Media and Conflicts: a Study of Their Mutual Interaction in Current Academic Discourse

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Elena L. Vartanova

Academician of the Russian Academy of Education, Doctor of Philology, Professor, Head of the Chair of Media Theory and Economics, Dean of the Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia; ORCID 0000-0002-7716-4383

e-mail: eva@smi.msu.ru
Denis V. Dunas

PhD in Philology, Leading Researcher at the Chair of Media Theory and Economics, Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

e-mail: dunas.denis@smi.msu.ru
Anna A. Gladkova

PhD in Philology, Leading Researcher at the Chair of Media Theory and Economics, Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

e-mail: gladkova_a@list.ru

Section: Theory of Journalism and Media

The paper discusses theoretical issues of interaction between the media and conflicts. The paper studies what types of conflict have become the subject of research by leading Russian and foreign academic journals in the field of media, on which theoretical and methodological approach the study of the conflict was based, which subjects of the conflict are key in the analyzed articles. It was revealed that the main role in the escalation of the conflict belongs to completely different actors: the media, the government, civil society or communities, specific individuals. Ethical principles become the most significant factors in conflict development. This applies both to the media and to the specific communication practices of individuals. The study of academic discourse has highlighted the fundamental importance of ethics and morality as key determinants of conflict development. The discussion raised the question of the need to cultivate ethical and moral values as opposed to the anti-value of “conflict” in accordance with the theory of communicative action by Jurgen Habermas.

Keywords: conflict, media, meta-analysis, subject of conflict, ethics, morality
DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.4.2021.332

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