A New Definition of Journalism Functions in the Framework of Hybrid Media Systems: German and Russian Academic Perspectives

Autor/innen

  • Anna Litvinenko Universität St. Petersburg

Schlagworte:

definition of journalism, journalism functions, Russian journalism, German journalism, public sphere, opinion journalism

Abstract

The communication patterns of our society have undergone crucial changes due to the development of the digital public sphere and the formation of ‘hybrid media systems’ (Chadwick 2011). This transformation challenges professional journalism in its role as the fourth estate. It is obviously essential to re-think the role and functions of mass media in the modern ‘network society’ (Castells, 2010). Some experts even talk about the end of the “century of journalism” (Weischenberg, 2010), and others argue that it is just the end of the 20th century’s news-journalism and the beginning of the new kind of professional journalism that will still be able to fulfill its core functions of building the public sphere, in accordance with the conditions of the transformed society (Pöttker, 2012). For conventional mass media that means a major switch from ‘news’-journalism to ‘orientation’ journalism (Bruns, 2005). This transformation has been intensified in Russia by the protest movement that fueled a discussion among journalists about new standards of journalism: should they just be observers or are they allowed and even supposed be activists of social movements? This paper examines what this paradigmatic shift means to the profession and to the self-identification of journalists as it is being viewed in Russia and in Germany. The author presents arguments of journalism scholars and journalists from both countries and argues that this development brings along a number of serious challenges for the society, connected with an enormous rise of opinion writing that leads journalists back to the era of pre-professional and pre-commercial journalism. In order to preserve journalism as a profession with socially important functions, a revision of the concept and of the standards of journalism is needed, both in Germany and in Russia.

Autor/innen-Biografie

Anna Litvinenko, Universität St. Petersburg

Anna Litvinenko, PhD, born 1981, works as a lecturer at the Faculty of Journalism at St. Petersburg State University since 2006 and specializes in German media system, media and politics, modernization strategies of publishing houses, with special attention paid to the problem of media convergence. Since 2010 she is the Head of the German-Russian Centre of Journalism at the faculty of journalism and since 2012 - the Head of the International office of School of Journalism at Mass Communications, St. Petersburg State University. She is also the recipient of several foreign grants including fellowships of German Bundestag and of German-Russian Forum (Program “Journalists from Russia”). The following prizes have been achieved in journalism: Special Prize of the Peter-Boenisch Contest in the frame of the German-Russian Forum “Petersburger Dialog” (2010); Prize „For professionalism in journalism“ in the international contest of Goethe-Institute “Feeling of presence” (2007). In 2011/12, she was visiting researcher at the Institute for Journalism of Free University of Berlin as a recipient of the German Chancellor Fellowship for Prospective Leaders (Alexander-von-Humboldt-Foundation).

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Zitationsvorschlag

Litvinenko, A. (2013). A New Definition of Journalism Functions in the Framework of Hybrid Media Systems: German and Russian Academic Perspectives. Global Media Journal - German Edition, 3(1). Abgerufen von https://globalmediajournal.de/index.php/gmj/article/view/101