakable standards, and not at all “objectivity.”

There is an opinion that the media relies on bad news, and this leads to increased nervousness in a society that believes that the world is heading into the abyss.

57.52% - disagree.

42.48% agree.

Respondents' comments:

It has always been this way, look at the newspapers of the 19th century, the world on their pages does not look rosy either.

The Internet for journalism is:

75.93% - good.

24.07% - bad.

Respondents' comments:

Good for spreading leaks, terrible for real journalism.

It’s good because we have unprecedented access to sources and information, but it’s bad because the Internet has contributed to the destruction of the usual business model.

It was good for a few years that was the golden era of blogging. But then all the energy went into the development of new technologies and social networks.

53.27% - good.

46.73% - bad.

Respondents' comments:

None of us would be able to cover the events in Ferguson (mass riots that broke out in August 2014 after the murder of an unarmed African-American man by a white police officer. - RG note) without social networks.

Is the media better or worse than it was decades ago?

44.04% - worse.

36.7% is better.

19.27% ​​remained the same.

Respondents' comments:

The media has become more sarcastic.

Infographics: Leonid Kuleshov / Ekaterina Zabrodina

The main task of journalism is to:

85.84% - Educate readers about what they need to know, regardless of their interest in the topic.

14.16% - Follow the interests of readers.

Infographics: Leonid Kuleshov / Ekaterina Zabrodina

What topics and stories remain “blank spots” in the media?

Respondents' comments:

Environmental problems and climate change.

The media themselves.

Death of the middle class.

Corruption in the US Congress.

Poverty.

Racial issues.

Local news.

What is your biggest sin in journalism?

Respondents' comments:

Didn't work hard enough to find interesting and reliable sources.

I made a “report” from the scene where I was not there.

Didn't check the facts. I didn’t “dig deep” because of the deadline, as a result the article turned out to be superficial, there was no depth and truth in it.

Timidity.

He mindlessly “tweeted” and made himself look like an idiot.

He preferred his own comfort (family, career) to honest and selfless service to serious journalism.

I didn’t hear the name of the person I was talking to on the phone correctly.

As an editor, he did not offer enough creative ideas and did not motivate young journalists well.

Sloppiness.

As a news manager, I cared too much about the money side of things.

Copied information from the press release.

Have you ever felt pressured to sensationalize a story or present a topic from a perspective you don't agree with?

55.36% - no.

Respondents' comments:

This happens all the time.

My editor had never heard of the artists and forced me to write as if the readers had never heard of them either.

When I was working for local television, I was assigned to do a story about a storm that was sweeping along the coast. When I noticed that it would not affect us, I was told that such a presentation would attract viewers.

Are journalists more cynical about what's happening in the world than their readers?

27.03% - no.

Respondents' comments:

Yes. Being cynical means asking tough questions.

Journalists should be more skeptical than their readers, but this should not lead to hopeless cynicism.

I think many reporters are convinced that good news is just that: bad news.

Just remember: journalists are people too.

Infographics: Anton Perepletchikov / Ekaterina Zabrodina

Name a story or plot of the last ten years that journalists, in your opinion, underestimated.

Respondents' comments:

Women's rights in America.

Government spending.

Woody Allen.

Consequences of Obama's election and presidency.

American police brutality.

There are few questions about the Iraq war and criticism of this campaign.

What story has been blown out of proportion in the media over the past ten years?

Respondents' comments:

Kim Kardashian. Gossip about "stars".

Terrorist threat in the USA.

All presidential elections.

ISIS (a group banned in the Russian Federation. - RG note). They are not as scary as many much more routine things.

Where did the blondes go (joke).

We often get stuck on the same stories. Just look at how anti-democratically, from the perspective of elites, our media covered Brexit, and it immediately becomes clear what is wrong with journalism today.

There was a time when the front page of the Washington Post about the Watergate case was the pride of American journalism, and yesterday's visit to the website of the same newspaper of the same level did not indulge in a sensation. Photo: Sergey Mikheev / The Washington post

“Journalism as such does not exist in the 21st century”

Alexey Volin, Deputy Minister of Communications and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation:

Journalism as such does not exist in the 21st century. There are media communications, a media sphere of which journalism has become an integral part, including the history of journalism, which gives an idea of ​​what happened in the industry before, and practical journalism. You can study journalism, but learning without practice is impossible. Anyone who considers himself a ready-made professional creates those media that are less and less trustworthy. Studying gives three things - basic erudition and horizons; ability to systematize received material; the opportunity to socialize and gain connections and contacts. Next is self-development. You have to learn a profession all your life. Anyone who is not capable of this does journalism, which an American study has, in fact, rendered a verdict of unsuitability for professional work.

Vladimir Mamontov, general director of the radio station "Moscow Speaking":

Unfortunately, the picture revealed by New York Magazine is similar to ours. This is further proof that we are part of the global world. Let's take a specific flaw - the priority of speed over accuracy. It can be easily avoided by developing a certain technology for a constant news flow: dear consumers, look how the news develops from the first minute in our clarifying messages... And we bring it, if not to the truth, then to an objective picture. This could be the “open picture” agreed upon with the readers, but it does not appear. In the morning it was said “Russia is to blame”, by 12 noon, when the smoke cleared, it became clear - “not only Russia”, and by 18 pm - “not Russia at all”. But the news is already “closed”. Propaganda sharpening harms real journalism - both American and ours.

The press was put in straitjackets. There is an explanation for this - there is an information war, but in a war it’s like in a war. But it encourages journalism to put together a picture that is at odds with what people actually see.

Victor Loshak, director of strategy at the Kommersant Publishing House:

Yes, and our media is directed towards entertainment, yes, and our primary information comes from the networks. But when we talk about Russia, let's remember that serious journalism in our country has always been and remains the main and last bastion of democracy. Many principles of democracy - freedom of speech, choice, movement - which have recently become obscured for the audience or have lost the status of great value in their eyes, remain understandable, clear and valuable for journalists.

The Russian media has many problems, one of the most serious is the degeneration of information into propaganda: when the mirror shows what the authorities want to see in it, and does not reflect today's world.

But even when high-quality publications turn yellow and we become part of entertainment, it still seems to me that the agenda of the Russian media remains very serious. It is always aimed at deep problems and is attentive to the international situation of the country. Of course, "entertain while informing" is something that didn't exist a few decades ago. But even when we primarily inform, we continue to be serious people.

Elena Vartanova, Dean of the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University:

Today, when people in many countries around the world spend more time with the media than at work or at home, journalism still has great potential. Journalists just need to remember whose power they are - the powerful or ordinary people.

Every power - if it wants to be power - needs ethical standards. The concept of journalism as the fourth estate implies not only rights, but also responsibility. And therefore we must always think about the standards of the profession. One of the key strengths of the “fourfold power,” or the power of journalism, is its reliable texts that explain the complexity of the world, objectivity, impartiality, and most importantly, respect for its audience. But the power of journalism is moral, it implies concern for society and the people for whom the media work. Therefore, trust in journalism is the emotional contact of the audience with those who take upon themselves the responsibility to make assessments of everything that happens in society.

Alexey Goreslavsky, executive director of the media group of companies Rambler&Co:

It’s true: technology doesn’t just have a big impact on journalism, it has such an impact that it’s sometimes difficult to understand where the industry is heading. However, this transformation process has a simple mechanism: both the reader and the journalist often forget to answer a simple question: “Why do I need this new technology?” Journalists are especially uncritical, not even asking the question: “Why do I need this particular tool?” Such blind adherence to technology leads to the fact that colleagues often do not understand the requests of the target audience, but create content according to the principle: “I’m interested in this.” And the person producing the content must understand what and when the media consumer can accept or reject. Technology here is only a tool for moving towards the goal. It can be achieved solely by a penchant for analytics. And here it is important, just as the university environment teaches students to think, so professionals are taught to think and analyze by rapidly changing life. Or he doesn't teach.

Daniil Dondurei, editor of the magazine "Art of Cinema":

It seems to me that everything is the same with us. And this, on the one hand, testifies to some kind of intellectual poverty of both TV and the media in general, and on the other, to their incredible power. The media today, much more than the school, church, family, and especially the street, are capable of fashioning in people one or another type of consciousness, understanding of reality and orientation. And this type of consciousness is necessary for the market. A large market that has set itself the goal of quickly, a lot and with a profit, selling anything - things, events, ideas, behavioral stereotypes, actions. A person with this type of consciousness, although he does not sit in corvee labor and does not starve, but stubbornly reminds me of a medieval man, a new serf, who does not navigate reality on his own and depends on what he is taught and what is explained to him.

This formatting of people's consciousness with the help of rigid programs from a mixture of entertainment, pleasure, loyalty, helplessness, scandalousness, irresponsibility, the desire to conform seems very dangerous to me. This is the brainchild of the new information age and the virtual world, where TV and Internet networks have much more influence than books, and will continue to grow and develop. We are experiencing a kind of futuroshka, giving rise to the feeling that we are moving into the world of formatted peoples and people can be molded into any number of necessary types in the required proportion. So here I would argue with the results of the study: on the one hand, the power of the media has decreased, and impeachments like Watergate are impossible, and on the other hand, if there are serious programs with the consciousness of people, you can do anything.

But everyone who today wants to understand the most important thing - and the most important thing is understanding how life works, what trust, personal choice, morality, the future depends on - follow a different road, climb a different ladder. They read expert-level publications. There are few of them, no more than 10 percent in all areas. But highbrow, smart, complex, subtle people who understand art will be able to find the answer in them.

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The role of the media in a modern multi-ethnic society is very significant. For our subject, the most important problems are the coverage of ethnic issues, its impact on society and its use by politics. It is known that the press, radio, TV, and the Internet are the main communication channels through which support and broadcast of culture, interethnic communication and intercultural dialogue are carried out. In addition, it is also a serious ideological tool with the help of which mass ideas of people are formed. The media not only inform society about events, including in the field of ethnopolitics and interethnic relations, but, by commenting on them, introduce tolerant or conflicting values, images, guidelines and ideas into the mass consciousness. It is well known that the media play an important role in the modern ethnocultural development of many countries of the world, including the Russian Federation.

Over the past 20 years, our country has actually re-formed a diverse system of regional television channels and radio stations that are ethnocultural in nature (this phenomenon is sometimes called “ethnic media”). In 2008, in Russia, in addition to Russian-language ones, more than 400 television programs and more than 300 radio programs were registered, broadcast in 50 languages ​​of Russian nationalities. Of the 71.5 thousand periodicals registered in the Russian Federation, almost 10 thousand are published in the languages ​​of the peoples of the world, of which 2,335 media are in the languages ​​of the peoples of Russia and the former USSR. By the end of 2010, the number of electronic media in the languages ​​of the peoples of Russia increased sharply: 2,279 electronic media and 94 news agencies operate in 66 languages, including 968 publications in Tatar, 355 in Bashkir, 299 in Ukrainian, 212 in Yakut, 185 - in Chuvash, 133 - in Chechen, 128 - in Belarusian, 120 - in Azerbaijani, 115 - in Armenian, 112 - in Udmurt, 102 - in Komi, 81 - in Buryat, 87 - in Avar, 73 - in Hebrew and 19 - in Yiddish.

Many ethnocultural associations (national cultural autonomies, national public organizations) have their own periodicals - the newspapers “Tatar World”, “Azerros”, “Greek Newspaper” (monthly newspaper of the Moscow Society of Greeks), “Noah’s Ark” (newspaper of the Armenian diaspora of the CIS countries), “Jewish Newspaper”, “Russian Koreans”, etc. In 2005, the Guild of Interethnic Journalism was created in Russia, uniting journalists who write on ethnic topics. This organization organizes the annual All-Russian media competition for the best coverage of the topic of interethnic interaction “SMIrotvorets” and publishes a weekly supplement “National Accent” to the all-Russian newspaper “Arguments of the Week”. Practice shows that the media can orient mass consciousness not only to tolerant ideas of equality of people before the law, but also to the ideas of xenophobia, chauvinism, neo-fascism and racism. It largely depends on the civic position and responsibility of the media, their owners, sponsors and specific authors whether interethnic peace will be maintained in a country or region or whether interethnic tension will be intensified and interethnic hatred will be inflamed.

This ability of the media to influence mass consciousness and people’s ideas in the sphere of interethnic and interfaith relations is actively used to their advantage by modern politicians in many multiethnic regions of the world. It is clear that in such situations the authorities and society must be able to influence the media and resist negative information attempts to speculate on ethnic issues. It should be recognized that ethnocultural and ethnopolitical issues are constantly present in the media of multicultural regions and countries. Moreover, it is the media that often replicate not only the values ​​and norms that a given society professes, but also prejudices, stereotypes and attitudes that directly or indirectly contribute to the growth of interethnic tension, maintain and strengthen internal cultural boundaries between ethnic and racial communities.

Sometimes this replication is carried out deliberately, since ethnicity, as already mentioned, is used in political struggle and serves as an additional argument to justify the positions of rival political forces or leaders. But more often, the exploitation of ethnic prejudices and stereotypes is unprovoked and implicit in nature as a consequence of the general ethnopolitical unpreparedness of journalists, their reluctance to comply with the principles of journalistic ethics, their desire to play on the feelings of readers and make the material more understandable. In recent decades, Russian and world media have been transmitting in large quantities so-called ethnically charged information, which initially has or acquires a political meaning and thereby becomes an essential component of modern ethnopolitics. These are references in publications to countries and peoples, their way of life, national or ethnic customs and values, information about ethnic culture, economics, sports, medicine and other areas of public life.

The main features of ethnic information in a newspaper or in radio and TV programs are mentions of ethnonyms, for example, Uzbek, Tatar, German, English, Russian, etc. The use of terms related to ethnicity: chauvinism, nationalism, national extremism, xenophobia, national fascism and etc. Let us note once again that ethnically colored materials in the media can fulfill a humane, tolerant mission. They educate people, inform them, entertain them, can organize them for good deeds and perform many other useful functions. From the media, people learn a lot of new things not only about other nations, but often about their own. This kind of ethnic information instills in readers, listeners, and viewers patriotism and citizenship, interest and respect for other peoples, their lives and achievements, and contributes to the formation of ethnic self-awareness, a sense of national dignity, and respect for one’s ethnic community.

Ethnicity, updated and mobilized by politicians and journalists, can unite representatives of one people, for example, for the sake of protecting their national values ​​- their native land, native country, religion and other national shrines. However, many information technologies have now been invented, with the help of which modern politicians and social activists manipulate mass consciousness, for example, not only uniting a multi-ethnic population into solidary co-citizenship, but also dividing it into friends and foes. Moreover, neighbors, guest workers, and “persons of Caucasian nationality” can be portrayed as foreign media. It is not always easy for ordinary citizens to see and realize that the massive formation of public ethnic consciousness, whipping up ethnic passions with the help of the media are often aimed at spreading attitudes of intolerance among the population: not letting in, driving away, evicting, removing “strangers”, “not us”, “ethnically others”, “not like us”.

Similar examples of intolerant ethnic journalism were especially common in the 1990s. in the press of the former Soviet and some of our Russian republics. And at present, there are numerous examples of speeches in domestic and foreign media when fears and phobias against ethnic outsiders in the person of guest workers or migrants from other regions of their own country are deliberately inflated. An example of the use of ethnic prejudices in the political struggle and the insensitivity of the media to this kind of “political propaganda” was the video of the Rodina party, broadcast by federal television channels before the elections to the Moscow City Duma in the fall of 2005. What is important is not even the scandal that erupted after the appearance of the video; the fact that the party was withdrawn from the election race, and the reason for this was material that actually called for “cleansing” the Russian capital of people from the Caucasus. Caricatured “persons of Caucasian nationality” in this video are eating watermelon and throwing watermelon rinds under the wheels of a baby stroller, and Rodina party functionaries sternly point out inappropriate behavior to troublemakers and call on them to “cleanse Moscow of garbage.” The important thing is that the video appeared on television at all and was broadcast by TV channels.

It is also important that the filmed footage was shown to viewers as an illustration of the parties’ election programs. The most in-depth analysis of the domestic press regarding its ethnopolitical publications was carried out by V.K. Malkova. She, in particular, notes that in the modern Russian press ethnic ideologemes are quite widely represented, among which there are integrating and consolidating ideologemes, ideologemes of positive multi-ethnicity, ideologemes of open tolerance, and at the same time there are ideologemes that exaggerate historical accusations, ideologemes of conflict and hostility, ideologemes - ridicule, ideologies of incitement, ideologies of accusation and denigration, etc. Let us note that, perhaps, in the most overt form, these ideologemes and the provocative nature of ethnopolitical publications appear when covering the topic of ethnic migrations.

Ethnic migrations are portrayed in many publications as a threat to the economic well-being of the local population, as a danger to the dominant culture. They are associated with the spread of drug addiction, the growth of terrorism and the increasing danger of Islamic extremism, and the prosperity of the criminal economy. In fact, the generalized image of a migrant appears in such publications as the image of an “enemy at the gates.” It is the topic of ethnic migration that is actively exploited on numerous Internet forums. Coverage of ethno-political problems by domestic journalism in the press often suffers from a lack of a responsible professional approach: “Changes in the composition of the authors of newspapers covering ethnic topics, their inconstancy and turnover may indicate casual interest and superficial knowledge of the subject of discussion by journalists. This may also suggest their lack of preparedness in this topic and the incompetence of people touching upon the most complex issues of interethnic interaction...

Therefore, one of the most important reserves for humanizing the interethnic atmosphere... could be a system of targeted activities aimed at improving the skills of journalists working with ethnic topics in various media,” writes V.K. Malkova. It must be said that the object of analysis is V.K. Malkova was the capital's press, which does not lack highly qualified journalistic personnel. The personnel potential of provincial publications, as a rule, is noticeably weaker, and therefore they are in more dire need of creating the aforementioned qualification system. After all, it is regional publications, especially in the republics, that, due to the specific ethnic and ethnopolitical situation on the periphery, are forced to cover the most pressing and complex problems of interethnic interaction. This coverage is not always carried out professionally. The heads of some publications, understanding the complexity of ethnopolitical commentary, try to avoid publications on the topic of ethnopolitics, because they are not sure that the level of qualifications of journalists is sufficient for an objective and high-quality analysis of this topic.

These leaders explain their position by saying that they do not want to “stir up the hive,” but hushing up the topic is not a manifestation of journalistic objectivity and a responsible approach to covering social realities, which is dictated by the duty of a journalist and journalistic ethics. In his work, V.K. Malkova offers a guide for journalists, a kind of “guide” in working with ethnic issues. What is considered tolerant or intolerant and harmful when covering the ethnic features of our life in the media? This is one of the important questions that many experts are looking for an answer to. Of course, more or less clear guidelines in this matter are well-known international and domestic documents on standards and norms of behavior in democratic societies. There are many such documents. In our country, these are the corresponding articles of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the Civil and Criminal Codes of the Russian Federation, a number of special laws on the media, on citizenship of the Russian Federation, on extremism, on the languages ​​of the peoples of the Russian Federation, etc. In addition, by analogy with other countries, we have developed a number of professional and ethical codes for Russian journalists.

The disadvantage of some legal documents and journalistic codes is their declarative nature. These are truly “framework” recommendations that do not contain specific working concepts and definitions, for example, such phenomena as incitement of ethnic hatred, humiliation of national honor and dignity, national exclusivity, chauvinism, national extremism, etc.2 Nevertheless, these documents have been in recent years began to be used in Russian practice. The principles that journalists should follow are set out in their self-adopted Code of Professional Ethics for Russian Journalists and in the Statement of the International Federation of Journalists on Principles of Conduct for Journalists, but they are not always strictly followed.

Even earlier, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a special document (Recommendation 1277 (1995) on migrants, ethnic minorities and the media), in which it pointed out the need to comprehensively and impartially cover important ethnopolitical problems, and in particular the problem of ethnic minorities and migrants. In Russian political practice, the focus of attention of regional and federal authorities is still not the problem of ethnopolitical correctness of the content of publications in the media, but the problem of supporting newspapers, magazines, radio and television in the languages ​​of the peoples of Russia. As noted, this is, of course, an important direction in the field of state ethno-national policy. However, the problem is not the number of publications and broadcasting time, but the quality of publications and the level of preparedness of journalists. Ethnic media often lose in competition with mass regional and federal publications precisely on these parameters. There is another problem that is especially relevant primarily for the Russian press.

In a democratic state, the press should play the role of a kind of catalyst for the processes of civil consolidation, strengthening civil solidarity, and through the press, public opinion mobilizes legal and political institutions to protect the rights of minorities and to counter extremism. This is exactly what happens in well-functioning democracies, although not without problems. But, as Russian ethnopolitical scientist E.A. notes. Pain, “despite the fact that the press pays critical attention to extremist antics, there is no subsequent legal and political reaction of the state to the facts noted by the press, and the public is passive towards various manifestations of extremism.”

In the intensive process of informatization of the world community, globalization trends are clearly manifesting themselves, the consequences of which are far from clear. At the same time, the formation of a “global village” saturated with communication interactions changes the life of society through information systems, emphasizes the importance of self-organization of a person making an information choice and, thereby, actualizes the role of the media in the transformation of both an individual and all of humanity as a whole.

The “Declaration of the Rights of Culture”, developed in 1995 under the leadership of D. Likhachev, introduced the concept of humanitarian culture, that is, a culture focused on the development of creative principles in man and society (Declaration of the Rights of Culture: Project / St. Petersburg State Unitary Enterprise; scientifically edited by D. S. Likhacheva. - St. Petersburg: SPbGUP, 2001. - 19 p.). The document is addressed to the international community, and since the subject of international law is the state, it is the states that must become the guarantors of the cultivation of a humanitarian culture, which provides a spiritual basis and the possibility of development and improvement of individuals and society.

Information culture, which is emerging today in the context of globalization as a systemic characteristic of a new level of development of society, determines the priority of mass media influence on the formation of public opinion. The behavior of people in society, the relative stability or state of unrest of the sociocultural system largely depends on the semantic content of media messages. Journalism as a specific type of sociological activity of a journalist in a wide range of media is intended to contribute to the implementation of the concept of globalization as a harmonious process of world cultural development, in which a balance has been established not only between great cultures and the cultures of small ethnic groups, but also between the cultures of all peoples inhabiting the country, in in particular, or, more broadly, the whole world as a whole.

The process of formation of republican identity in Tatarstan is in accordance with the dynamics of the intensity of presentation of ethnic topics in the press. The most saturated ethnic information in the information field of Tatarstan was in the 1990s. First of all, we talked about the ecology of national culture and language. However, along with this, even in such seemingly neutral topics as sports and information about events in the world, problems of national politics, the specifics of interethnic interaction between the peoples of Russia, the strengthening of religious tolerance and the relationship between the historical past and the present of our republic were touched upon.

But since journalists writing about culture do not have special education, including self-education, they, by definition, cannot meet the tasks objectively assigned to them. At the same time, the media, designed for consumption by the widest audience, are usually closed to authors “from the outside” - to professional musicians, artists, directors, religious scholars, historians, philosophers, cultural experts... This is where the escalation of mass media begins. culture, reaching its apogee by the 2000s.

However, first let’s define what culture is in its modern understanding.

It seems to us that the philosopher V. Stepin quite rightly views culture “as a system of information codes that consolidate historically accumulated social experience”... 1 He shows that “from the point of view of systems theory, complex historically developing organic wholes must contain within themselves special information structures, ensuring control of the system, its self-regulation... Along with the biological, genetic code, which consolidates and transmits biological programs from generation to generation, a person has another coding system - a sociocode, through which a developing array of social experience... The condition for storing and transmitting this experience is its fixation in a special symbolic form” 2.

The scientist names many different sign structures that “consolidate and transmit social experience”: “the functioning of subjects of behavior, communication and activity as semiotic systems, when their actions and actions become models for others”; symbolism of the human body, the structure of natural and artificial language; sign structures that arise during the functioning of objects created by man and others. It shows that in the course of the development of culture, the development of new meanings and meanings, the need arises for new ways of “fragmentation and unification of accumulated experience” and, accordingly, the development of “new types of coding.”

In fact, as M. Dvorkina 1 points out, with the advent of writing as a special form of coding, a new opportunity arose to store and broadcast social experience, which was implemented in an institution specially created for this purpose - the library. With the growing needs of culture for more and more efficient systems for storing and transmitting experience, new information institutions arose to provide these functions - centers of scientific and technical information, editorial offices of printed publications, radio-television, video services and others.

In the system of cultural information codes, the media can be represented as unique information nodes (drives). If we consider culture as a system of creation, storage, distribution and consumption of cultural values, then we can trace the significant role of these information channels in these processes.

First of all, it is necessary to emphasize the cultural preservation function of these institutions within the institution of social memory. The media, among others, store and distribute various cultural values: books, paintings, films, behavior algorithms and others. The most vivid picture of this area of ​​​​activity is given, for example, by the TV channel “Russia K”, the newspaper “Culture” or the electronic publication “Culture-Portal”. But this does not mean that other media do not carry out such activities.

Printed publications, radio channels, television, and Internet portals play a significant role in preserving folk culture, traditions, rituals, national language, and regional characteristics. The media help not only preserve, but also at the same time make accessible to the majority of people (that is, ensure the continuity of culture) the most significant examples of cultural heritage. With the use of new information technologies, the opportunity to simultaneously solve both problems increases - to ensure the preservation and dissemination of cultural values.

At the same time, the question arises about the criteria for selecting broadcast values, about the ability of people of today to predict the needs of users of the future. The broadcasting function of information institutions is also significant for culture, carried out through information services that ensure the continuity of cultural heritage and its accessibility to consumers.

For example, the state radio stations “Radio Russia”, “Mayak”, “Culture” continue the best traditions of domestic radio theater, educational, literary, musical, historical programs, and at the state radio station “Orpheus” the basis of broadcasting is serious classical music. All this, of course, ensures the continuity of cultures, acquaintance with the best examples of world and domestic cultural heritage, but under one condition - the audience will be ready to press the appropriate “button”.

Therefore, there is a need to educate the audience, dissolving materials about culture in publications of the widest profile, including “yellow” printed, audio or television publications.

A. Flier points to those areas of social practice that are reflected in modern media 1.

First of all, this is the culture of social organization and regulation, the scope of which includes such specialized and non-specialized spheres of life as economic culture; legal culture; political culture.

Then - the culture of knowledge and reflection of the world, man and interhuman relations: philosophical culture, including the common sense of everyday ideas about the world and the rules of human behavior, folk wisdom; scientific culture; religious culture and various manifestations of pagan atavisms of the past); art culture.

Next comes the culture of social communication, accumulation, storage and transmission of information: the culture of interpersonal information contacts; the culture of mass communication, which includes, among other things, rumors and gossip; information-cumulative culture at the level of traditions, beliefs and legends; culture of intergenerational transmission of social experience, cultural competence and knowledge.

And finally, the culture of physical and mental reproduction, rehabilitation and recreation of a person: sexual culture; culture of physical development; culture of maintaining and restoring health; a culture of restoring human energy balance, which includes, among other things, cooking as a system and structure of nutrition; culture of recreation, mental recreation and human rehabilitation, including deviant forms of leisure.

The media audience, through the mediation of a journalist as a transmitter of cultural values, gets an idea of ​​the beliefs and preferences of people in different national cultures, moral and legal norms, mythological, literary and artistic images and other cultural patterns. In the process of information services in the media, documents, scientific artifacts, political relationships, and philosophical conclusions are updated.

The continuity of cultural patterns is also carried out through environmental elements - the design of a publication or broadcast, equipment and technical means used in the creation of mass media, the technology for obtaining information, audiovisual or textual organization of material. Information services facilitate the broadcast of social, aesthetic, ideological, religious, technological and other cultural patterns in space and time, facilitating their inclusion in modern production, educational, self-educational, managerial and other activities of people.

In the process of information services, samples of information culture are also transmitted: ways of working with documents, searching for information, organizing card files, databases, ideas about the value of documents, and others.

By receiving information products from other organizations, the media contribute to the development of these institutions, and by broadcasting cultural samples, journalism helps to equalize the cultural potential of people from different social groups, and, consequently, to stabilize society.

I would especially like to note the creative function of journalism in culture. The media carry out analytical and synthetic processing of information - the transformation of documents in the process of analyzing them and extracting the necessary information, evaluating, comparing, summarizing and presenting information in the form of journalistic material - creating new cultural products: publications, programs, journalistic books, articles, recommendations , consultations and the like.

These are the products of information culture, which should be considered not only from the point of view of knowledge, skills and abilities associated with reading, searching and consuming information, but also as a set of knowledge, norms, rules, values, technologies created by people in the process of production and dissemination of information products, and reflecting a certain level of development of information activities and culture.

“The topic of culture in the media is not limited to events and the sphere of artistic creativity,” emphasizes T. Dedkova. – General cultural processes (philosophy of culture helps to study them); lifestyle of society, morals; the state of concert organizations, bookstores, cinemas and other cultural networks; the development of general, artistic, and musical education - all this is included in the range of cultural issues of the press and television.<…>Through the categories of culture, a person evaluates, comprehends and experiences the world, brings all the phenomena of reality into a single whole” 1 .

The media has become the main tool for disseminating messages that influence public consciousness. A. Mol rightly believes that the mass media “actually control our entire culture, passing it through their filters, highlighting individual elements from the general mass of cultural phenomena and giving them special weight, increasing the value of one idea, devaluing another, thus polarizing the entire field culture. What is not included in the channels of mass communication in our time has almost no influence on the development of society” 2.

Four spheres of production and existence of cultural values ​​are distinguished: everyday life, ideology (including such forms as philosophy, politics, ethics, etc.), religion and artistic culture (art). Each of these areas is reflected in one way or another in the media.

A specific feature of everyday culture is that it develops simple, natural, but at the same time fundamental values, such as work, family, homeland, respect for elders, norms of behavior and the like. It is everyday life that is the custodian of the historical memory of a culture, since it is much more stable than ideology, religion and even art and changes much more slowly than them. Therefore, it is everyday culture that to a large extent contains “eternal”, universal, national values. In addition, it is everyday values ​​that are the basis for the existence of ideology, religion, and art.

The media actively participate in the formation and dissemination of everyday values, telling in their materials about positive and negative patterns of behavior, which in turn brings us to the ethical and philosophical issues of morality, which already relate to the sphere of ideological production and existence of cultural values.

“Previously, people released from prison and former alcoholics were often sent to work at the zoo. Once I saw how these guys tried to pull a piece of meat out of his cage with a long stick in front of the astonished tiger’s eyes. I once practiced boxing, so I solved the problem with a right hook... After all, even during the war, people did not rob animals, but, on the contrary, shared their last piece of bread with them” 1 .

“Recently, extensive research has been conducted on the causes of marriage dissolution. As it turns out, it is women who decide to break family ties first. Most often, spouses (40% of respondents) separate due to the fact that they simply cannot find a common language with each other. This reason is more typical for those over 30. But very “green” newlyweds are primarily bothered by the fact that, in connection with the general family budget, they have to tighten their belts and be deprived of their usual benefits. More than a quarter of those surveyed admitted that they did not want to save the family because of the betrayal of one of the spouses. About the same number got divorced due to their significant other’s drinking. There turned out to be quite a few husbands and wives who could not withstand the constant interference in the family affairs of close relatives” 1 .

“Ekaterina Ilyinichna, having received the funeral, for a long time could not believe that she would never see her Mishenka again. It seemed incredible to her that he died right now, when the war was over and there seemed to be no way to expect trouble.<…>It’s scary to say how many years have passed since then! And all these decades, Ekaterina Ilyinichna has been a widow, living in Maksimovka, in a small old house. He will look out the window onto a street familiar from childhood - and it will be as if he sees himself young again, and next to him - his Mishenka, alive and unharmed. Maybe that’s why, even though the district leadership gave her, as the widow of a Hero of the Soviet Union, a one-room apartment with all the amenities in Tetyushi, she rarely goes there. In Maksimovka, everything is native” 2 .

Each of the materials cited above, appealing to the concepts of “conscience”, “family traditions”, “loyalty”, addresses, first of all, the moral and philosophical problem of existence, but is based on universal spiritual values, reflected in the everyday life of Russian society .

A significant role in the development of everyday culture is played by epistolary genres, which are actively used to broadcast cultural and everyday values. Letters occupy a strong place on the pages of the republican press, not only reflecting public consciousness, but also providing the readership with the opportunity to check with modern norms of social behavior. This becomes obvious when referring to the publications of reader letters on the pages of the Tatarstan press.

“I notice that recently not only people, but even animals and birds have become somewhat more aggressive. Either a crow attacks a child, then pigeons fly straight into the face, as if intending to peck in the eye, then wild animals come out of the forest and attack people. What happened to our fauna? It seems to me that this is primarily due to environmental degradation. Intensive urbanization, an increase in the network of highways, and thoughtless cutting down of forests lead to the destruction of the original homes of animals, which, by the way, have the same right to a niche in the environment as people” 1.

“I was raised in such a way that throwing a chocolate wrapper past a trash can is not cultural, not respecting everyone around me is bad, not loving our nature is not normal. I try to instill the same thing in my child, so that my daughter becomes a good, decent and well-mannered citizen of Russia, and not a pig who, excuse me, lives there. To learn and teach our children not to flee the country, but to make it better, is the main task of each of us!” 2.

“I express my deep gratitude and gratitude to the General Director of Kazankompressormash OJSC I.G. Khisameev, Chairman of the Trade Union Committee V.V. Borisov, Chairman of the Council of Veterans F.F. Fayzrakhmanova, Chairman of the Shop Committee of the 21st Shop E.V. Mayorova, Shop Driver No. 23 I.A. Fakhrutdinov for financial assistance - purchasing and delivering a gas water heater, meter and gas stove to my home. With respect and gratitude to V.G. Bakaeva, inv. II gr.” 3.

“Yesterday, while walking through Uritsky Park, I noticed a lot of birdhouses on the trees. I was so happy, I think people care about birds. And then I looked closer - the birdhouses were made by the same company and painted yellow. But starlings usually do not live in painted houses. We need to do something” 4 .

“I witnessed the following incident. A cool jeep drove up to the pet store. A man got out, all pissed off, and walked into the store.

“According to my horoscope, my wife is a Pisces,” he told the seller. – What do you advise her to buy on March 8?

“Of course, fish,” answered the seller. They chose for a long time. We started with expensive fish and ended up with some tiny ones, for 80 rubles. They bargained for a long time, finally agreeing on fifty rubles. The one who was full of himself demanded a free jar and, satisfied, left. And I felt sorry. No, not a fish. And not even this big and fat man. I felt sorry for my husband, that’s what” 1 .

Each of the quoted remarks is an incentive to self-reflection, a look at one’s own behavior, a kind of trying on the situation for oneself. Only in this way, when mastering cultural wealth, does a person “disobjectify” the world around him, assessing his ability to be receptive to a complex system of information codes that consolidate historically accumulated social experience.

Humanity of the new millennium in its sociocultural development has faced many crisis problems in the field of history, economics, politics, demography, ethics, with the devaluation of ideals and value systems, the destruction of traditional life ideas and ideological principles. Trying to overcome the protracted crisis of modern culture, characterized by the predominance of material progress over spiritual progress, the media constantly remind their audience that for every person beauty, goodness, truth, eternal life are unconditional values, but what is good and evil, for example, a person is forced decide for himself, in each specific situation, thereby acting as an interpreter of culture.

Journalism, according to Yu. Kazakov, “feels its social connections, recognizes itself as part of a culture that is obviously not limited to its own professional tasks and framework, and tries to establish a productive dialogue with society, including on the issue of its own destiny” 2 . Developing this topic, T. Dedkova believes that “journalism covering cultural problems<…>has the opportunity to contribute to the improvement of relationships between man and society” 3.

This is called upon to be helped by “second order” reflection, the object of which is not the reconstruction of the moral and ethical world of the individual in certain cultural and everyday ideas, but these ideas themselves as one of the products of intellectual creativity.

Let's take a look at the thematic palette of publications in the first quarter of 2010, dedicated to professional culture, which found its outlet in works of art. For the analytical cross-section, we selected four republican printed publications: “Republic of Tatarstan” as an official government body (Table 1), “Kazanskie Vedomosti” as a city newspaper (Table 2), “Youth of Tatarstan” as a youth publication (Table 3) and “Evening Kazan” » positioning itself as an independent press (Table 4). Summary Table 5 shows data on the thematic range of publications in all of the above publications.

All materials were distributed according to genre and were counted quantitatively (publication was taken as the unit of counting).

In a “normal” society (there is such a concept in science), which is characterized by high vitality, flexibility, adaptability to changing conditions, integrity, stability of social systems, constant impulse for development, openness, pluralism, activity of social processes, their controllability, mobility, tasks social journalism are determined by its natural nature. But no matter how stable a normal society may be, there are no ideal communities. Maintaining sustainability through information means includes, for example, identifying and representing various interests, disseminating ideas about what is useful, permitted, and important in this society, what is harmful and prohibited, what patterns of education and behavior are worthy of attention and respect, how to resolve pressing problems, harmonize needs and much more. Social journalism, by quickly monitoring and presenting to society the “human” reaction to changes, helps them to flow more smoothly, thoughtfully, systematically, and timely correction. The main task is to maintain stability and sustainability of social relations.

In a society of a transitional type, which is also experiencing a crisis - and this is precisely the kind of society Russia is now - journalism, in addition to its natural tasks, has other tasks, a special mission, in the light of which all its activities should be assessed - it must give hope. The resolution of the social crisis largely depends on how the press copes with anti-crisis tasks:

• - provide complete information about the state of the social sphere, open new topics and problems for discussion, monitor changes, evaluate them, avoid silence or inattention to difficult situations, explain the essence of changes;
• - master new realities of life, help live in a changing world and navigate it, stimulate creative life activity and especially individual initiative; help a person in a specific situation, talk about a precedent for solving a problem situation and strive to develop an algorithm for solving a particular problem;
• - subject all bills and decisions to public examination, actually participate in the formation and implementation of social policy, monitor the functioning of social institutions and actively influence their modernization;
• - streamline social relations, maintain a balance of interests, representing and justifying the positions of various social groups, relieve social tension and prevent shocks; strive for equal conversations between different groups; create an opportunity to express new views and assessments within typical problem situations, develop a common position on pressing problems;
• - give a moral assessment of events, actions, statements, morally support people and help overcome feelings of loneliness and hopelessness, talk about the experiences of other people, always put the ideas of humanism and goodness above the situational interests of individual groups.

This is just a general outline of the target features facing social journalism. Each media outlet independently determines the balance of the described tasks and additionally formulates others. This is a very important and pressing practical problem.