Values of journalists in Russia: following historical evolution and modern empirical data

Abstract

This article investigates professional values shaped in the Russian journalistic community. The main attention in this regard is paid to the historical development of these values and their transformation nowadays, in the years of modern political transformation of Russia. The comparative analysis of different historical periods in the history of Russia helps to highlight how journalistic values changed. In order to be provable, the authors envisage the results of their empirical survey, conducted in two Russian cities: St. Petersburg and Ekaterinburg. The former relates to metropolitan cities, whereas the latter can be attributed to provincial cities, and this defines the difference in journalistic values. The survey was carried out within the international research project ‘Media Systems in Flux: The Challenge of the BRICS countries” supported by the Academy of Finland for 2012-2016. The authors discuss the outlines of journalism as a social actor and independent profession given the context of modern media transformation and new information trends which became noticeable following the appearance of online and digital journalisms emerging as one of the most pivotal tendencies (Deuze, 2003; Deuze, Blank, Speers, 2010). These processes are especially intensive in big cities, an audience of which, to the very much extent, relies on new social media as trustworthy sources of political, economic and cultural information.