The journalistic standards and place of the author in the text were discussed at the Ostroh Academy

June 06, 2018

On the journalist's day (June 6th) at the National University of Ostroh Academy, lecturers of the journalism department and students discussed the realities of the modern media environment, the role of information journalism standards, the activity of media monitorings, the possibility of finding the truth and place of the author in the media text. The initiator of the seminar-discussion was the lecturer of the Department of Journalism Victoriia Nazaruk. Students of the specialty "Cultural Studies" and lecturers have joined the discussion, in particular, Oleksii Kostiuchenko, PhD in Psychological Sciences, correspondent of the newspaper "Day" at the Ostroh Academy, and Dean of the Humanities Faculty, PhD in Philosophical Sciences, film and book critic Maksym Karpovets.

The conversation began with a detailed analysis of the standards of informational journalism, as a kind of alphabet of journalist's work. Students in their responses appealed to theoretical works on journalism studies, made comments of journalist-practitioner, turned to the Institute of Mass Information for monitorings, shared their own reading experience and perceived the texts of those media, which determine as authoritative.

We offer to familiarize with separate theses voiced by participants.

Maksym Karpovets: «Journalism is not only about one side of the barricades. This is about how these events are perceived by the reader. If the journalist does not write for the reader, then probably this journalist is not already a fully professional. Yes, you can write critical articles, but they also provide the feedbacks from the reader.»

Viktoriia Nazaruk: «The journalist should focus first and foremost on the audience. But in modern life, the journalist is also a representative of the audience, who may be subjected to external influences, manipulations.»

Oleksii Kostiuchenko: «The media often has a dilemma: either the journalist form an audience or the audience form a certain journalist's competence? From my experience I can say that this is a complementary process. The journalist always needs to take into account the feedback of the audience and endeavor at self-improvement.»

Maksym Karpovets (about citation and obligatory indication of the primary source): «It seems to me that news should not turn into scientific articles with a list of literature. There is some degree of trust. Probably, journalists are not obliged to constantly give references, as if convincing that something stands behind this source.»

Oleksii Kostiuchenko: «There are cases when in pursuit of promptness false information is disseminated by channels, and then it is used by other media.»

Oleksii Kostiuchenko about the media in Russia: «When we analyze the media environment, we must take into account the country in which it functions. Then the question arises: can we call as journalistic activity what so-called "journalists" do in Russia? If you ask the leading experts in the media world, they will definitely say that it is propaganda activities. Those Russian journalists do not adhere to any standards.»

Student of the U-31 group, participant of the discussion Illia Tsykaliuk : « Quite often, certain authors or editions try to submit the material from themselves, and based on their own experience give their assessment of the events, tell what is right, and what is wrong. They decide for the recipient what he needs to know and what is not. Often, they do not even realize that they take away the right to think for himself, to decide what is true and what is not on his own, to know reliable and impartial information. In order to prevent such "messianic" intentions, journalistic standards standed in the defense of consumer rights must be respected. The fulfillment of these standards promotes the formation of a democratic and intelligent society. “With not only propaganda..., as it said.”»

Viktoriia Nazaruk (about adherence to journalistic standards in Ukraine): «Unfortunately, in today's Ukrainian realities, there are no mass media that would work 100% on compliance with all standards of information journalism. But we should understand that the standards are a certain ideal journalism category that it is desirable to adhere to in order to minimize or maximally neutralize manipulations, to ensure the unambiguousness of the message, and generally to speak about the truth of such a message.»

Viktoriia Nazaruk: «Nothing can be taken unambiguously. We live in such a time and society when we have to doubt everything. To all that we hear, we must ask the question: Why did this information appear? Where else can I check it out? It is also important to understand that the appearance of a particular message in the media is often due to the interest of the owner of this media. It is interesting to observe now, for example, the work of such a resource as the English edition of the Kyiv Post, when an owner was changed. Therefore, there are some fears that this will greatly affect editorial policy. Odessa multimillionaire of Syrian origin Adnan Kivan bought from billionaire Mohammed Zakhura. According to a publication on the Hromadske, communication with pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas and attitude on the civil war in Syria has been imputed to Adnan Kivan. Despite the new owner assurances, the question arises whether Kyiv Post will continue to remain independent, as the publishing office is known for this. And this is just one small example.»