Journalistic cultures in the context of the conflict of civilizations

Georgieva Elena Savova ORCID: 0000-0001-7082-1224 PhD in Politics Associate Professor, Department of International Journalism, St. Petersburg State University 199034, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Universitetskaya str., 7/9 e.georgieva@spbu.ru Blokhin Igor' Nikolaevich ORCID: 0000-0002-6582-3951 Doctor of Politics Professor, Department of Theory of Journalism and Mass Communications, St. Petersburg State University 199034, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Universitetskaya str., 7/9 i.blokhin@spbu.ru Oleinikov Sergei Viktorovich Doctor of Politics Professor, Department of Journalism, State Educational Institution “Transnistrian State University named after. T.G. Shevchenko" 107 October 25 str., Tiraspol, 3300, Moldova olen_serg@inbox.ru

Labush Nikolai Sergeevich Doctor of Politics Professor, Department of International Journalism, St. Petersburg State University 199034, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Universitetskaya str., 7/9 n.labush@spbu.ru

The world is changing rapidly, and when we talk about political, military, and economic conflicts, we mean something much more serious, namely the confrontation of entire cultures and civilizations. This rift is especially noticeable in the communication space, in which we see an active defense of the values of a particular civilization and views on life, the division into "friends" and "strangers" based on certain markers. Globalism has long been out of the question today, the world has become too diverse, and it continues to change. New political and cultural ties and new communication flows are being actively formed. Which in the context of history is, in general, a natural process, but at the moment of transformation, changes do not always occur predictably. In many ways, the impossibility of founding the idea of a universal culture of a journalist is connected not only with different values professed by civilizations, but also with different cultures of thinking and understanding of the same values ^[11]. The issue of transformation of public consciousness is becoming more relevant than ever and the media industry plays a leading role here.

Cultural conflict

Back in 1996, Samuel Hangtington ^[8] predicted that the economic rise of East Asian countries (primarily representatives of Confucianism) would lead to the world looking like a field of competition between civilizations. At first glance, it is obvious that we are talking about economic rivalry, but if we turn to history, religious and cultural factors, it should be recognized that the economy is still secondary and a certain path of economic development, as a rule, correlates with cultural transformations or value rifts that occur in a particular community at a certain historical period period.

An adherent of these views is A. A. Auzan, who in 2023 published the monograph "Cultural Codes of Economics" (based on his own course of lectures) ^[1]. He writes about the decisive role of the cultural factor in the positive economic development of countries. Moreover, he supports S. Hangtington's point of view that "advances in economic modernization are often associated with advances in religion," citing the example of the economic rise of South Korea, which coincided with the conversion of many Koreans to Catholicism [1. P. 35]. Thus, we see that in the 21st century, the competition of ideologies has been replaced by the competition of civilizations.

As noted earlier, in recent years, we have witnessed drastic changes in the political course of a number of countries, which are increasingly beginning to form military-political alliances based on common values and belonging to the same civilization. At the same time, we also observe a tendency to increase the distance between unions and groups of countries that belong to civilizations with different value systems. It is difficult to say how firmly these trends are integrated into real societies, basically we see the picture that media industries create. It is not known exactly what the real percentage of its compliance with reality is. Nevertheless, the ongoing processes lead to incessant transformations of political courses, economic policies, historical revisionism, deepening cultural differentiation and the formation of new standards of ethics, including in the field of journalism, as a result of which we observe certain shifts in the principles of journalistic activity. It seems that the approach of appealing to the universal culture of a journalist (Jan Ekerkranz) ^[2] in a post-industrial society can be considered unviable. The issue of principles, including ethical ones, of reporting facts and events within the framework of various value media systems and how the political context and corporate models influence the peculiarities of journalistic culture in various countries and regions becomes relevant.

Traditionally, it is difficult to describe unambiguously cultural phenomena, especially the concept of culture itself, which is quite multifaceted and has many approaches to its definition. In the context of sociology, various researchers tend to believe that culture is a language, beliefs, values and norms of behavior that create social connections and make possible the interpretation of life experience, customs, aesthetic tastes and preferences, knowledge and skills, technical processes (A. Radcliffe Brown, K. Jung, W. Becket, etc.). In this definition, almost all researchers emphasized the connection between values and the interpretation of life experience. This suggests that transformations of value systems can change the norms of behavior and life experience of people, both present and future. The most important actor in the formation and popularization of value attitudes is precisely the media industry, which is able to create motivations, norms of social order, being in a certain sense moderators of socially acceptable norms of behavior in specific communities.

Values as the basis of public consciousness

Pointing out the responsibility of the media industries for the transformation of public consciousness, it is impossible to simplify the understanding of this process. As a rule, it has a rather long perspective, is not always predictable and depends on a variety of variables that may arise and have an impact at different stages. We are beginning to see clearly that in the context of the conflict of civilizations, there is an increase in the importance of the role of the cultural factor in journalistic research and practice. What does it mean? Based on the fact that journalism is not only the coverage of facts, but also their direct or indirect interpretation, this means that the interpretation and understanding of facts depend on the values of a particular community. Thus, how certain events are covered depends on the value system within which the community makes sense of its own and other people's life experiences; a change in value attitudes can lead to radically different views on historical or modern events, which we observe today.

1. In this context, the dynamic cultural map of the Inglehart-Welzel world (option 2023, see Fig. 1) is of interest. (World Values Survey. URL: https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSContents.jsp?CMSID=Findings&CMSID=Findings

Figure 1. Inglehart-Welzel Cultural World Map, 2023. Source: World Values Survey.

The objects of the above map are civilizations based on religions. The axes correspond to values: secular-rational vertically and survival/self-expression values horizontally. Secular-rational values include personal freedom, commitment to a secular state, and preference for the personal over the public. The countries that give preference to this group of values are located at the top of the map. The values of self-expression and development include commitment to civil society, equality, and taking risks for success. The countries that have these characteristics, according to the study, are located on the right side of the map. The main purpose of this visual project is to establish a correlation between the values of society and its (economic) success. We see that democratic economically developed countries are located in the upper right corner. This study also allows us to establish the relationship between values and the historical past of a particular people.

As noted by R. Inglehart, in his article "Postmodernity: Changing Values and Changing Societies" (1996), "The World Values Survey project explores the hypothesis that belief systems at the mass level are changing in such a way that the nature of these changes has significant economic, political and social consequences. We do not take the position of either economic or cultural determinism: our observations and conclusions boil down to the fact that the relationship between values, economics and politics is mutual, and what exactly is the nature of dependencies in specific cases is an empirical question, and not one of the categories to be solved a priori" ^[3].

Alexander Auzan gives a rather interesting example of how value orientations can change the paradigm of economic development. In the USSR, there was a fairly stable attitude that labor is "a blessing, and its fruits are sacred" ^{[1, p.43]}. The emerging cult of labor played an important role in achieving the high economic results of the Soviet Union. Also of great importance was the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), which not only translated worship into national languages, but also changed the social doctrine of the Catholic Church towards a loyal attitude to work (close to Protestant ethics), as a result of which a Catholic economic miracle happened 25 years later [1. pp. 42-43]. Again, the key to economic (and not only) success is determined not least by the attitude towards modernization, individualism, and competition. Another researcher, Paul Kennedy ("The Ups and Downs of the Great Powers", 1987) ^[4], argues that the European economic miracle in the Middle Ages was made possible primarily due to a positive attitude to competition, which led to the active modernization and technologization of the military industry. The Moscow state, the Chinese and the Ottoman Empires, although technologically and culturally more developed at that time, nevertheless could not demonstrate a comparable economic breakthrough and become the "center of the world" due to their internal conservatism and isolation. However, it is likely that they did not set themselves such a task.

The correlation between values and economics can also be traced in the context of a materialistic value system, "not only tolerant of economic accumulation, but also encouraging it as something laudable and heroic, which, in turn, marked a key cultural change that opened the way to the development of capitalism and industrialization. Weber brilliantly examined this process in his 1904 book Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism, but his work is a study of a particular case of a more general phenomenon. Currently, the functional equivalent of Protestant ethics is being implemented most vigorously in East Asia and is gradually disappearing in Protestant Europe, as technological development and cultural changes have become global phenomena" ^[3].

And, nevertheless, in order to change value attitudes, a more powerful motivation is needed, which would affect the basic needs of the individual. R. Inglehart attributes a sense of security/insecurity to such motivation. As he notes, "the difference between a sense of security and insecurity in terms of survival is so significant that the corresponding change has led to an extensive syndrome of interrelated changes in the direction from the values of "survival", which characterized agrarian and early industrial society, to the values of "well-being" characteristic of advanced industrial society <...> These contrasting value systems Branching out, they cover politics, economics, religion, sexual and family norms" (see Table 1) [3.p.12]. The influence of these values on mass communications in the context of current political processes is of interest.

Table 1. Characteristics of value systems in the perception of the prospect of survival as non-guaranteed and guaranteed. Source: Inglehart R. Postmodernity: Changing Values and Changing Societies.

Journalistic cultures in the context of the conflict of civilizations

Journalistic culture covers a wide field of activity, including the choice of methods for collecting information and creating media products, understanding the role of media communication in the political and socio-cultural space, the ability to broadcast this role to society and thereby influence the perception and interpretation of the proposed media product, based on the values of society. Thus, the professional culture of a journalist can be assessed both at the level of implementation of certain principles of professional activity and compliance with professional standards, and at the level of perception of the product of journalistic activity. At the same time, the researchers emphasize that culture and ideology are not identical concepts from the point of view of journalistic professionalism, however, ideology can significantly influence all the components that form the concept of journalistic culture.

There are many scientific papers devoted to the study of journalistic cultures, most of them are based on a comparative approach. These include the work "Mapping journalistic cultures of different nations: a comparative study of 18 countries", in which a team of authors presents the results of a comparative study of ethical views, perceptions of their institutional role and epistemological orientations of 1800 journalists from 18 countries ^[12]. The choice of countries covers six continents, a democratic and authoritarian context, developed and developing countries.

We have identified the main categories of research (components of journalistic culture) [13. pp. 275-277]:

1) Perception of the institutional roles of journalism (normative and factual category). In this category, the authors identify three dimensions of the perception of institutional roles. The first dimension, interventionism, describes the extent to which journalists carry out certain missions and promote certain values. The second dimension is related to the definition of distance in relation to powerful elites. The third dimension determines the degree of market orientation, which characterizes the appeal of journalists to the audience as citizens and consumers, thereby realizing public interests (according to the authors, this is typical for developed journalistic cultures);

2) Epistemological perceptions of journalists – determine the accessibility of reality and the nature of acceptable evidence in a media product. The authors divide this category into two components. The first, objectivism, answers the questions of how objective a reflection of reality can be in principle (most journalists can be called subjective in the sense that they define news as a selective representation of the world that requires interpretation). The second component, empiricism, is related to the means by which the journalist confirms the facts. As poles, the researchers identify journalistic cultures in which empirical justification is given priority and cultures in which analytical justification dominates;

3) Ethical views (in some cases ideologies) – demonstrate the nature of journalists' reactions to ethical dilemmas. The authors propose to understand by ethical ideologies relativism (denotes the degree to which an individual accepts or rejects universal moral principles) and idealism (denotes the degree to which an individual expects idealistic results), developed by D.R. Forsyth ^[14]. The authors argue that ethical views/ideologies, as well as the social functions of journalism, largely depend on the cultural context. Thus, journalists from different countries adhere to different ethical views and professional values, which does not mean that one or another culture is more developed or successful [11. pp.118-119].

In the process of researching Russian and foreign approaches to defining the professional culture of a journalist, K. Nigmatullina, as well as other researchers, comes to the conclusion that the category of journalistic professionalism is one of the most controversial, since it is based on values, standards and ethical views ^[6].

Journalistic culture today largely correlates with the idea of self-determination of the country. As S. Kortunov notes, "the self-determination of a country should reflect, if not consensus, then a fairly broad national agreement (it should be above the political struggle and interests of individual parties) on a number of key issues related to the optimal model of socio-economic, socio-political and cultural-historical development of the country for the long term and, as it were, synthesizedthe political preferences of the people and the elite in relation to the state system, the economic system and the nature of relations with the outside world. It should be a kind of philosophy of the Common Cause and at the same time a technology of necessary and sufficient compromise, under which such an agreement is only possible" ^[5]. The ability to agree and reach consensus is also based on the common values of government and society, if the values coincide, it is possible to build a strategic long-term course, if there is a crisis of self-determination and a value system, then values must be redefined and a sufficient amount of motivation must be created for their integration into society. This motivation is created by mass media or the media industry. They contribute to the popularization of value orientations and socially encouraged norms of behavior, thereby creating the information and communication flow necessary for this.

This practice can be characterized as the creation of cultural patterns acceptable in the present and future for a particular society. There are other points of view. H. M. Encesberger ^[10] concluded that cultural industries cannot embrace or explain the transformation of public consciousness taking place in the 20th century, since it is not culture at all, but consciousness that is produced. The ultimate goal of this process, according to the researcher, is to strengthen the already established power relations, and the nature of these power relations is not of fundamental importance. Instagram Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Telegram, as a rule, corporations that ensure the functioning of a popular platform (Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Telegram) become the basis of this system of formation of public consciousness.

As we have already noted above, cultural industries establish new rules and norms of social life, new ways of responding to certain events or stimuli, a new attitude towards them and, in general, a new (different) ethics. Forming and setting invisible boundaries for modern society, they also set the framework for an individual or, in the words of A. Ya. Flier, produce a "cultured person" whose consciousness is distinguished by "this kind of priority in value settings, which significantly determines the tasks of socialization and inculturation" ^[7]. Thus, the creation of value orientations in the interests of the government is able to unite society and give it a new integrative impulse of development in a given direction. At the same time, media industries, which, although aimed at finding individual solutions for narrow groups of potential audience, still offer ready-made interpretations of value orientations that are offered to the audience as axioms. A side effect of this practice has been double standards in the media, an almost uncontrolled culture of cancellation, and the flourishing of low-quality, so-called civilian (unprofessional) journalism based on online social platforms. Returning to the issue of the conflict of cultures and cultural industries, we can recall the thesis expressed quite a long time ago by T. Adorno that the cultural industry, as a whole, is a triumph of form over content ^[9].

Of course, in describing the current realities, one can also note the positive effects of the spread of social media and networks as a platform for communication. The idea is that the audience, among other things, can act as a creator or producer of informational and cultural content, which, as a result of a certain communication, will be corrected, interpreted, comprehended, and it can be accepted or discarded. Such a process theoretically increases the possibility of reflection, promotes the development of critical thinking and responsibility for one's choice. Such a path is possible, but it will also obey the rules of functioning of the media industries due to the fact that the platforms used are part of a particular media industry, which determine the main value and communication flows in a specific period of time.

Values as the basis of communication

Today it will be especially relevant to note that culture is not just a language, values, customs, history, etc. Culture is institutions, i.e. rules and mechanisms for maintaining all of the above [1. C. 22]. We are talking about rules and socially acceptable norms of behavior in a particular social paradigm, and these rules are based on the values inherent in a particular civilization. The question arises how stable civilizations are, which can cause an expansion or, conversely, a reduction of civilization. Speaking about the future, S. Hangtington ^[8] noted that it is the civilizational identity that will play a crucial role in shaping the future worldview, and conflicts in the circumstances of interaction between civilizations and deepening differences between them are inevitable. Western and Orthodox (according to Hangtington) civilizations are losing some stability, political regimes, ideologies and values are changing, differences are getting worse, and we see the emergence of new structures (the concept of the "Russian World" is a vivid example of the statement of a new civilizational structure).

Civilizational shifts require enormous motivation and changes in value systems, which are actively discussed at the level of politicians, opinion leaders and broadcast to society by media industries. The cultural products created by the media industries are quite convincing, there is no need to argue about their mass character. The communication process is built on the basis of values dominant for a particular civilization, ideas penetrate not only into the mass media, but also into commonly used cultural products, educational systems, becoming part of society and predetermining the thinking, opinion, behavior of the whole society. It also turns values into a powerful economic resource. Competition for influence and resources brings to life a new form of civilizational globalism, because the more widespread values are and the more successfully they are integrated into society, the more stable and competitive civilization is.

In conclusion, it can be summed up that in recent years, social networks have been increasingly influential, which completely change society and the way people think. Trends and communication flows are now created mainly in social networks, communication is most effective if it actively unfolds in the online media space. By entertaining, social networks involve the audience in the communication process and offer them the opportunity for cultural and political socialization. Among the negative effects, one can note the isolation of communication flows – all of them, one way or another, develop within the framework of the main semantic dominants. The paradox of illusory choice arises, since a direct correlation is revealed between the development of the media industry (including the possibilities of artificial intelligence) and the possibility of conscious choice. And this undoubtedly calls for a review of the roles of journalism and the principles of professional ethics.

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