Students through the eyes of teachers: specificity of students majoring in media

Abstract

The article concentrates on the personal, social, psychological and other specific characteristics of students choosing media as their major or educational program in universities. The author believes in theses that modern students are significantly different from their predecessors, which is caused by high immersion in the media environment. Thus, the author suggests that media students most clearly reflect the changes taking place today in the student environment. Also, research attention should be paid to the specificity of the profession of a journalist, which have been studied for several decades, and the profession of a media worker, which is its successor, is more relevant, but less studied. As part of the study, 50 in-depth interviews were conducted with teachers working in media educational programs in Moscow and regional universities. The author also relies on personal experience of teaching media students, including observation and conversations with colleagues and students. The totality of empirical material made it possible to obtain a fairly voluminous portrait of a media student. Its main distinguishing characteristics turned out to be: high immersion in the media environment, the presence of professional experience at the entrance to the university (obtained in specialized sections or in personal projects), uncertain motivation to receive higher education, orientation towards practical activities and the subjective usefulness of education, high civic activity in public space, rejection of authorities. Also, an important difference between media students lies in the early successful start of professional activity and the receipt of income from it, which significantly reduces the sense of value and need for higher education.