Spirituality Factor in the Professional Ideology of a Modern Journalist: On the Issue of Cultural Memory

Abstract

In the modern world of global information and psychological warfare the problem of preserving traditional values of Russia is acute. Spirituality as a factor of human formation in the profession remains a priority in the sphere of scientific research. The purpose of the research is to characterize the construct of «spirituality» as the basic foundation of a journalist’s professional ideology; using the results of the journalists’ survey; to identify and analyze the key frames of the spirituality of a journalist, affecting the ideals and strategies of his work. The research has been conducted in 2022 and included two stages: a survey of journalists in various cities of Russia and a personal questionnaire survey of students of the St. Petersburg and Transbaikal State universities, who study journalism. As a result, 319 questionnaires have been processed. The research is carried out within the framework of cognitive linguistics and psychology, taking into account the position of the unified process of perception, processing and transmission of information. The authors have relied on the sociocultural approach and linguocultural analysis, emphasizing the integrative potential of the mass media in transmitting the values of society. Content analysis and associative experiment are used to identify the constructs of the national worldview. Spirituality is an integral component of the personality of a professional. It is directly related to the sociocode of the native culture, awakens national identification and in its orientation towards the common good can help in resisting an aggressive environment. The results of the study have shown concern among media workers and future journalists about the number and quality of publications on spiritual and moral issues. A lack of materials on the values of the family and society as a whole is stressed. Most journalists in the list of their work priorities give accent to reliance on the meanings and values of the event, the possibility of self-knowledge, the predominance of the spiritual over the material. Among the key frames of the axiological model of «spirituality» are named the following ones: Responsibility, Truth, Hard work, Love, Help, etc. Nevertheless, the fragmentary loss of journalists’ moral guidelines due to the multipluralism of moral matrices and transformation of professional skills is noted.