Subject and Thematic Field of Gastronomic Journalism: from Entertaining Content to the Issues of Russian National Policy

Abstract

Bringing up to date the issue of mass media typology, the authors of the article research such line of modern journalism as gastronomic journalism. As far as this topic has not been studied well enough yet, journalistic periodicals (social and political, business, geographical, gastronomic magazines, tabloids for men and women), television programs (“Rare People” at the channel “My Planet”, “Russia, My Love!” at the channel ‘Russia-Culture”, the content of breakfast broadcasting of “the First Channel”) and the multimedia project of the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union “This is Caucasus” (section “A Good Taste”) are analyzed. The objective of the article is to determine the subject thematic range of gastronomic journalism, by studying the gastronomic content of mass media, and also to consider the functions of gastronomic journalism in the context of Media representations of peoples’ ethnic culture, namely of the indigenous minorities of Russia and of the North Caucasus peoples. In the course of the analysis, the features of the gastronomic topic in the representation context of the Russia peoples’ ethnic culture are revealed, the role of gastronomic journalism in terms of implementation of the strategy objectives of the Russian Federation State National Policy for the period up to 2025 as far as spreading knowledge about the peoples’ history and culture is concerned. To determine the effective resources of gastronomic journalism such methods and approaches as system, semiotic, cultural, typological and content analysis are used. A definition of gastronomic journalism, which determines the direction of studies of mass media and media in general, is given in this article. The authors come to the conclusion that not only recreational, advertising and informative but also cultural and educational functions of journalism are implemented through the gastronomic topic. Moreover, the importance of studying gastronomic journalism for education of journalism students and future caterers is considered in the article. A topical issue of gastronomic journalism development in Russian regions is emphasized.