Media Criticism as a Form of Representation of the Value Orientations of Editorial Staff of a Pre-revolutionary Newspaper (Based on the Material of “Nizhegorodskiy Listok” of the Early 20th Century)

Abstract

The undertaken research is oriented at studying the media criticism of “Nizhegorodskiy Listok” of the early 20th century, especially presented in the author’s columns of the editor and leading publicists of the newspaper, with the aim to identify the editorial values. New empirical material is introduced into scientifi c circulation: media critical texts published in the author’s columns (“Random Notes” by A. Drobysh-Drobyshevsky, “Literature and Life” by V. Lvov-Rogachevsky, “Journal Notes” by V. Cheshikhin). The relevance of the proposed topic is due to the need to study the axiological vector of a provincial publication in pre-revolutionary Russia, which may be in demand for forming the news agenda and editorial policy of modern regional media. We use the historical-typological method, which is important for the typological characteristics of “Nizhegorodskiy Listok” and the identifi cation of its editorial policy, as well as methods of entire overview and textual analysis, which allow us to draw conclusions about the forms of representation of the value orientations of the studied newspaper. The author comes to the conclusion that the participation of famous writers and publicists (M. Gorky, V. Korolenko, V. Lvov-Rogachevsky, V. Cheshikhin, A. Drobysh-Drobyshevsky) in the newspaper “Nizhegorodskiy Listok” ensured the high level of texts published in it, including media criticism. The use of the author’s columns as a special form of media criticism gave the periodical an opportunity to convey its value orientations to the audience and to polemicize with Nizhny Novgorod press (the newspaper “Volgar”) as well as capital city periodicals. The analysis of the empirical material made it possible to establish that the main editorial values of “Nizhegorodskiy Listok” were: the protection of freedom of speech and the spreading of publicity, the fi ght for the reliability of the delivered information and responsibility for the formation of public opinion. The results of the research can be used in studying of the history of media criticism in pre-revolutionary Russia, as well as the editorial guidelines of other provincial periodicals, including the newspapers of Nizhny Novgorod.

Keywords

• history of russian journalism
• “nizhegorodskiy listok”
• media criticism
• editorial staff of a media
• axiology of journalism