Media and Journalism Studies in the Context of Conflictology: System-Based Theoretical Aspects

Abstract

The article gives an overview of key approaches to studying the media and journalism as factors that enable participants of the current social environment to deal with disagreements and resolve conflicts. The authors prove that, from the perspective of the objet field of media studies and its integrative character, social conflicts of various scales and levels are the primary object for analysis. Large-scale theoretical generalizations require practical knowledge of conflict resolution; therefore, journalism, being the reflector of the world of everyday life, is the main source of the relevant empirical data. Thus, the authors consider journalism and media the key tools for preventing and resolving social conflicts. They also emphasize the high degree of responsibility of the media and journalists in covering and analyzing conflicts in the world arena, which is becoming even higher in the current processes of digitalization and mediatization of all social realities. The article gives a definition of journalism in the context of conflictology as a theory of social conflict resolution, highlights the importance of further researches into the new field — mediaconflictology, and recommends using empirical and theoretical approaches and the principle of interdisciplinarity. This should provide for a better sensemaking and generalization of social practices, as well as determining the key role of journalism in forecasting and diagnosing social conflicts and disagreements, in de-escalation of social tensions and forming the right culture of conflict perception by the public, which will eventually result in harmonization of social processes.