Coverage of Terrorism by Russian Journalists and Video Bloggers: Original Strategies and Effects (Вased on the Documentaries about Beslan)

Abstract

This article is about two famous Russian video bloggers U. Dud’ and K. Sobchak. Their viewers prefer original content from the independent media to the officially registered media. Given the value conflict in Russian society and decrease in audience interest in traditional journalism, the study of the creative laboratory of video bloggers with journalistic education and/or experience in professional journalism, as well as the social effects of their alternative performances, becomes a pressing task. The study is based on the documentary “Beslan. Remember” and “Beslan. Day of Unknowledge”. These films were made for the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attack in Beslan. These movies are the first ones to blog coverage of terrorism. Before Dud’ and Sobchak, only people who specialize in terrorism could publish articles on that topic. While official media still stick to this assumption, video bloggers finally managed to overcome such prejudice. The analysis of the documentaries’ characteristics and their social effects has shown that Beslan cases helped video bloggers to establish a good position in the social space. The basis of this strategy is the value radicalization of mass consciousness, undermining confidence in the authorities and power agencies responsible for countering terrorism. The results of this study allow the authors to affirm that U. Dud’ has strengthened his reputation of an oppositionist by giving his audience a new interpretation of Beslan tragedy reasons. Meanwhile, K. Sobchak couldn’t manage to show herself as a competent journalist. She was not able to prove that she has got enough qualification to work with the topic of terrorism.

Keywords

• mass media
• terrorist attack
• journalistic ethics
• video bloggers in russia