Political science/ 5. Political sociology

D.S. Aronova, O.G. Kungurova PhD

Kostanay State University, Republic of Kazakhstan

Modern understanding of the phenomenon of social journalism

It often happens that journalists work on a theme not knowing the definition of the term “social problems”.

According to I. Yasaveev [1] the term “social problem” appeared in west European society at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Originally, it was used for defining one concrete problem – the problem of unequal distribution of wealth.

According to the Oxford dictionary [2] social problems are questions and situations which influence a person in direct or indirect way. A lot of people see them as quite serious problems that require collective efforts to solve them. The list of social problems depends on time and society and the discourse of perception of them is constantly changing [3].

Changes that took place in Post-Soviet states touched many spheres of life. The word “social” gained much weight. It became one of the main moments in the sphere of modern public discourse. The whole row of problems being discussed while making an important state decision got a prefix “socially important”. Education, problems of socially disadvantaged groups of people, crime, health care are the key spheres of social life that make the most part of mass media content.

Print mass media as well as online ones try to find reasons and consequences of socially important events. They analyze situations using a variety of genres that exist in journalism: reports, articles, investigative journalism, interview, comments etc.

While working on a special theme journalists often go beyond the limits of their functional responsibilities. Therefore, their most important task is not only objective and up-to-date informing the society about what is happening around. Journalists act as catalysts of the greatest changes in the social sphere.

While working on some information that is closely connected to a specific problem, a journalist may be involved in its solving as getting the information suggests a close contact with this problem. Functional specifics of such themes imply involvement into concrete social life of people and their activity which is happening at the same time as the informational flow and without its influence. For example, social-political regional newspaper “Kostanay News” that is published in Kazakhstan lighted the problem of high percentage of child disability and told about some concrete cases. At the same time it showed public initiative and founded a charity project “Life on a palm”. Its purpose is fund-raising for children who are seriously ill. This case is a bright illustration how journalists’ work on a social problem went beyond the limits of their functional responsibilities and became social activity.

Some journalists that represent “old school” are skeptical about this tendency. They have an opinion that a journalist has to do what is expected of them first of all. However, in modern world the social sphere and journalism are tightly connected. It might be a sign of an informational open society.

“Social journalism” proved itself not only as a thematic area but also as a special professional ideology that appeared at the intersection of journalism and concrete social activity. It played an important role in enhancing positive public potential. Social journalism that appeared because of practical work started to declare the necessity of journalists’ participation in solving problems that are connected to the search of positive activity in social reality. Herewith it was openly pronounced about uselessness of pessimistic position.

On the current stage of development social journalism is getting more and more actual and therefore is becoming practically the priority in the basis of functioning of the whole segment of universal and specialized mass media. The practical aspect of a social journalist’s creative laboratory is researched in detail nowadays. At the same time the theoretical side of social journalism is still on the stage of design.

First of all such a situation turns out by presence of a variety of definitions of a whole row of terms. Secondly, the specific conceptual apparatus describing the principles of functioning of social journalism is missing. Particularly the question of understanding of social journalism as a separate area of mass media activity is still controversial.

There are two approaches to the definition of the term “social journalism”: general and specific. In the general approach social journalism is not positioned as a separate branch as the whole journalism is admitted as social because its aim is to describe different sides of life in the society. Such approach to understanding of the core of social journalism is the heritage of the Soviet system of mass media. According to it printed press, radio and television lighted only social questions. Any other theme to write about, to film or speak in public was considered either not professional or it was declared a challenge to the state regimen.

Replacing of political, economic and social formats in 1990s lead to the full transformation of the structure of mass media and appearing of prerequisites for social journalism formation in particular. In the specific approach social journalism exists as a separate system which has different branches. Unlike the system of European mass media where social journalism as a subsystem is functioning for more than half a century, Kazakhstani social journalism is still at the beginning stage of development. It causes the presence of different author’s definitions of the term “social journalism”.

Firstly we can find the term “social journalism” in works of E. Prokhorov who sees it as analytical link in the relationship of social groups. Though a lot of modern researches such as political scientists, sociologists, psychologists, journalists come to the conclusion that social journalism as a branch in Post-Soviet states was formed as a result of sharp deterioration of social sphere and social problems actualization in the informational agenda (such as sharp social stratification of the population, destroying of social infrastructure, exacerbation of international relationship, criminal situation, devaluation of values etc.)

Reference:

1. I. Yasaveev “Social problem” in sociological vocabulary // Social reality. The journal of social observations and reports. – 2006. - №6.

2. Oxford dictionary in psychology. – M., 2002

3. O. Boyko. Representation of social problems in the Russian press in 1990s // Sociological investigations, 2002, №8.