In modern civil society, social journalism is of great importance. It is an instrument of public control and regulation of various processes. Worldwide, journalism is an integral part of democratic governance. With the advent of the Internet, this phenomenon has new possibilities. All over the world, including in Russia, special resources are even being created to unite journalists and citizens. The Continentalist website, a platform for social journalism, can serve as such an example. Let's talk about the essence of this social phenomenon, what are its tasks and methods.
Journalism as an activity
The emergence of journalism is due to the need to meet people's needs for information. For a quality life, people need to be guided in events, to receive timely information about the state of society and the environment. Journalism is a means of communication between social groups, between an individual and society, and ensures uninterrupted contacts between different subjects of society.
As an activity, journalism includes the collection, processing, storage and dissemination of information. The main form in which information appears in journalism is news. The media informs people about what, where, when and why happened. Thus, journalists form the information agenda and influence the interpretation of events by the public. That is why this activity is often called the “fourth power”.
Journalism as a social institution ensures the stability and sustainability of society. It has an extensive structure in the form of editorial offices, publishers, press services, news agencies, and the journalism education system. In democratic societies, it is generally accepted that journalism is an independent area of social activity that aims to fulfill its specific functions. Today, journalism is forced to change, as the transformation of the information environment takes place. People can already receive information not only from the media - they themselves can become a source and translator of news. This leads to the emergence of new varieties of journalism.
Social functions of journalism
The most important and first function of journalism is communicative. That is, it is designed to establish contacts between people and social groups. The interaction of the journalist, authorities and the public is the most important task facing this type of activity.
The second function is ideological. Journalism as a social phenomenon influences people's perceptions and worldviews. It acts as a tool for translating socially-approved norms and patterns of behavior. Journalism is considered as a means of influencing the mass consciousness and is often reproached for bias by various political forces.
Another function is organizational. Media ensure the interaction of people and communities in the development of various judgments and ideas. Thus, social journalism criticizes the dominant public perceptions and orders and helps people develop an objective attitude to the facts of reality.
The most important function of journalism is also informing. The media is designed to maintain public awareness of what is happening in the world. Moreover, the selection of facts and events for coverage is often associated with the above functions.
Journalism is also called upon to educate and educate people.
And another function of this kind of activity is to entertain the public. A journalist must find a harmonious balance between these functions, without deviating to either side.
The concept and essence of social journalism
By and large, all journalism is social, as it serves the interests of society. Therefore, there are disagreements among specialists in defining this concept. In general, this concept means a system of genres and methods of covering topics related to people's lives, problems of realizing the rights and freedoms of citizens. According to researchers, the following aspects are included in the concept of social journalism:
- media reflection of the problems of the social sphere of society;
- analysis of topics and events related to the realization of the freedoms of citizens, with the development of full-fledged individuals;
- the presence of special genres and methods for presenting information about social problems and people's lives;
- involvement of citizens themselves in the process of creating journalistic materials;
- initiating and overseeing social projects that contribute to improving the lives of citizens and society as a whole.
Thus, the essence of this concept is that it is relevant information about the state and life of society.
Key topics and issues
For many years, political and entertainment topics dominated domestic journalism. The media tried to satisfy the needs of people in relaxation, as well as increase their income due to the rapid popularity. Social issues are not profitable and therefore have long remained on the periphery of the interests of journalists. Since the early 2000s, there has been a reversal of interest in social issues. Journalists again began to cover the lives of ordinary people, with their everyday problems and concerns. So began to take shape the main topics of social journalism:
- coverage of opportunities and forms of self-organization of citizens to assert their rights and freedoms;
- the activities of various public organizations actively involved in transforming the life of society, including charitable foundations, social enterprises, counseling centers, etc.;
- coverage of the problems of vulnerable groups: large and single-parent families, unemployed, migrants, elderly and single citizens;
- participation in solving youth problems: employment, drug addiction, alcoholism, access to education, crime, AIDS and hepatitis, activities of youth organizations;
- disseminating the ideas of civil society;
- topics related to the moral education of citizens;
- economic and social policy of the state and forms of its implementation.
Thus, the range of problems covered by social or citizen journalism is extremely large and it requires special attention from the journalist and his special professional skills.
The public position of a journalist
The profession of a journalist requires from him, on the one hand, objectivity and impartiality in reporting on events, and on the other, requires an active, pronounced position. Finding a balance between these two requirements is one of the important tasks of a professional journalist. The concept of a social position in journalism implies that the author has materials of an expressed opinion on the main issues of our time. A journalist must clearly understand what is good, justice, evil, vice, etc. Otherwise, he will not be able to expose shortcomings and proclaim socially approved values. Work in the field of social journalism assumes that the author has his own position, attitude to the problem, but he is able to offer the audience the full range of possible opinions so that the reader or viewer in the assortment of impartially submitted points of view can find the one closest to him. The development of a social position with a journalist is facilitated by:
- a clear understanding of their place and role in society;
- orientation in the structure of social relations and an idea of the driving forces of society;
- understanding the essence of possible social contradictions and their consequences;
- awareness of the role of individuals and citizens in solving social problems.
Ways to Present a Journalist's Social Position
As social journalism develops, there are more and more opportunities to express the views of the author. This is due to the emergence of new formats and the development of genre forms. Journalists today have the opportunity to maintain personal blogs, write columns in various publications, comment on colleagues' materials, and act as experts in various programs. The main forms of manifestation of the social position of a journalist are:
- direct defense of his point of view, in this case he does not pay attention to other opinions, reasonably draws his line;
- a milder option is to present different points of view and provide arguments in favor of one’s own opinion;
- compromise, taking into account various points of view and smoothing out conflict situations;
- an impartial presentation of facts, in which the choice of position remains with the audience.
Basic forms and methods
The diverse tasks of social journalism require a large arsenal of presentation forms. The audience should not be bored or too unpleasant to read (or watch programs) about the problems of society, but at the same time, the audience should in no case be indifferent. Therefore, the arsenal of a journalist engaged in social issues includes genres with high involving power. These are essays, reports, interviews, feuilletons, problem articles. A modern audience wants to receive information in a lively, interactive way, so new methods of presenting facts and events arise. Researchers note that such new forms are such genres as “news with a human face”, various forms of discussions, analytical materials with access to practical recommendations, public examination, author and editorial columns, publication of letters and reader reviews. Publications on the Internet allow you to organize feedback with readers, to influence them using text, audio and video images.
Tasks and Goals
Modern social journalism is designed to solve many diverse problems. First of all, it is aimed at helping specific people who find themselves in difficult situations. Journalists talk about the problem, help find solutions to it, and attract the attention of the public and the competent authorities.
Another task is the discovery of new social problems, their analysis, assessment, wide discussion. Journalists should monitor the dynamics of the social sphere, detect positive and negative fluctuations, and develop a common position on the problems identified.
Social journalism is also called upon to maintain a balance of public interests, representing the positions of various social groups. In addition, journalists can provide moral support to people who find themselves in difficult life circumstances.
The main goal of socially responsible journalism is to ensure the stability of the social system. Therefore, journalists should look for ways of harmonious interaction between different social groups and options for resolving problems that would reduce social tension.
Russian socially significant journalism
Researchers believe that in Soviet times, journalism did not fully fulfill the functions of social support and protection of society, since its main task was to service the dominant ideology. During perestroika, this discipline focused on serving various political and economic forces and again was not fully social, as it drew attention to problems, but did not seek to maintain the stability of the social system, but, on the contrary, undermined it, eroding the system of moral assessments. It was the journalism of negativism, simplifications, incompetence. She did more social harm than good. Therefore, theorists say that social journalism in Russia takes shape only at the beginning of the 21st century. At this time, a demand is forming for active journalism, which not only indicates problem points, but also seeks to find a way out of difficult situations. Then the system of unprofessional journalism begins to take shape, it is also called civic journalism.
Main sites
The Internet has become an excellent medium for the development of socially responsible journalism. The first platforms for social materials were blogs and columns on various sites. But gradually special platforms have begun to form, uniting authors and readers around sensitive social topics. One of the first such platforms was the Medium website. However, commercialization gradually killed a useful idea and turned its content into a stream of custom and paid materials.
Later, the news site E-News.su appeared, which positions itself as a platform for social journalism, although this is more of an alternative journalism. Here they do not try to draw attention to the problems of individuals or disadvantaged people, but highlight facts that do not find space on other sites.
The most famous platform is cont.ws, which is also only by name is social. In fact, the authors of the site are trying to attract the attention of readers with fried facts, loud headlines, unreliable sensations.
The latest is Continentalist, a platform for social journalism, as the name of the site says.
All these sites are similar in that they bring together authors who write on topics of interest to them. According to reviews, this is a community of unprofessional authors. The task of these people is not to uphold the interests of disadvantaged segments of the population - they seek to increase website traffic and make money. There are no full-fledged platforms for social journalism today, but there are platforms that provide their resources for the speeches of socially responsible journalists. For example, the sites of the Echo of Moscow radio station or the Dozhd television company.
