Education Sphere As A Source Of Political Subject In Modern Information Field
Abstract
Decrease of the role of mass media as a social institution peculiar to modern media sphere is determined by a set of reasons. The most obvious reason is the impact of Internet technologies that destroyed the media monopoly on the production and distribution of currently important and socially significant content. The essential part of the subject matter of publications is concentrated in line with socio-economic and socio-political processes (providing the family with the necessary prosperity, the level of ecological well-being etc.). A reader, a spectator, a radio listener can use exchange rate forecast (the sphere of economy and finance), undertake the most profitable and the least risky steps. Whereas information about politics broadcast by modern media is difficult to apply for a citizen to protect the interests. As a result, politics is perceived by a significant part of the audience as the space of a stage action, a reality show and nothing more. Qualitative precedents of political analytics and journalism are preserved in the information field. However, it is difficult to convert the results of the most convincing analysis stated in media into the constructive, socially significant action protecting the interests of the particular citizen. The question of expediency of similar information perception is logical. The convincing answer consists in increase of requirements to quality and functionality of texts on politics subjects. “The journalist's involvement in complex network of social relations” as one of the axiological components of journalism is considered, in particular, by V. F. Oleshko.
Keywords: Media educationpolicypoliticsjournalism
Introduction
In our opinion, the purpose of the modern analytical journalistic text is not only to reveal the cause-and-effect relations of the problem. It is important to show in detail the ways to solve it, to achieve positive social changes, including the use of political levers. At first glance, it is referred to a revival of traditions of the Soviet press. During the Soviet times political structures and state-owned enterprises were obliged to respond to critical publications to their address, to speak publicly about the taken measures. At the same time, representatives of journalistic collective quite often estimated the quality of these measures informing the readers about it. This parallel with our times is only partly relevant.
In modern conditions mass media is effective not as the mouthpiece of political party or any other administrative structure, not as the subject of “the fourth estate” (there are no sociopolitical conditions for it), but in the role of the moderator on developing algorithms for solving actual problems for people, first of all, social ones. The effective solution of a social problem is quite often accompanied by actions of political nature. At the same time, we consider policy as a sequence of steps on forming a system of mutual relations between society subjects on the basis of balance of interests.
The conditions of educational subject-matter multifunctionality
The thematic space of creation of functional (embodying in action) texts is the sphere of education. It is promoted by a number of conditions:
1.The expansion of thematic fields within each of the spheres of activity reflected by media areas: social, socio-political, socio-economic, socio-cultural, etc., and, as a result, blurring the boundaries between these fields.
2.The constant attention of a wide audience to publications on the topic of education caused by a large number of people and social structures with different interests and life strategies involved in this sphere. There is a need for a harmonizing correlation of these interests including through media resources.
3.The tendency of growth of social (and socio-political) activity in the media areas, creators and users of the content are representatives of different generations. At the same time, their considerable part is the young people involved in education in virtue of their age.
4.Activation of discussions about the prospects of development of youth in modern society, its social, moral, psychological well-being holding in mass media content.
5.Activation of discussions about the role of the state in youth development, which can be can be divided into the following key sub-themes: a) search of optimal forms of dialogue between the authorities and the youth environment; b) increasing the efficiency of education as the main guide of the state youth policy and environment promoting effective youth socialization.
The potential of thematic correlation between education, policy and politics subject-matter in the media space can be realized in various forms. For example, in the form of headings the texts are aimed not only at opening problems of the educational industry, but also at solving them, in this case mass media acts in the role of external moderator. In our opinion, internal moderation by means of corporate (school, university) media is not less significant. The participation of the youth editorial board in vital problem solving of the education sphere both within and outside the educational institution promotes: 1) increasing the level of socialization of young people as influential subjects of social and political process; 2) updating of perception of all humanities and socio-political disciplines in the learning process as a condition of the effectiveness of journalistic activity; 3) creation of effective models of involvement of various society subjects in the solution of relevant tasks.
The latest developments in the education system are result of 1) purposeful state policy; 2) expenses of state system; 3) social troubles developed under the influence of the state; 4) public request for changes in the state; 5) direct actions of opposition forces and reaction of the state.
Functional aspects of the interaction of political and educational subject-matter in the media text
Starting with the rallies of March 26, 2017, the actions of adolescents and young people are considered by the media as a significant indicator of social and political processes. However, if there were formerly attempts to comprehend the fact of activity growth, now a motive for evaluating its effectiveness is observed.
The main condition for the transformation of educational (youth) subject-matter in the political one is the positioning of the socio-political climate as the cause of incidents in the youth and educational environment. For example, the interpretation of school teachers' use of physical force against pupils and adolescent aggression as a consequence of propaganda forms and methods used by the state. This condition implies consideration of a significant episode from the sphere of education in a broader socio-political context. At the same time, the context can reflect both the basic principles of state policy and the situational interests of political subjects.
One of the basic principles of the emotional impact of thematic synthesis of politics, policy, and education on the audience is an emphasis on the substantial similarity of the concepts “youth” and “children”. Child’s image in consciousness of adults media text focused on is traditionally associated with the categories of the beauty and the defenseless. When the context of a publicist’s statement is formed up on the basis of the first of categories the emotional author message to the addressee is connected with feelings of hope. Concentration of a context around an image of defenselessness appeals to moral outrage concerning the collisions of the events stated by the publicist.
The characteristics of the beautiful and the defenseless are corroborated by an antithesis in Dmitry Bykov's statement about criminal prosecution of young figurants of “New greatness” case. The beautiful is correlated with the category of the light, fair future and is opposed to the gloomy present. In the interpretation of the publicist, the defenseless contrasts with inhuman actions of the law enforcement state system.
The beautiful and the defenseless combined in one image and contrasted with the grotesque of the inhuman obtains the greatest strength of the emotional impact. In D. Bykov's comment the figurant of the criminal case appears as a girl who models plasticine ponies (associations – the early childhood, the warmth, the goodness). The heroine “went to some innocent, completely permitted rallies” (emphasis on indifference and innocence). The text fragment with such characteristics directly borders on the author's interpretation of the actions of state representatives: “Let's torture. And we will torment [ ... ] If necessary, we’ll kick, if necessary, we’ll string up publicly in the square. And you will do nothing […] All this is done only in order to inspire: there are no rules. There are no reasons, substantiations, methods. There is a concrete, bare desire to show that we can do everything.”
The grotesque increases in the quoted fragment. Emotionally rich, but the abstract verbs “to torture” and “to torment” are replaced by specificity, emphasizing the absurdity of the events. The specificity, in its turn, gives place to a conceptual generalization, stating the absence of rules. In fact, the author points at the triumph of chaos as evil expression. Thus, the beautiful (harmonious) and the defenseless is opposed to evil and chaotic. Due to such opposition the substantial problematics of the text is transferred from rather narrow social plane to the space of the fight of good and evil familiar to each person according to fairy tales since the earliest childhood. The local social and political subject becomes universal, understandable to many people. As a result, it can cause a response from a large number of people.
The grotesque emphasizes absolute concentration of the evil. The absoluteness of goodness in girl’s image is supported by the author's quoting of colleagues from “Novaya Gazeta”, “even the prison weeps for her”. In this case, the emotion causing intersection of two oppositely directed affects (Vygotsky, 2000) is achieved by the conflict of the norm and deviation from the norm. Norm is a cruel prison. Deviation from the norm – the prison is able to sympathize. The result of the conflict is confirmation of the victory of good. The similar conflict approves an evil celebration on the other pole of opposition. Norm – law enforcer provides order and justice. Deviation from the norm – the actions of representatives of the state system contribute to chaos and inhumanity.
Thus, the emotional saturation of the text is achieved by the contrast of the categories of good and evil, as well as by the aesthetic conflict that asserts all of them. However, it is not the only source of emotional impact. The strongest emotion of a publicistic statement is caused by its two components. First, the statement that the inaction of a man, if necessary to resist evil, makes him an accomplice of evil. Second, by the projection of the history under discussion onto one’s children: “When a child is being tortured right in front of your eyes. How can you relate to it? To hug tight one's own child and to forbid him/her to go out? So they will find him at home.” Conclusion, transmitted by the author: inaction in opposition to evil will hurt your child.
The considered fragment is a typical example of how the educational subject-matter of self-determination and self-realization of a young person (in this case represented in the image of a conscientious and not indifferent schoolgirl) first migrates to the socio-political and then to the existential semantic space.
The youth as the personification of the future appears in Dmitry Bykov's publicism as a hope source. The attention to similar interpretation is caused by the particularity of the author's position: the value-oriented generation is the result of integral era in its cynicism. It’s a parallel with the Stalinist period of history, integral in its own inhumanity, but generated prominent individuals.
D. Bykov points out the sense-making role of education throughout human life. Besides, it’s a space of unification of different people in the name of building the future, and quite often of the destruction of illusions (in the conception of Stanislav Rostotsky's film “We’ll live till Monday” the publicist sees the crash of Soviet idealism). Furthermore it is also a concentration of different models of human person development and models of interpersonal relationships correlated differently with state policy (mention of the Soviet authorities encouraged hooligans, and bullying of single excellent pupils; the comparison of the illusive participants cohesion of school bullying with the illusion of the solidarity of the political regime loyalists).
The educational environment is the closed space playing a positive role as more progressive alternative to education in an archaic family. But in a situation of bullying and other ill-being it should be open to alternative creative practical trainings of the child.
Moreover, the school is the space for the productive application of creative efforts by adult enthusiasts who cannot find a place in other professional niches of a sick society. It’s a sphere of realization of vital interests of the teacher as well. At the same time the teacher becomes the object of influence of unsolved social problems and pressure of bureaucratic requirements.
The problematical character of correlation of teacher’s professional and creative intentions with the particularities of the socio-bureaucratic environment is reflected in media. For example, in the program “Parent’s meeting” (radio host Alexey Kuznetsov) August 18, 2018, speakers say that tutoring requiring additional time and efforts from a teacher is the only opportunity to try out new professional techniques, because it is practically impossible to do it in an overcrowded class. Thus, the teacher acts as a subject realizing his/her policy in the field of education, embodies his/her own action plan for improvement of professional practices.
In reflecting this situation, the speakers also emphasize the paradoxical nature of what is happening: the teacher’s overwork in the school space, dedication lead to the loss of value of the results of his work, reducing these results to a level called hackwork. As the result, the prestige of the teacher's profession is lost. These are the consequences of education system management – one of the substantive aspects of social and political issues in the media. The political focus of this problem is emphasized by the fact that teaching is often perceived as a support formed in the state model of mutual relations between the government and society. Different representatives of society accuse teachers of bias of electoral procedures, of aspiration in every possible way to support the acting government generating disputable administrative techniques including in the educational sphere.
The educational environment appears in the media as a reduced model of society constantly subject to changes and therefore unbalanced. The problems connected with search of a new role of the mentor are reflected. In different contexts the teacher acts as an employee of services sector, as the associate of pupils, as an example to follow, etc.
Problem Statement
The functionality of journalism in the capacity of the compiler of relevant information for the audience needs adjustment. Correspondingly, it obliges the journalist-analyst not only to build communication with expert community, to interpret received information. It is important for the author of the text to be able to create algorithms for solving problems, to participate in organizing actions to solve them. In our opinion, it is the first step to strengthening of functionality of journalistic texts on political subjects which is substantially lost at the moment.
Research Questions
Can the field of education be considered as: 1) the subject of political actions for protection of the interests within the state system; 2) the object of influence of the state system; 3) space of actions (pupils, teachers, parents) which are by their nature similar to political ones.
Purpose of the Study
To determine the potential of educational subject-matter of media texts as: 1) the object of consideration of political journalism; 2) the source of public activity.
Research Methods
The research is based on the empirical scientific method. It is presented by the analysis of media texts; its purpose is to identify the features of the synthesis of political and educational subject-matter, in its functional, formal and substantial aspects.
The empirical study base was composed 11 of the episodes of the broadcast “Odin”, radio station “Echo of Moscow”, with participation of the writer, publicist and teacher Dmitry Bykov during the period from August 3, 2018 to February 22, 2019, as well as the issues 7 of the program “Parent’s meeting”, radio station “Echo of Moscow”, aired from August 12, 2018 to February 17, 2019.
The substantial features of modern journalism are considered in Bondarenko’s (2010), Kasyanova’s (2015a, 2015b) and Tertychnyy's (2018) works.
The practice of correlation of youth and political issues is considered by a number of modern researchers. The questions of the youth influence on political processes, as well as the attitude of young people to social life and active participation are analyzed in Sidorov and Bryantseva's (2015) and Zakharova's (2015) works. Culturological aspects of youth policy are mentioned by Chirun (2016). Characteristic of activity of youth representatives in political life is given in Kozhinova and Fedyaeva's (2017) articles. The problematic field of participation of young people in Russian politics was outlined by Pribytkov (2017). The key focuses of the state influence on the relevant segments of the labor market for young people are considered in Voloshin’s (2015) article. Social aspects of political interaction of the state and young people are analyzed by Shimanovskaya and Kozlovskaya (2016). Theoretical and methodological understanding of youth policy is presented in Alekseev and Shumilov's (2016) work. The remonstrative potential of young people sentiments was studied in Tsyunik’s (2015) article.
Findings
The image of youth in thematic correlation field of politics, policy, and education is embodied in several roles.
First, the youth is the victim of: а) manipulation of political forces both opposition and clans of the elite seeking to use youth protest for their own benefit (for example, according to the journalist Maksim Shevchenko, youth rallies of 2017 were perceived by a part of elite as a resource for weakening of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s positions); b) heavy-handed actions of uniformed services who broke up a rally; c) public state system depriving young people of development opportunities.
Second, the youth is the party of the generational conflict: a) with country leaders as representatives of “old men” (characteristic of one of the experts); b) with elderly school teachers and university professors; c) with traditions of the past approved by the state and expressed including in the precedents of culture.
Third, the youth is the energy carrier of the movement, an embodiment of changes which is characterized: a) by superficial awareness of the motivation of this request; b) by specific goals blurring; с) by the desire to achieve changes quickly.
Fourth, the youth is mouthpiece of request for traditional values: a) social justice; b) truth and absence of hypocrisy.
Fifth, the youth is the personification of new paradigm of social development.
Sixth, the youth is a source of actions testing the strength of the generally accepted standards of behavior or the life position of a person.
Seventh, the youth is a potential source of radical, revolutionary changes and related real and mythical risks.
Eighth, the youth is a catalyst of the generations’ unity protesting against the actions of the state (protest movements “Mothers’ march” and others).
Ninth, children as a metaphor of the future shown in literary works. In Dmitry Bykov's interpretation the dead child is the personification of the stillborn future peculiar to the post-revolutionary situation of the first half of the 20th century. The missing child is a symbol of the lost future relevant to the current sociocultural situation.
Conclusion
Intersection factors of politics, education, and policy topics in the sociocultural, sociopolitical, and media sphere are systematized; the principles of thematic synthesis in the content space and submission form of the media text are described. Besides, functions of thematic synthesis of politics, education, and policy are revealed; possibilities of use of integrative potential of political and educational subject-matter of media texts for youth socialization are investigated.
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07 August 2019
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Cite this article as:
Safonov, A., Safonova, S., & Arkhipova*, I. (2019). Education Sphere As A Source Of Political Subject In Modern Information Field. In Z. Marina Viktorovna (Ed.), Journalistic Text in a New Technological Environment: Achievements and Problems, vol 66. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 533-540). Future Academy. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.08.02.62