The Subjective Dimension of a Journalist’s Professional Culture

Abstract

The article is devoted to the professional culture of modern journalists as a dynamic phenomenon that has become the subject of discussion in the media employees’ corporation and the academic community. In this regard, the authors review the contradictory experts’ opinions on the future of the world and domestic press. The originality of the presented research is that the issues are considered from the journalists’ subjective point of view. For this purpose, the special technique of semi-structured in-depth interviews with acting editorial workers was developed as a part of a comprehensive research project “Professional Ideology of Journalism” organized by the Department of Theory of Journalism and Mass Communications of St. Petersburg State University. The results of the performed procedures are described in the article. Hypothetically, the authors assumed that, in a subjective dimension, the existing knowledge on the professional culture of a journalist and, in particular, the normative ideas on it would be noticeably corrected. Accordingly, the purpose of the study is to identify the real diversity of journalists’ subjective views on the profession and their position in it, as far as this is achievable within the framework of a particular research project. The analysis of the interview materials showed that the ideas and skills of media employees are formed without the direct infl uence of standards adopted in the global and national community, they are formed mainly on the basis of personal experience and communication in the industrial environment. Thus, culture gets a lot of subjective versions. This means that in the process of transformation of current journalism, individual creativity is enhanced, which is especially typical for the younger generation. On the other hand, the contours of the profession become blurred at the ideological, instrumental, and ethical levels. The authors of the article support regular discussions of the problems of the profession, which will contribute to the removal of emerging contradictions and to mutual understanding between generations. Keywords: professional culture of a journalist, subjective view, in-depth interview, standards, diversity