Issue

Content:

• Sociology of Journalism

  «Metaphor Framing in Media Texts and Communication about Depression: Findings of Content Analysis and Experiment»

  The article presents the results of the analysis of metaphor models used in federal mass media for the period of December 1, 2018 – December 1, 2019 to describe depression. Based on content analysis, the author argues that journalists most often refer to such source domains as ‘spatial bottom’ and ‘enemy’. In an experimental study (a survey involving 544 healthy people of different ages) it was tested whether these metaphors trigger the framing effect. The ‘swamp’ metaphor, as a sub-variety of the ‘spatial bottom’ metaphor, was shown to change the perceptions of depression, reinforcing the belief that depression needs to be treated and that psychotherapy can help in this regard. This metaphor also reduced the average penalty respondents would impose on an employee for not working because of depression. However, these effects were found in the group of respondents of 18– 35 years old (N=330). A different effect was observed in the group of respondents over 35 years old (N=214), with both ‘enemy’ and ‘swamp’ metaphors: they affected only the assessments of whether medication is helpful for depression reducing the average score. Thus, the author concluded that the metaphors used by journalists to communicate about mental disorders affect the audience’s judgments of these phenomena and that the effect depends not only on the semantics of the metaphor but also on the demographic characteristics of the audience (e.g., age).
  Keywords: framing effect, cognitive metaphor, depression, media effects
  DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.6.2020.322
  Ivan A. Aslanov 3
• Media Law

  «The Phenomena of ‘Media Holding’ and ‘Media Group’ in Russia: the Problem of Uncertainty of the Legal Status»

  This paper presents the results of a study into the legal framework for the operation of media holdings and media groups in modern Russia. To begin with, the author offered a theoretical distinction between these two terms, after which he analyzed the organizational set-ups of several large business associations within the media industry and carefully studied all the statutory documents related to their activities. The information on legal entities was taken from the official base of the Federal Service of State Statistics (Rosstat), while the latest versions of the texts of laws, provisions and classifiers - from the legal reference system Consultant Plus. As a consequence, it was found that the concepts of ‘media holding’ and ‘media group’ in Russia are null and void. They are not mentioned in any sectoral law, which means that the phenomena that actually exist have not been normatively interpreted so far. Notably, Russian general legislation fails to introduce even the basic concept of ‘holding’, a drawback which appears to be systemic. This fact hampers the identification of holding associations in the Russian economy in general and in the Russian media market in particular and leads to uncertainty of their legal status. The author believes that the ‘legal vacuum’ existing in this area prevents the adequate development of the whole complex of legislative regulation of the national media industry.
  Keywords: media holding, media group, term, definition, legislation, regulation, norm
  DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.6.2020.2340
  Sergey S. Smirnov 23
• Media Language

  «Text and Style: in Search of Reproductive Models of Journalistic Professional Speech Activity»

  The purpose of the paper is to explicate the concept of the systemic nature of speech with regard to the speech genre, which is a compositional, thematic and stylistic type of a text. The research is based on the new principles of scientific rationality. The object of the study is an information genre of a crime message. The analysis of the material includes diverse characteristics of a speech product determined by a complex goal setting (intention). The characteristics cover many facets of the speech whole that are conditioned by a broad social context.
  Keywords: text, systemic nature of speech, speech genre, praxeologic-stylistic analysis in media linguistics
  DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.6.2020.4176
  Lilia R. Duskaeva, Vladimir A. Salimovsky 41
• Modern Journalism: Subjects and Issues

  «Russian Humanitarian Mission in Bergamo in the Fight Against the Coronavirus Pandemic: Reflection in the Italian Media Discourse»

  The article presents the results of a study of the reflection in the Italian media discourse of the Russian humanitarian mission «From Russia with Love» in Bergamo in April 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. The authors analyze how far the Italian media were able to move away from the paradigm of block information and psychological confrontation in the context of a joint struggle against a common epidemic threat. The basic versions of the negative interpretation of the Russian humanitarian mission are revealed. It is shown that the attitude to the mission in the national media and on social networks varies. The scientific novelty of the paper is that the authors use the example of a local episode to consider how the logic of global information confrontation is constructed. The research method involves the use of monitoring systems, automated collection and processing of relevant references and reconstruction of the media discourse profile based on this information.
  Keywords: Covid-19, Italian media system, Italian media discourse, Russian humanitarian mission, image of Russia, information confrontations, monitoring systems
  DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.6.2020.77107
  Dmitry P. Gavra, Ksenia A. Naumenko 77

• «Typological Analysis of Contemporary Photo Agencies»

  The author investigates photo agencies, a special type of media organizations whose activities are related to the creation, production and distribution of photographic content. The author conducts a typological analysis of 108 photo agencies, the sample of results (22 of them) being presented in detail in the form of a table in the article. Typical features (organizational and economic status, types of activity, type of information product, audience, area of collection and dissemination of information) are identified on the basis of typological studies of news agencies and of the media system in general. Some of these features are divided into sub-features. The initial hypothesis that the variety of contemporary photo agencies might be divided in clusters, and units within each of them gravitate towards internal homogeneity was confirmed. The leading feature turned out to be the type of information product, the sub-feature – “type of photo content”, which revealed a close interrelation primarily with organizational and economic status, and in most cases with other features. The author proposes to distinguish four main clusters of photo agencies, and those that cannot be attributed to any of them to consider hybrid. The study also found that the majority of photo agencies expand the range of information products mainly through the increment of other types of content (audio, video, multimedia, etc.); also, but less often, through the increment of photo content, which indicates the multimediatization and hybridization of contemporary photo agencies.
  Keywords: photo agency, photo bank, photo archive, photojournalism, The TASS Photo Agency, Getty Images, Magnum Photos
  DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.6.2020.108135
  Maria A. Romakina 108

• «Information Support for Eurasian Integration: Russian Media Coverage»

  Mass media as a major tool of the information support for the EAEU integration processes ensure the internal stability of the Union, without which further consolidation of the young regional organization is hardly possible in the international arena. This paper analyzes news content of the leading television channels as well as print and online media in the Russian Federation and identifies which thematic components of the image of Eurasian Economic Union influencing the way the population perceives the Union, and to what extent, are now offered to the Russian audience. The study showed that the information support for Eurasian integration, unregulated for five years and left to mass media themselves, led to the fact that as of the 4th quarter of 2019 the main themes were: EAEU summits, legal regulation and prospects for relations development of the Union countries. Notably, the overwhelming majority of materials of this narrow thematic spectrum is based on the newsbreaks suggested by ECE and represents impersonal information, as opposed to personalized materials illustrating the advantages of integration for ordinary citizens. All this leads to information apathy to integration themes both in society and on the part of journalists.
  Keywords: EAEU, information support, Eurasian integration, Mass media and Eurasian integration, EAEU information policy, information support for integration processes, mass media about Eurasian integration, mass media about EAEU
  DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.6.2020.136159
  Olga Yu. Vikhrova 136
• Theory of Journalism and Media

  «Transformation of Mediacommunication between the State and Youth in Russia in the Context of Mediatization of Politics»

  The relevance of this article is conditioned by the intensification of the transformation of political and media discourse in contemporary Russia. The mediatization of public practices and the penetration of the media logic of new digital communication channels into all models of information and communication interaction force the state to seek new approaches in its media communication practices of cooperation with the youth. Modern Russian youngsters are becoming more and more interested in participating in political processes. They are particularly interested in the issues of civil society formation, human rights and freedoms, and justice within the context of common European values. The media activity of Russian youth and the development of new forms of media communication practices on social networks have become particularly evident in Russia in recent years. Thus, it is possible to conclude about the growing role of the mediatization of politics in the strategies of digital communication between the state and Russia’s young people. Today, there is an intergenerational political conflict and a growing need for political representation among young people because this intergenerational conflict exists not only in the fields of technology, sociology and anthropology but also concerns value systems: young people increasingly represent post-material values, including environmental issues, the foundations for building civil society, the elimination of inequality, and the like. When the traditional model of political interaction had, for the most part, a monological and vertical character, according to which, being once elected, representatives of the power communicated with the people in the language of laws, decrees and other political acts going in a direction from top to bottom, modern possibilities of Internet communication transform this model, promoting the development of horizontal interrelations, providing openness and availability of political information, operative feedback between the power and citizens.
  Keywords: mediatization, media communication, mediatization of politics, social networks, content, technology, youth
  DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.6.2020.160181
  Anna N. Gureeva 160
• Foreign Journalism

  «German Mass Media after Reunification: Major Development Vectors»

  The article examines the economic development of German mass media after the reunification of the two German states, West and East Germany. The scientific novelty and relevance of the study are based on the fact that media development in Germany has primarily taken place due to the transformation of the media system itself, i.e. the unification of the media systems of two states with different socio-political systems. The importance of the study is that the economic development of German mass media was constantly carried out across all paradigms, making changes to the entire systemic and structural body. Media concentration influenced the rotation of a dozen of the strongest print media outlets, which lost circulation because of a decrease in advertising revenues and their migration to the electronic media and the Internet. The researchers documented transactions in the regional newspaper segment, recording mergers and acquisitions. According to many analysts, the media market crisis, which began in Germany at the turn of 2000–2001, not only made its adjustments but also revealed new development trends. The process of digitalization began in 2000 with the program “The Internet for all”. Since 2010, digitalization has been the main thrust of the Federal Government’s ICT strategy based on the program “Digital Germany 2015”. However, several publications and studies of 2018/2019 claimed that Germany is a digital outsider. The authors studied the stages of economic development of German mass media over the past 30 years in the aspects historical, economic and substantive aspects, attempting to focus on the current situation.
  Keywords: mass media, reunified Germany, media market crisis, print and audiovisual mass media, concern, digitalization, development vector
  DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.6.2020.182208
  Galina F. Voronenkova, Elena M. Gaponova, Maria G. Maslina, Alexander V. Christenko 182