Reflection of the Gender Problems of Society in Russian Journalism at the Turn of the 20th and 21st Centuries

Abstract

The aim of the research was to analyze the stylistic tonality of the texts of mass media devoted to gender issues at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. The article reveals the results of the research, which testify to the peculiarities of images of men and women in Russian mass media, and the data obtained during the analysis of journalistic texts published between 1990 and 2010 became indicators of the sample of the material. Some existing and emerging gender stereotypes are being established, namely cultural and socially conditioned ideas, opinions on the qualities, attributes and norms of behavior of men and women issued in journalistic texts. The linguistic means of expressing gender stereotypes in the mass media are analyzed. The article analyzes the linguistic tools used in the mass media to evaluate men and women. An attempt is made to compare the linguistic means used in the formation of images of women in the men's magazines. The research methodology is based on understanding the mass media mission as an effective means of forming public opinion; depending on the tasks to be solved, a set of methods used: synchronous-descriptive, synchronous-comparative, content-analysis. The method of textual and discursive analysis with the use of cognitive-pragmatic methodology and functional-stylistic analysis of the text are also used. Today it is the media that become a special agent of gender socialization, actively promoting gender stereotypes formed in society, exploiting them endlessly, often with their modification, which also contributes to the creation of new stereotypes. For modern mass media research, it is becoming increasingly important to take into account concepts, stereotypes as the basis for creating ideology in the modern media space. The latter ones presuppose a targeted influence on the recipient's consciousness from the addressee's side with the help of a pre-defined idea that has a generalized character that orient mass consciousness in the given direction through stereotyped nominations. The conclusions, which were made with the help of this research, are reduced to the statement of the tendentiousness of presenting gender issues in modern Russian mass media. The publications are mainly conducted in a key, far from respectful for both men and women. Moreover, in the mass media, stereotypes of men and women that do not correspond to the true state of affairs in Russia and are not capable of creating tolerant relations between the sexes that are not capable of asserting the idea of equal rights and equal responsibility to the society of all Russian citizens outside the public are exploited, generated and replicated in the mass media depending on their gender. A well-thought-out media policy in covering gender issues is needed, aimed at the formation of healthy humane relations in the society.