The role of journalists in forming the public events discourse

Abstract

The research is devoted to determination of the role of journalists in public events discourse in Ukraine and their dependence on political, economic, and ideological frames. We show the challenging nature of public becoming an active participant in the communication process and influencing the interpretation of events in the media of public for professional journalists. Here we claim that due to ignoring the facts and their senses, focusing on finding the news only, avoiding new communication technologies journalists become dependent on the mainstream. Specific examples of public events in the article show that there is a gap between the reality of mass media and social reality. Here the roles that journalists play in the discourse of public events are defined, such as the passive role of the transmitter of information and the active role of the interpreter, the interlocutor and the leader of opinions. The journalist’s active role depends on the ability to engage in dialogue with the public and to create an interpretation of the facts of social reality in the context of the concept of international standards of journalistic ethics, which requires the possession of specific instruments for the analysis of cultural, scientific and artistic objects for humanities. Analyzing the interaction of journalists and organizers of public cultural events, we express the view that it is necessary to revise old approaches to the selection of news and interpretations of facts, to prevent development of journalism based on stereotypical representations of media as an instrument of advertisement or propaganda.