RUSSIAN JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION Volume 4, Numbers 3/4 Summer/Fall 2011 THE DISCIPLINARY IDENTITY OF THE MEDIA RESEARCHER: A VIEW FROM ST. PETERSBURG FROM THE GUEST EDITOR 157 Sergey G. Korkonosenko Introductory Note ARTICLES 159 Sergey G. Korkonosenko Journalism in Russia as a National Cultural Value 177 Gennady V. Zhirkov Journalism and Journalism Theory in Russia: A Historical Overview from the 18th to the Early 20th Century 198 Victor A. Sidorov Theory of Journalism as an Open System 213 Boris Ya. Misonzhnikov Media Text in Socio-cultural Environment: The Anthropocentric Issue 229 Liliya R. Duskaeva Media Stylistics: The New Concept or New Phenomenon? 251 Dmitri P. Gavra and Alena S. Savitskaya Mass Media in Interstate Conflicts: Typological Model "Peace-conflict Journalism Multidimensional Approach" BOOK REVIEWS 266 Igor N. Blokhin reviews Sergey G. Korkonosenko’s Journalism Theory: Modeling and Applying 269 Yury V. Klyuyev reviews Marina A. Berezhnaya’s Social Sphere Issues in the Algorithms of TV Journalism 272 Nikolay N. Kolodiev reviews Igor N. Blokhin’s Journalism in the World of National Relations: Political Functioning and Professional Participation 274 Nikolay S. Labush reviews editorA.S. Puyu’s Contemporary Foreign Journalism: Glocalization in the Western Media Practice. 277 Sergey N. Uschipovsky reviews Gennady V. Zhirkov’s Leo Tolstoy and Censorship *** *** *** ARTICLES 280 Leonora A. Chernyakhovskaya The Structure of Text Contents 301 Olga Baysha and Andrew Calabrese The Construction of Fear: The New York Times Deliberation on the USA-Russia Nuclear Dialogue 322 Greg Simons Attempting to Re-brand the Branded: Russia's International Image in the 21st Century 351 Leonardo Custódio Participatory Media as an Alternative Approach to Civic Action in Russia BOOK REVIEWS 371 Vyacheslav Konovalov reviews Timofey Agarin’s A Cat's Lick: Democratisation and Minority Communities in the Post-Soviet Baltic 373 Anna Kushkova reviews Alison K. Smith’s Recipes for Russia: Food and Nationhood under the Tsars 376 Olga Gurova reviews Christine Ruane’s The Empire's New Clothes: A History of the Russian Fashion Industry, 1700-1917 379 Raymond Miller reviews Dina Khapaeva’s 7@T<"D: :4H,D"HJD" 4 042>\ [Nightmare: Literature & Life] 383 Ellen Knutson reviews editor Miranda Remnek’s The Space of the Book: Print Culture in the Russian Social Imagination 386 Katerina Tsetsura reviews A. Yu. Romanov, Mezhpokolencheskaya kommunikatsiya [Intergenerational Communication] 389 Anthony Flinn reviews Irene Masing-Delic’s Exotic Moscow Under Western Eyes: Essays on Culture, Civilization and Barbarism INTRODUCTORY NOTE SERGEY G. KORKONOSENKO13 T his time we offer a rather unusual section to the journal’s readers, connected by a general theme; ‘The disciplinary identity of the media researcher’. Certainly, some publications of the journal touched on this theme earlier, as well as the authors of other scholarly works, cf. the title of one of François Heinderyckx’s articles: ‘The Academic Identity Crisis of the European Communication Researcher’ (Heinderyckx 2007). Even if some will disagree with the diagnosis of this crisis, it is necessary to recognize, all the same, that the ground for detailed discussion exists. It is possible to conduct search for the identity of the media researcher at a level of relatively abstract reasoning, or in the form of a presentation of real research results on the media sphere and their generalization. In this case, we have chosen the second way. It is not better than the first one and does not cancel it. At the same time, there is sense in collecting different directions of thoughts in the field of media and, probably, in continuing this work further with the efforts of new researchers. The originality of this section of the present issue also consists in that it brings together a number of representatives of a scientific centre at the faculty of journalism of St. Petersburg State University. According to its structure and main tasks, the faculty acts as a working model of media field. It joins departments of various profiles, research interests, methods, etc. A disciplinary integration that is complex, mobile and has a contradictory unity is being formed as a result. St. Petersburg University is a highly developed centre for education and science, which, along with the Moscow State University, has received the official status of a leading university of Russia. It means that not only new rights and privileges have appeared, but also an obligation to be a leader in a corresponding field of activity. The faculties of journalism at these two leading universities, realizing their increased responsibility, have signed an agreement of cooperation. Sergey G. Korkonosenko is chair, Theory of Journalism Department, School of Journalism, St. Petersburg State University ([email protected]). Russian Journal of Communication, Vol. 4, Nos. 3/4 (Summer/Fall 2011) 157 Sergey G. Korkonosenko From the Guest Editor St. Petersburg faculty of journalism is a large organization including 7 chairs and many training and media centers and laboratories. It was founded in 1946 and is the oldest journalism school in Russia. Last year, the academic and journalistic communities celebrated the 65th anniversary of the school. Thus, this section of the present issue is sub- titled ‘A View from St. Petersburg’ and can be seen as dedication to this anniversary. It is possible to say the intellectual production presented in this section to some degree reflects a condition of theoretical thinking in the Russian faculties of journalism. Moreover, it reflects also the major aspects of the educational process. According to a strong domestic tradition, the journalist is not simply a distributor of the information, but also a spokesman of public feelings and a social thinker. REFERENCES Heinderyckx, Fr. (2007). The academic identity risis of the European communication researcher. In (Eds.), Nico Carpentier et al. Media Technologies and Democracy in an Enlarged Europe: the Intellectual Work of the 2007 European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School. Tartu: Tartu University Press. 158 Russian Journal of Communication, Vol. 4, Nos. 3/4 (Summer/Fall 2011) JOURNALISM IN RUSSIA AS A NATIONAL CULTURAL VALUE SERGEY G. KORKONOSENKO14 This article suggests a nontraditional approach to Russian journalism and posits treating it as a national cultural value. With this purpose, the author brings attention to the question of patriotic view on the Russian domestic press. The Russian journalism possesses a number of features which noticeably distinguish it from journalism in other countries simultaneously putting it on the par with such high values as national literature, arts, and science. This cultural-valuable approach extends to journalism education which also cannot be evaluated according to generally accepted universal criteria. Keywords: journalism, Russia, cultural value, education T he title of this article may get a wider interpretation in modern media theory, since one may put forth the question of the possibility of applying universal criteria in the analysis of every media system (including theoretical schools and education), regardless of the varied nationalities and cultures involved. Let’s listen to authoritative researcher Denis McQuail. According to him, “even when Europe was divided into East and West, parallel sets of media and civil institutions could be found, even if with differences of purpose and forms Sergey G. Korkonosenko is chair, Theory of Journalism Department, School of Journalism, St. Petersburg State University ([email protected]). Russian Journal of Communication, Vol. 4, Nos. 3/4 (Summer/Fall 2011) 159 Sergey G. Korkonosenko Journalism in Russia as a National Cultural Value of control. Summing up … there is little scope for the survival of national schools, except as a fringe matter, or a matter of style, or as a reflection of continuing cultural differences that follow the lines of older nation states and linguistic/cultural spheres of influence” (McQuail, 2009, p. 282). Nevertheless, the author mentions some candidates to be recognized as original national schools: France and the francophone area, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Scandinavian region, and the Mediterranean region, with Italy leading and Spain following (Ibid, p. 288). It’s not a surprising fact that we do not find Russia amongst the counties referred to. On the one hand, the European community of researchers are not well acquainted with the basis and traditions of Russian media, in fact, in most cases they know nothing due to the former iron curtain between the two civilizations and our own extremely low activity in popularizing national professional values. On the other hand, during the last few decades we did a lot to borrow and adopt Western standards in the communication sphere, but not always the best ones. Let’s read McQuail once more when he defines some factors, accounting for differences within and between national schools (briefly): intellectual roots and origins, not only in ‘communication science’, but often also in philosophy, political and social theory, literature, etc.; certain underlying social and cultural features, especially perhaps religion and ethnic diversity; national policy imperatives in a variety of fields of application; development and structure of academic/scientific institutions; the particular national media system and so on. (Ibid, pp. 286, 287) Every factor mentioned by McQuail looks like a precise characteristic of Russian history,