On Culture In Deutschewelle: Axiology Of The Eternal In Media

Abstract

The article analyzes the problems of digitalization of information in the modern media process and the consequences that it entails. Publications about culture in Deutsche Welle (German-language and Russian-language editions) are considered as research material. The activities of the editorial offices are interconnected, but at the same time they are distinguished by a certain independence. The originality of the presentation of texts about culture in digital format on the websites of editorial offices is being studied: verbal, visual aspects. A comparative analysis of the quantitative and genre composition of publications on culture in the German and Russian editions is carried out. The ratio of cultural publications reflecting cultural events on the German and Russian versions of the DW website. The collection of statistical information of two versions of the site is carried out on the subject of the number of publications devoted to literature, music, cinema, theater, museums and exhibitions, as well as the features of the content presented. The axiological dominants are determined: creativity, inspiration, virtuosity, tradition, innovation, etc; their reflection in the evaluativeness of the language of texts. The status of the assessment category, its functioning in the language, various ways of its expression are revealed. The assessment category is analyzed from a cultural perspective. Comparison of German-language and Russian-language media texts and their evaluative value is carried out in terms of negativity and positivity.

Keywords: Аxiological dominants, culture, digitalization, media text

Introduction

Digitalization of information significantly affects modern communication processes. Mediatization is a process that is associated with “the active development of information technology and the constantly and ubiquitous growing media consumption” (Gureeva & Kuznetsova, 2021, p. 193). The modern consumer of information experiences difficulties in processing consumed information "due to the overload of the value-semantic level" (Muzychuk & Anokhov, 2020, p. 220). However, it is important to take into account national and individual factors in the activities of modern media. In German journalism, for users, the quality criteria of journalism such as relevance, diversity and impartiality are at the forefront (Ignatova, 2017).

In the modern global world, not only economic and military might, but also "soft power", which is an important factor of international influence, plays an important role. According to Lan'shina (2014), in Germany, especially after its unification, “non-violent methods and voluntary participation, especially with the use of cultural influence, became one of the country's main instruments and priorities in foreign policy” (p. 29). Thus, culture is an important factor of “soft power”. DW provides significant support and promotion of the German language and culture, as well as intercultural communication.

Information, articles and programs about culture, economics, politics and various events in Germany are presented on the DW website in 30 languages, including Russian, which is spoken by a significant part of the population of the former CIS countries. The website of the media company has materials for self-study of the German language. DW Academy supports journalists, and also has partners in all countries of presence... (Lanshina, 2014, p.43)

DW is a great example of both convergence and digitalization. Today, this media is a fusion of radio station, television and an Internet news site, where each channel organically complements the other (Kruse, 2019).

The Russian-language online editorial office began its work in 2001 and today positions itself as an independent source. The trademark of the Russian edition of DW is not just coverage of events in these countries, but also their assessment from the point of view of the German and European expert community. If one considers the Russian-language version of the DW site, the publications on the Russian site are devoted to the culture and lifestyle of Germans and Europeans. This section sanctifies literature, music, cinema, theater, art, fashion, as well as traditions, habits, peculiarities of everyday life of Germans and the inhabitants of Germany in general. Information about culture on the DW website is represented in a variety of ways, from text format lectures, interviews, collections of interesting facts, ending with audio-video recordings.

The German-language DW website differs significantly from the Russian version, since the level of the national culture of media consumption is determined by various systems of spiritual values (Gayazov et al., 2018). If one looks at the German-language site, then the section of culture is subdivided into thematic sections: books, films, music, art, life and digitalization, lifestyle, travel. And as a separate component of the BTHVN2020 project, which will last until September 2021 in honor of the composer's 250th anniversary, this section presents events and cultural events: concerts, opera performances, literary readings, symposia.

On the Russian-language site, the culture sector is not subdivided into separate topics, but has a general name: "Culture and Lifestyle". In the texts about culture in Russian, which are presented in DW, both events in Germany and in Russia are illustrated. Basically, they include information about popular tourist and resort regions of Germany, or joint work of countries in the field of cinema, literature, music.

Problem Statement

Modern researchers note that

... before our very eyes, there is a fundamental turn from the civilization of the word to the civilization of numbers. Values and meanings are massively replaced by mathematics, which is “defined as the "science of quantities". The quantity is the result of measurement; <…> The number reflects only the external quantitative difference between two or more objects. The content of these objects does not matter in this case. (Muzychuk & Anokhov, 2020, p. 221)

This process has an impact on modern media, but

in the context of intellectualization and digitalization, journalism has more opportunities to bridge significant gaps between the media picture of the world in consciousness and the optimization of the system of goal-setting and goal-fulfillment of participants in current social practice on its basis, to a large extent ensuring the relevance and novelty of the subjects civilization process. (Smirnova et al., 2020, p.602)

The word as a form of meaning transfer is important in such a field as culture. Traditionally, texts about culture occupy an important place in the content of most modern media, including digital ones. Culture, a complex of values of material and spiritual properties, formed in the course of socio-historical progress, is an ambivalent phenomenon from the point of view of national identity. On the one hand, it has undoubted national features, on the other, it is culture that promotes interethnic dialogue, since the aggregate of value dominants forms a certain type of culture, preserved by the language (Schlein & Chan, 2012). The values of culture are correlated with universal values and correlate with the archetype of "eternity". The study of texts about the culture of the two editions of DW allows one to reveal both the commonality of the problems and value aspects of publications, and the differences arising as a result of the communication of journalists with the German-speaking or Russian-speaking audience, which implies the need to take into account the peculiarities of the perception of texts by readers: “before transferring information to external sources (objective information), it is filtered and processed according to the chief's targets, taking into account the influence of the external environment” (Kuznetsova, 2020, p. 20).

Research Questions

1. How similar are the publications about culture in the German-language and Russian-language editions of DW and what is their difference?

2. What are the axiological aspects of publications on culture in two editions?

3. What is the role of evaluativeness in texts?

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to analyze the texts about the culture of the German-language and Russian-language editions of DW from the point of view of the representation of values. The values correlate with the national characteristics of the target audience, and also reveal the forms of reflection of national identity in the evaluative texts.

Research Methods

The purpose of the study is to analyze the texts about the culture of the German-language and Russian-language editions of DW from the point of view of the representation of values. The values correlate with the national characteristics of the target audience, and also reveal the forms of reflection of national identity in the evaluative texts.

Findings

Modern research shows that “50% to 60% of journalists would like to prioritize the educational role of the media, broaden their horizons, raise the level of culture of the audience, and promote the development of cultural and historical traditions, which certainly helps to increase the level of intellectualization of the people” (Smirnova et al., 2020, p.604)

This explains the fact that cultural publications are in demand (Rybak, 2018; Skripcova, 2017). DW is an information resource whose task is to maintain intercultural dialogue and exercise international influence on the principle of "soft power". The theme of culture is covered in DW in different ways: depending on the editorial policy of the German-language resource and the Russian-language one. We collected statistical information from two versions of the site regarding the number of publications devoted to literature, music, cinema, theater, museums and exhibitions. To identify the features of the submitted content, we analyzed the materials from December 1, 2020 to May 1, 2021. In total, 4971 publications of a German-language site and 4925 of a Russian-language site were published on the site during the period under study.

As can be seen from the percentage of the Russian-language website DW (see Fig. 1), the largest number of publications is devoted to cinema (32.81%), followed by music (26.79%), in third place is the category of museums and exhibitions (15.33%), in fourth place – theater (13.24%) and literature (12.9%) completes this list.

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The statistics of the German-language website (see Fig. 2) showed the following: the first place is occupied by the museums and exhibitions section (60.71%), the second is music (28.57%), the third is cinema (19.69%), the fourth is literature (19.05%) and the last, fifth place is given to theater (11.54%).

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It should be noted that most of the news covers the cultural life of Russia or Germany, the cultural life of other countries is covered much less often, and mostly such materials appear when the described event is of global importance. Speaking of cultural news on these sites, then cultural news in the Russian-language version of the site is allocated only 10.64%, in the German-language version – 2.14%. The number of published materials refers to the content, to one degree or another, reflecting the culture of Germany, slightly less are the messages about the cultural life of Russia.

According to the researchers' observation, in the journalistic style, to which media texts belong, evaluativeness is presented as a specific stylistic feature, since the assessment of the subject of speech is one of the principles of text creation (Chong, 2019). An analysis of evaluativeness in texts from the field of culture and art in the German-language and Russian-language versions of the site shows us that there is an absolute predominance of a positive evaluation in both Russian and German-language articles. Russian-language media texts are distinguished to a greater extent by the aesthetic category of assessments, which cannot be said about the German-language, in which, first of all, sensory-gustatory and psychological evaluations are affected. A group of sublimated assessments, namely aesthetic ones, are mostly reflected in Russian-language media texts, which form an aesthetic attitude to culture in its various spheres. The expression of assessment in Russian-language and German-language publications is carried out mainly at the text, syntactic levels, which gives the statements great emotionality and expressiveness. Based on the means of expressing the assessment, it is also necessary to emphasize the predominance of the level of background knowledge. The level of evaluation is reduced to the cultural background and to the level of background knowledge, in both the German and Russian versions of DW.

Conclusion

In the context of global digitalization of information, it is important “to include the emotional, intellectual and value-semantic resources of all people aimed at harmonizing social relations. There must be a filter that prevents the spread of destructive values and meanings” (Muzychuk & Anokhov, 2020, p. 226). Culture is a universal sphere of activity in which universal human values are reflected. “Assessments built into the description and reasoning with its argumentation are intended to influence the addressee, to form or change his opinion” (Trubcheninova, 2015, p. 326), therefore, the evaluativeness of media texts is an important factor influencing public opinion. Texts about culture in the Russian and German versions of DW differ in thematic preferences, but they are brought together by the predominance of positive evaluativeness in the texts, which indicates the closeness of the axiological constants of both editions and their audiences.

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