Journalism: searching for answers to the challenges of the time

Abstract

The article discusses the factors contributing to the emergence of journalism as a professional activity and a social institution from the appearance of the Gutenberg machine tool to modern information technologies. This shows the close connection between journalism and mass communications. Professional and ethical standards of journalism are considered as a necessary condition for its functioning, going beyond which threatens the death of the profession. Journalism is presented as an institution, the full functioning of which is possible only in a democracy, where it is able to perform the functions of social management and be regulated by ethical standards developed by the professional community. The purpose of the article is to identify the contradictions that exist in theoretical approaches to understanding the nature of journalism and its public mission, as well as to consider the role of information technology and modern means of communication in managing public life when journalism loses its “authority”. The key theoretical basis of the study is the provision on the “double” nature of journalism, developed in the works of E. P. Prokhorov, G. V. Lazutina, who explain the current situation with the peculiarities of the social development of journalism. The research methods included a theoretical and conceptual synthesis of the works of researchers devoted to the history and theory of the media and journalism. Among the results of the study, we include the concretization of the conditions under which journalism can perform “double” tasks caused by its “double nature”: somehow freedom and autonomy from the forces of influence. In a democracy, journalism is able to participate in the management of public life, report information about real events and exercise self-regulation. But when the authorities put journalists in a subordinate position, journalism goes into the “underground” zone and cannot be a public good. New media and modern means of communication give modern journalism a chance to maintain its social status even under the most negative scenario for the development of society. Media freelance is presented in the article as a way of autonomous functioning of the media, which allows modern journalists to be independent of the authorities in the implementation of professional tasks. At the same time, the creation of information products outside of editorial teams brings us back to the traditions of “personal journalism” of the Enlightenment, when journalism was not a social institution and did not control the life of society. The development of information technologies, which led to a change in the way of life of people and the scope of their professional activity, today’s socio-political realities indicate a change in the position of journalism in Russia, one of the most important social institutions.