Professional Ideology Research Articles

Beyond Spoken Linguistic Landscape: Semiotic Ideologisation of Regimented Practices in the Nigerian Army

This article examines the dimensions of military ideologies that are tactically communicated through the semiotic mechanisms of the Nigerian Army’s regimented practices. Data were sourced through participant observation and semi-structured interview in a fourteen-month fieldwork involving 22 staff members of the Nigerian Army. Drawing on insights from the concept of semiotic ideology to account for the underlying interpretations of semiotic practices in the social context of the Nigerian Army, the findings show various military ideologies nuanced in the agency’s semiotic-mediated activities and communication. Through the semiotic resources and significations embedded in the service uniforms, military funerals, hoisting and lowering of flags, military weddings and their salute system, the Nigerian Army is to seen to have maintained regimented performances of core military ideologies. Such practices constantly resonate ideologies of patriotism, courage, ruggedness, regimentation, comportment, subordinate-superior relationship, professionalism, perseverance and suppressive mien for victory in military battles. These beliefs present Nigerian Army’s personnel and their operating environment as regimented sites that consistently reproduce semiotic impulses that portray the agency as the totalistic organisation it propagates. Such performances through their unspoken actions help to rebuild and stabilise the psychology of the officers and men, enhance unwavering social bonding of soldiers, foster communication of professional identity and sustain the resilience of the troops as they work towards strengthening the workforce for the protection of the sovereignty of Nigeria.

The New Media Art world in Turkey: Boundary-work in action

In an age marked by the Post-media condition, the term ‘New Media Art’ remains in use in reference to a professional territory not autonomous, but also different from the territory of Contemporary Art, and its members use various rhetorical tactics to maintain and expand their professional authority. This study aims at analyzing the professional ideology of the New Media Art territory in Turkey using Thomas F. Gieryn’s concept of the ‘boundary-work’. The data obtained via semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with a purposively sampled population of artists, curators and producers are used to assess whether a common cultural repertoire exists in this territory and whether it conforms to or contradicts its global counterpart. The study finds that since the mid-1990s, the professional ideology of the New Media Art territory in Turkey has developed in parallel with the world, but not monolithically. The curators/producers’ ideology is defined by potential for democratization, intersections of art, science and technology, interaction/interactivity and interdisciplinary collaboration. However, they exhibit two repertoire variants positively correlated with the subjects’ career orientations. The artists’ common ideology is similar to the curators’/producers’, but their cultural repertoires are more flexible thanks to the variety of their individual practices. The study concludes that this duality emerges due to the limited funding sources in Turkey.

The Battle of Blair Mountain and the News Media: Professional Ideology and the Coverage of Bloodshed in West Virginia

In 1921, “labor trouble” was the euphemistic phrase used by newspapers to describe the often-bloody conflicts that took place between working miners and their bosses in West Virginia. The Battle of Blair Mountain was one such conflict, a well-known clash between striking miners and mine operators that was made famous because airplanes were used, however unsuccessfully, to drop bombs on the miners during the hostilities. This study examines the coverage of this event by the New York Times and Washington Post to understand the ideological assumptions of professional journalists at the time toward this brutal conflict. Using a historically informed analysis of newspaper content, this study shows how the professional norms of journalism culminated in a highly ideologically informed coverage of labor struggle, revealing upper and middle-class anxiety toward class conflict in early twentieth century America.

Culture of Communication as a Characteristic of Self-Determination of Russian Journalism in the Post-Global World

The relevance of the topic is due to the processes of defi ning the post-global world order with the formation of sovereign macro-regions, the institutional participation of journalism in changes in the system of international relations, and the strengthening of the importance of culture of communications in professional activities. The novelty consists in identifying the institutional characteristics of journalism that infl uence sovereignty in the context of multipolarity and polycentricity, highlighting the culture of communications as a professional quality that determines the possibility of journalism’s participation in social change. The purpose of the work is to substantiate the culture of communications as a professional value, with its own structure and forms of manifestation. The tasks are to determine the importance of culture of communications, to identify the specifi cs of approaches to its analysis within the framework of the general theory of journalism and subject-oriented disciplines, to substantiate the place and importance of culture of communications in the structure of professional ideology. Based on the structural analysis of the culture of communications, the coincidences of interpretations at the pragmatic level and differences within the framework of the normative approach. Using the examples of subject-oriented theories, the specifi c features of the analysis of culture of communications and the prospects for its research are considered. The directions of studying journalism as a cultural industry, the institution of civil society and political control, forms of social work and regulation of social relations, an active participant and initiator of social change, are proposed. Keywords: culture of communication, theory of journalism, post-globalization, multipolarity, polycentricity, professional ideology

Attitude to Law as an Indicator of the Journalist’s Legal Culture (Based on the Materials of an Expert Survey)

The article discusses an important part of the professional culture of a journalist – legal culture, which is based on knowledge of legal norms and journalists’ attitude to the law, manifested in their lawful behavior and, in general, in the activities of modern Russian mass media. As part of the research project of the Department of Theory of Journalism and Mass Communications at St. Petersburg State University, Professional Ideology of Journalism, a pilot study of the normative-legal discourse of journalists’ professional culture was conducted. The empirical basis for the study was expert interviews with representatives of print media who have extensive experience in journalism, including the position of editor-in-chief. The purpose of the research is to reveal how sectoral legislation determines the content of journalists’ activities; how journalists feel about the Russian On the Mass Media law and the normative regulation of media activities in general; and, ultimately, how journalistic activities embody the three structural components of a journalist’s legal culture: 1) cognitive; 2) motivational-refl exive and 3) activity-practical. The results of the processing of expert interviews show that, in general, journalists have a respectful attitude toward industry-specifi c legislation and consider the current law On Mass Media to be a basic document regulating freedom of expression and many other issues of media activity. Although the freedom of speech, which was enshrined in the Russian law on mass media and later in the Constitution of the Russian Federation, has not become a tradition, a norm of life, creativity and professional culture of journalists. Keywords: law, legislation, legal culture, freedom of speech, journalist, expert survey

The Subjective Dimension of a Journalist’s Professional Culture

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

Schoolteachers in Out-of-School Hours Education: Blurring Professional Ideology in Recent Times

Teachers’ professional ideology and their involvement in out-of-school hours (OoSH) practices have been questioned in recent times. This study explores how schoolteachers understand their professional ideology in relation to their OoSH practices and how they explain their participation in private tutoring in addition to formal schooling. This study deploys a qualitative approach using in-depth semi-structured interviews with nine secondary school teachers in Bangladesh. The thematic analysis highlights a substantial gap between Bangladeshi school teachers’ professional ideologies and their involvement in private tutoring. The findings from the study reveal that the respondents perceive their dual roles as schoolteachers and tutors as controversial and detrimental to discharging their professional duties in an ideological way. They recurrently struggle to justify the dual roles that contribute to the dilemma of professional ideologies. As such, private tutoring does not just create a problem in classroom teaching but affects professional ideology and commitment to teaching principles. The study recommends policymakers and professionals look into these issues to gain a deeper insight into the existing private tutoring literature concerning teachers’ professional ideologies.

Savęs atstovavimas moterų lyderystėje STEAM srityse Lietuvoje: diskursas, lyties tapatybė ir vaidmenų suderinamumas

Science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) are fields substantially crucial for innovation and development. Nevertheless, the gender gap in these areas is significant also in European countries. Considering the underrepresentation of STEAM women’s leadership, we provide insight into the common characteristics that led Lithuanian women to become referents in their fields. We identify elements of leadership in discursive social representations, professional ideologies, gender identity and role congruency in connection to power structures from a gender perspective within organisations, considering the mediations of the social context. We conducted the research in two phases: an online questionnaire and in-depth interviews. We performed a critical discourse analysis of Lithuanian Women’s testimonies to understand gender social representations. Parenthood highly influences building leadership and choosing STEAM careers, whereas self-efficacy and creativity are essential elements. High co-responsibility at home confirms that family context is vital. In STEAM careers, a male-centric perspective still constrains female leadership. There is still work to be done regarding active politics, programs, and law enforcement to create equity and social justice relationships between men and females, especially in STEAM areas.

Parking Humanity at the Door? Journalists and Editors Perspectives on Covering Murder-Suicide in Ireland

ABSTRACT This study examines how the production of news making is evidenced in published content about the complex social phenomenon of murder-suicide. Building on Reese and Shoemaker’s hierarchical model (2016), this study aims to understand the impact of the individual, routines, ideological, organisational and social institution levels on news content surrounding a case of murder-suicide in the Republic of Ireland. Data was gathered from in-depth interviews with journalists and news editors who detailed the nexus of competing interests that influence their work processes. Findings reveal how organisational structures, coupled with ideological orientations, industrial routines and the professional ideology of objectivity, acted as crucial gatekeepers, encouraging a dependency on elite sources. A crime narrative supported through the operationalisation of a media template perpetuated a hierarchy of victims. These representations served to mirror the institutionalised patriarchal power.

Role of women in today’s society and the inequality in genders

The main method used was a survey which around 350 working women from multiple countries including Pakistan, Turkey, and Lebanon responded to, regarding different aspects of their professional ideologies and observations. Extensive secondary research was employed to explore the issues of role of women in society, sexual harassment faced by women in their homes and workplaces, and the magnitude of gender inequality in developing versus developed countries. The main findings concluded that gender inequality is a long-standing hurdle in the path of women. It exists at all levels in the society and is not limited to a single culture or country. The gender inequality is not the only barrier faced by women in their journeys; however, it may pave way for other obstacles like sexual harassment. The measures presently taken to combat the negative impacts of gender inequality on women are inadequate and require more thought and better implementation for them to prove fruitful in eradicating the issue.

Imaging Landscapes, Roads, Race, and Power.

Drawing on two contrasting images of the "highway to nowhere" in Baltimore and a stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia, this essay throws a spotlight on the politics of planning and designing roads in mid-twentieth century America. It examines the intertwined roles of race, class, and profession, focusing on the relationship between race and infrastructures as a systemic issue underlying individual decisions and policies. Race and infrastructures are prominent political topics now that the U.S. federal Department of Transportation is awarding grants to study tearing down interstate highways that have fractured and destroyed inner-city neighborhoods. These policies build on acknowledgments that federally funded infrastructures were not neutral delivery systems, but embodied racist and professional ideologies. While historians of technology have long studied the relationship between values and technology, such analyses are becoming more salient.

Explication of Elements of Professional Ideology of Journalism in Media Text

The article presents the results of a pilot study aimed at finding new sources and methods for studying the problems of professional ideology of journalism. The author proposed a method for identifying its features and elements in a journalistic work through a detailed analysis of media text. Textological analysis of the products of journalistic creativity is used in this case not to determine the internal properties of the text as a linguistic category, but to study a sociocultural phenomenon, the manifestations of which are somehow recorded in the text. The specificity of a journalistic work as a source of research is that the media text reflects not only the professional-ideological attitudes and principles declared, but already implemented in practical journalistic activities. Some options for explicating the professional ideology of journalism in the media text are shown on specific examples from the publications of the Russian press. Indicators of the professional ideology of journalism are the structural and meaningful components of the media text: the topic of journalistic speech, the hero of the publication, genre, author's style, presentation of material, the nature of the argument, the handling of facts and sources of information, etc. These markers can indicate professional principles, values, roles, attitudes, views of a journalist. In conclusion, the prospects for the development of a research program for studying the problems of professional ideology of journalism based on the material of journalistic works are outlined. It was noted that the results obtained give reason to start formalizing the data. The methodology tested on certain empirical sources can be used to analyze arrays of media texts, which will make it possible to make generalizing observations and conclusions about the leading characteristics of the professional ideology of a certain journalistic community.

Parameters of Identification and Evaluation of the Professional Ideology of Journalism

The question of the necessity and characteristics of the professional ideology of journalism is caused by the requirements of strengthening the integration of society and the growing importance of the media space in human life. Journalism as a social institution ensures integration by performing professional functions, using a common language of mass communication, unified and accessible media technologies. In determining the parameters of the identification of the professional ideology of journalism, data from psychological studies of activity, conclusions about the interdependence of working conditions and technological changes, the results of the analysis of professional ethics and the characteristics of the identity of a journalist. The purpose of the study is to substantiate the methodology of studying the professional ideology of journalism, which is the main object of study. In the structure of ideology, the main attention is paid to its unchanging universal components and essential characteristics. Methodologically, the research is based on the principles of systemic institutional analysis, which make it possible to describe journalism as an integral and stable phenomenon, as well as approaches within the framework of the role analysis of professional identity — functional-sociological, communicative-psychological, cultural-anthropological. At the first stage, an analysis model is determined with the allocation of the nuclear components of the ideology and the characteristics of its periphery. At the second stage, the trajectories of identification of professional ideology are proposed, which allow identifying internal (professional) and external environments (regulatory, social, educational-pedagogical, scientific-theoretical) of its generation. At the third stage, the parameters of identification of the professional ideology of journalism (mission, strategy, tactics, value basis) and reflection their components, forms of expression, regulators of activity and methods of implementation are determined. At the fourth stage, indicators of the parameters of professional ideology assessment are highlighted, among which the greatest attention is paid to its universal characteristics. Organizational, textual, socio-political, cultural and educational indicators are determined in the complex of variable parameters. At the fifth stage, personal parameters of assessing professional ideology at the level of a journalist's personality are determined: orientations, attitudes, statuses and roles.

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

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.

The epistemic injustice in conflict reporting: Reporters and ‘fixers’ covering Ukraine, Israel, and Palestine

This paper investigates the epistemic injustice in conflict reporting, where foreign parachute reporters collaborate with local producers and ‘fixers.’ Drawing from existing research on ‘fixers’ and other media professionals covering conflict zones and the philosophy of emotion and knowledge, I address the following questions: What is the role of local and foreign media professionals’ affective proximity and professional distance in the social epistemology of conflict news production and the epistemic hierarchy among the collaborators? What implications is this particular social epistemology believed to have for conflict reporting accuracy and ethics? Based on 36 semi-structured to in-depth interviews with foreign and local media professionals covering Ukraine, Israel, and Palestine and further online and offline contact with the Ukrainian ecosystem of foreign/conflict news production, I argue that the collaboration between foreign and local media professionals is sometimes marked by identity-prejudicial credibility deficit granted to local media professionals because of their affective proximity to the events they cover. This epistemic injustice mirrors other power vectors and the dominant journalistic professional ideology that values disinvolvement, distance, and detachment. In practice, the (local) media professionals’ affective proximity to their contexts is often appreciated as embodied knowledge beneficial to the nuance, accuracy, and ethics of journalistic practices and outcomes.

International Design Organizations: Histories, Legacies, Values

The book, International Design Organizations: Histories, Legacies and Values, is a well-crafted edition of the papers of the conference of the same name held in Brighton in 2017. To my knowledge, this was probably the first academic meeting specifically organized for bringing international scholars who studied the formation and evolution of international design organizations and networks from the viewpoint of the global history of design. Therefore, the publication is unique in being the very first collection of scholarly essays examining the histories of international and national design organizations and networks from a global perspective. In design circles, international design organizations such as the World Design Organization (WDO—previously ICSID) and the International Council of Design (Ico-D—previously Icograda) have long been discussed just in terms of practical benefits of their membership or the perceived impact of their events such as the World Design Capital of WDO, yet these organizations have been rarely the subject of a systematic scholarly debate with historical and critical perspectives. The design discourse has always been heavily preoccupied with objects, images, products, brands, and, of course, individual designers rather than the nature of professional interactions, the formation of networks, social structures, organizations, and power relations in design. A critical analysis of that deeply rooted tendency is beyond the aim and scope of this short review, yet that resistance to comprehending design as a social practice with several layers of power relations has certainly become part of the professional ideology of design. Nevertheless, both the conference in 2017 and the book are signs of the emerging academic interest at the international level in understanding ‘design as a globally organized social practice’ with both historical and critical perspectives.

Иностранный язык специальности в становлении профессиональной идентичности юристов-международников

The aim of the study is to substantiate that the formation of the professional identity of international students (future lawyers) as an educational and bringing-up process that forms a system of professional competencies, values and priorities of specialists united by one professional ideology can be successfully carried out as part of teaching a foreign language for special purposes at university. The article discusses the methods and means of forming the professional identity of international lawyers in the course of studying a foreign language for special purposes. The scientific novelty lies in the development of the notion of “a student’s professional identity formation in the context of studying at university” and the definition of the components that make up the professional identity of international lawyers. As a result of the study, the most effective methods and means have been identified that contribute to the development of professional identity among international lawyers in the course of studying a foreign language for special purposes.

David Foster Wallace, Both Professional and Not

ABSTRACT Professionals—athletes, journalists, and accountants—feature prominently in the work of David Foster Wallace, remarkable for their single-minded focus on a specialised task. While Wallace finds much to admire in the ideology of professionalism, he is deeply ambivalent about the professional status of the writer and the professionalising effects of academic creative writing. Wallace’s essays, his short fiction, and his novel The Pale King often present the professional and the fiction writer as foils. While Wallace invests professionals with remarkable powers, making them seemingly immune to the self-consciousness and self-doubt that plague the writer, the costs of professionalism are ultimately too high, as Wallace refuses the tempting and totalising power of professional ideology in favour of an unprofessional ideal of authorship.

Technical assistance and support for social housing: from the discourse to constructing the professional practice

In this article, we propose a dialogue between the concepts of Technical Assistance and Support for Social Housing (ATHIS), starting from a common point: the professional activity of architects and urban planners. We discuss the history of actions taken in this area, together with the recent discussions and activities that have been undertaken after the approval of Law 11,888/2008, mainly by the entities that represent these professional groups. It is our belief that this dialogue may foster the construction of a new professional ideology and an agenda that defines more clearly what could constitute the field of action for professionals dedicated to ATHIS. Since the enactment of the above-mentioned law, while there has been an effervescence of debates among architects and urban planners regarding the subject, a strong consensus has never been reached on how to structure the technical and political format of actions. While the disputes continue, the lack of clarity has enabled the appearance of controversial proposals and discussions that do not contribute to introducing structural changes regarding the way of supporting or even producing social housing.

Understanding the B-Metro’s production of child abuse reportage: A hierarchy of influences perspective

Drawing on the hierarchy of influences perspective as analytical lens, this article examines the macro-, meso- and micro-level dynamics that attend the B-Metro’s mediation of child abuse in Zimbabwe. In-depth interviews with B-Metro staff revealed that journalists’ identities, professional ideologies, political meddling, resourcing challenges and a gendered newsroom culture shape the news discourse. Additionally, strategic considerations about the credibility of the news report and the economics of news gathering have led to an overreliance on court sources. Consequently, the reportage is dominated by a legal narrative that eschews meaningful interrogation of the structural conditions that engender child abuse. Findings also reveal that journalists denounce patriarchal violence but espouse its normative ideologies. Ambivalence characterizes journalists’ convictions and actions as they are torn between commercial and public interest imperatives, compassion fatigue and the ethic of care.