Professional Values of Future Journalists
The paper deals with professional values of journalism students. The grounds for research are the transformation of values in journalists’ professional activity that occurs under conditions of society mediatization and development of new information and communication technologies. The consequences of this transformation include problems like publication of non-validated / non-authentic information, distortion of facts, imposing a false agenda. Media experts are engaged in active debates on preserving the journalists’ professional ethics. In this regard, a need emerges to study professional and value orientations of students – future journalists who are beginning to get acquainted with this profession at a higher education institution. The object of our research was students from Journalism Faculty of the Ural Federal University and the University for Humanities. The research included an online survey of students (n = 202), as well as two interviews with Faculty Heads for profound understanding of the situation in the contemporary journalism education. The findings evidence that fact checking, accuracy and integrity are among the top professional values of journalism students. A journalist, in students’ view, is an innovator capable of creating unique content; their purpose is disclosing the truth and helping people. We can therefore conclude that students respond to value demands of the media environment and at the same time they are oriented at reproducing the traditional principles of journalism ethics, despite media experts’ doubts of preserving professional values in contemporary journalism.