Resources of a Science Called “Medialogy”
The article analyzes one of the acute issues of modern social communication and information circulating in it, associated with the appearance of symptoms of functional regression in Russian journalism, which passed in the 1990s from one chronotope - the media regime (the existence of the press under conditions of dependence on the government, ideological monopoly, political censorship) into another chronotope - the media market (the existence of the press under conditions of autonomy from the government, ideological pluralism, absence of censorship). Despite the improvement in social conditions for journalistic activity, “market” press allows for a significant decrease in the level of semantics and style of newspaper text (TV programs, radio programs, Internet blogs) in comparison with “regime” press. Monitoring of domestic journalism shows that the qualitative reverse of the mass information product in the post-reform period is explained by the obvious lag between the theory and practice in today's arsenal of journalism, which is often perceived as a profession at the level of a craft, though having a creative nature. However, not a single social institution, including the press, can progress if it dwells on the empirical resource of development and ignores the theoretical resource. There is no highly productive practice without quality theory, and in this sense, theory is the guide of practice. On the agenda is the question of a comprehensive increase in the level of scientific knowledge in the structural and functional space of journalism as an important component of the external and internal factors of its subsequent development. On the one hand, knowledge of the theory renews the horizons of creative searches of a journalist from within, which contributes to the transformation of a good artisan into a classy professional. On the other hand, the presence of a theory makes it possible to examine all the components of journalistic activity from the outside, which helps to constantly improve it. Taking these circumstances into account, it is required to bring all the scientific baggage of the press - past, present, future - into a personal science of journalism called “medialogy”.