Enlightenment activities of modern mass media

Abstract

The enlightenment activity of the media is aimed at raising the cultural level of people, is associated with the dissemination of information, knowledge, norms and values from the field of intangible production. The purpose of the article is to describe the main directions of enlightenment activities of the media. It talks about the importance of the enlightenment function of journalism and how to implement it. Informing consists in familiarising society with any facts or results of intellectual activity – politics, philosophy, religion, science, culture, art. These data contain socially significant knowledge, norms, values and correspond to humanistic tendencies of social development. Popularisation means the presentation of information in a form accessible to a mass audience. Media criticism is considered in the article as the ability to evaluate, analyse, interpret media content. Propaganda as a type of enlightenment activity is aimed at spreading knowledge and other information in order to form certain views, ideas, principles. The materials published in the weeklies “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” (Russian Gazette), “Argumenty i Fakty” (Arguments and Facts), “Literaturnaya Gazeta” (Literary Newspaper) are involved in the research. The main attention is paid to the current state of enlightenment in the press, its impact on the social role of journalism.