Download the eBook (8.25 MB) - ECREA Thematic Sections

Diversity of Journalisms. Proceedings of ECREA/CICOM Conference, Pamplona, 4-5 July 2011
reports, investigations and public discussions. Original publicity makes it impossible
for media to ignore the story, competition forces them to cover it and journalists face
inevitable new practices.
They should be able to find out news in blogs and networks quickly.
They acquire the new source which information becomes public before being
checked. They have to promote some one else stories being not aware about the
truth. They need to investigate along with the process of new public information. They
compete not only with colleagues, but with the audience as with an equal participant
of media content.
There are media projects aimed at using the audience activity and involving it in
creative process of professional work. Special formats make amateur journalists
focus on definite aspects of life. Mostly they cover something shocking, curious or
funny leaving the details and interpretations to professionals; sometimes they take
functions of social control. Trying to adjust to the new communication reality media try
to channel civil activity of the people and make it more predictable.
Paper panel 18 – Journalism in Eastern Europe
Tuesday, July 5th 10.30 - 12.00 (Room 2)
Business media in an interstate conflict
Gavra, Dmitri; Savitskaya, Alena
Saint-Petersburg State University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia
Contemporary journalism exists in a variety of forms, depending on the functions
performed, targeted audiences, main subjects and specification of the discourse,
produced by mass-media. Parameters of the discourse (Teun A. van Dijk, 1988)
determine the format for the content, a style of argumentation, stylistic means, used
by journalists. The features of the business media discourse are easily recognizable:
the economic subjects are placed in the focus, evaluation of events is based on the
criteria of efficiency and benefits, journalists use some special terms and rational
arguments. But there are some sorts of events, which are beyond the usual practice
of business informing – conflicts, especially with the state institutions and
governments involved.
In the survey we analyze the conflict media discourse, produced by Russian
journalists during the economic conflicts between Russia on one side and Ukraine,
Georgia and Moldova on the other in years 2005 – 2009. Basing on our theoretical
typological model of media functioning in the conflict framework (Gavra, Savitskaya,
2010) and by means of content analysis we studied the content and contexts of
publications, the quality of argumentation, the composition of sources cited, the use of
manipulative technologies, the factual base and interpretations and the ratio of
“economic” and “political” dimensions of the media discourse. The “economic”
component was connected with the description of business practices and economic
context. The “political” component of media discourse appeared in case of
interpretation of the events from a political and conflictological point of view.
440