JOURNALISTIC TEXT AND ITS FUNCTIONS

The journalistic text should be understood as a complex and diverse systemic sign education. A journalistic text is a generic concept, suggesting internal division, a classification based on a change in the species trait (taxonomic division). In the course of the classification, specific categories are established, and first of all, those in the formation of which the main “languages” of the media are involved - font text (written signs or symbols) and iconic (iconic signs). Of course, other, less significant in semantic terms, elements such as decorations, rulers, etc., are involved in the process of creating the text. Such a large amplitude of possible variants of textual material in a printed publication allows us to achieve a particularly high level of reflection on all aspects of life. This is the uniqueness of the journalistic text as a universal and most effective means of communication.

At the same time, the journalistic text, due to its versatility, is rather difficult to consider as a single object. Its many practical manifestations are hardly mutually correlated, do not have a common substantive basis - for example, the iconic text of a printed publication and an unwritten version of the text (almost any audio channel). This problem worries many media researchers. Of particular interest is the opinion of a prominent specialist in semiotics, cultural studies and philosopher William Eco. He draws attention to the fact that the problems of mass communications "demanded the semiological substantiation of their principles" (Eco, following F. de Saussure, prefers not to talk about semiotics, but about semiology).

Eco refers to the mass media of cinema, the press, television, radio, rotaprint weeklies, comics, advertising, various types of propaganda, light music, and mass literature. Of course, one can apply the methods of a single discipline to them - psychology, sociology, pedagogy, stylistics, etc. An in-depth study of individual aspects and specific technologies of the activities of various means of communication is quite acceptable. But the scientist also speaks reasonably about the need to identify the “common ground”, because at a certain stage of the development of society “the different things that exist in the nature and impact of such communication methods as newspaper, cinema, television or comics, fade into the background compared to that they have in common. "

This is of very great both theoretical and practical importance, since it allows a more meaningful look at the processes taking place in specific mass media, summarizes the experience, identifies more efficient methods of working with journalistic text. Eco, speaking for extremely precise categories in the communicative fields, draws attention to the ambiguity of the term “means” in expressions like “artistic means”, “means of mass communication” or, in his opinion, in successful phrases (for example, “means is a message "). The researcher expresses the hope that such a “mythological” concept as “means” will be interpreted over time as a channel, signal, message form, code, etc. And finally, Eco, proposing to precisely define the method for analyzing mass communications, comes to a fundamentally important conclusion: “When studying mass communications, when dissimilar material comes together, it is possible and necessary, relying on interdisciplinary communication, to resort to a variety of methods, from psychology to sociology and stylistics, but consistently and holistically it is possible to study these phenomena only when the theory and analysis of mass communications constitutes one of the sections — and the most important — of general semiology ”[7].

We will try to clarify this basic position. Eco talks about the fact that the system of mass communication must necessarily be analyzed analytically in terms of its sign expression, that is, its text-forming factor should be investigated. This really makes it possible to discover the common basis of such diverse phenomena as the channels of communication. Such a basis can be considered the active sign aspect of these means, with all the differences in the text models depending on the type of communication medium. For example, texts that dominate on the pages of newspaper and magazine periodicals — written texts — are formed from written signs. The exception is made only by those few specialized editions in which illustrative materials occupy the most part of the area. Therefore, the text of a work for print media almost always implies its traditional written version.

A journalistic text in any manifestation possesses multi-quality characteristic features, and in this respect it can be properly assessed. So, you can determine how high the level of performance of the material, and what criteria are suitable for this. The German periodical press researcher G. Rager, noting the great methodological complexity of determining the qualitative parameters of a journalistic text, suggested that the following should be considered as basic: objectivity, form of presentation, relevance, relevance (that is, the correspondence between information requests of the audience and the message it received) [8] .

Thus, the direct dependence of the assessment of the quality level of the journalistic text on how the most important social principle is implemented in it - the ability to present an undistorted picture of events. This is the main aspect of the social functioning of the journalistic text, in which the primary role is played by the purely informative merits of the media. If for the mechanical recording of the material and its visual presentation (a set of newspaper articles, layout) there are enough symbolic written signs, then the transfer of and perception of the essence of publications requires signs of the next level, which are more complex. In a broad sense, these are “signs of social fact”, “given” by the semantic possibilities of the text and the possibilities of the audience. “Signs coming from journalistic texts, the audience perceives not“ one to one ”, but in their own understanding. Since the audience is always heterogeneous, to the extent that it is not one, but several insights that are born. When signs from journalistic texts begin to systematically not coincide with the actual experience of the audience, a particular media outlet ceases to enjoy the confidence of those for whom it operates ”[9]. The presence of "signs of social fact" is almost always characteristic of the journalistic text.

The ideological aspect of the journalistic text is organically linked with the social meaning. Regardless of the extent to which socio-economic structure the journalistic work is recreated, it will always be very strictly ideologically oriented. This is dictated by the unchangeable existence of a certain dispers (from the French. Discours - speech) corresponding to a particular society and time. The word “discourse” is understood here in two ways: as a text that serves as “the designation of the semantic environment of a comprehensive culture in which a civilized person lives, constantly communicating with other people and creating an endless global text together with them” [10], and as a text that “ being ... a purposeful social action, not only is created in the process of social activity, reflecting it, but also creates, produces social reality ”[11]. Any, essentially, journalistic material acts as part of this discourse. A journalistic work is in one way or another always integrated with the most important segment of the general discourse - political discourse , which bears in itself an ideological content.

This is quite a natural state of affairs - the text of a journalistic work exists independently and at the same time is dialectically connected with other spheres of spiritual life. Therefore, it is legitimate to single out in the mass media system the ideological aspect of text formation, semiotic (sign systems, written speech, image, selection rules for language and non-linguistic means), as well as technological (selection of information, efficiency, adequacy, qualitative diversity, replication, delivery, etc. .). The ideological aspect includes the orderly composition of textual sources, a set of topics on which mass information is expressed, the forecast and the organization of the audience, depending on the mass media program and its sources: newspapers, editorial boards of broadcasting and television [12]. From a certain ideological point of view, the content of the textual material of the mass media reflects the state of affairs in the world.

Any journalistic text, that is, the material is sufficiently adapted to publication in the relevant media, is characterized by a significant actualization of the above-noted features - communicative, social, ideological. In many texts, the level of actualization of these signs can reach a maximum - this is almost all newspaper and magazine texts on acute socio-political and economic topics. Their resonance in all areas of operation is very high. In some texts, the manifestation of these signs may be more or less muffled. For comparison, let us consider three excerpts from publications, united by the fact that these are newspaper texts written by real masters of the word and devoted to the problems of education, that is, possessing a certain thematic consonance.

Any "developed high school student" considers it necessary to study the Russian language.

What give these young men, who, speaking loudly, so eagerly seek this source of knowledge?

They devote half of the course in the most important way to learn where to put and where not to put a letter that is not pronounced at all.

The second half of the course is devoted to the study of "ancient monuments" and that period of literature that no one is interested in.

Everything that is alive, attractive and interesting in the "subject" is excluded.

Dead compositions, instead of developing, to accustom to think, will accustom to "non-thinking".

And as a result ...

Three-quarters of educated Russia is not in a position to write in Russian a little bit literary. Habit of pattern in the field of thought. And ask someone what the Russian language is.

- Boring subject!

But this is the language of the people, this is half of the “fatherland”, this is the “soul of the people”.

Let this template finish an essay on teaching Russian language.

V.M. Doroshevich. Russian language (1905)

Mr. Director accepted my documents (application to the Poltava gymnasium that the author’s daughter wants to pass the Latin exam. - and Tue. ), Revised them, did not say that it was “too late”, but quite correctly put up another barrier: ... "evidence of trustworthiness."

I admit, despite my venerable age and diverse experience, this requirement of the director of the gymnasium has a few ... stunned me. Let us, as a Russian citizen, I had to know that “reliability” in our country is something very important and necessary, like food, like water, like air, even more like a passport. Without “trustworthiness,” you are a person, essentially deprived of all the rights of the state. We suppose you graduated from the teachers' seminary and received the “right” to engage in teaching. But if the “administration” does not wish to recognize you as “trustworthy,” you have lost years of teaching in vain: you will not be a teacher. In the same way, you are barred from access to the state, zemstvo service, and sometimes (with a special energy of power) even to private. In a word, without the special gracious permission of the police, called the “testimony of trustworthiness,” sometimes there is only one way left for a person - to expropriators. Permission to this is not necessary, but on the other hand the very “kind of activity” is not for everyone ...

V.G. Korolenko. About Latin credibility (1908)

There are a lot of difficulties in the development of university science ... Multi-family, contraindicated by research institutes, is good here: students on every subject should receive knowledge first-hand. But there is also a great advantage of university science - a constant influx of young people. I visited many laboratories and departments, and almost everywhere I heard: "One graduate student appeared, a bright head." Or: “We will never miss this.” Or even: "There is one guy, I will bet on him." Valya, a promising graduate student, is currently conducting research with virologists (I will not give you the surname, sooner), and third-year student Valera is already spinning next to him, the third scientific year-old student performs the first scientific tasks, she does not have any interruptions for a long time. I asked Borisov what he needed to create a new department (luminescent methods). He enumerated: the premises are needed - it seems to have already been found, the devices are needed - are already available. He said: - I would find two good young physicists. Young. Good Two.

A.A. Agranovsky. Indispensable (1972)

There is no doubt that a sufficiently high level of solving the communicative tasks that confronted the authors of these three texts. Thanks to the skillful and accurate professional presentation of the material, the successful use of compositional and language means, these publications fulfill one of the conditions of the communicative act - the exchange of meaningful messages. Literally well-developed texts, clearly constructed and possessing undoubted architectural values, the texts are easily perceived by the reader, conveyed to him the author's thoughts and feelings.

In addition to the communicative task, tasks of a social nature are solved in one way or another - thematically significant, raising works to a level of broad generalization. Texts written at different times and different life situations, are devoted to problems of different scale. If the publication of Doroshevich relates to the cultural and educational side of public life, even if it is of exceptional importance, it nevertheless, in our opinion, does not reach that tension, does not reflect the level of social despair, indignation and protest, as can be seen in Korolenko’s publication. It is, we emphasize, absolutely not about the degree of journalistic mastery, not about who the authors managed to more literally put their ideas into practice, but about the presence of qualitatively different social factors in the text, which may be characteristic of one or another work. In Korolenko, the social factor is designated more strictly, beyond the bounds of a journalistic narration - the broken destinies of "unreliable" people.

Without any doubt, Agranovsky's material is also socially oriented. But the social factor in it is relatively relaxed, does not reach such intensity and drama, which is inherent primarily in the work of Korolenko. In this case, Agranovsky deliberately chooses the theme of a not too loud public sound and, accordingly, uses a calm, unobtrusive model of plot construction, although he narrates, of course, about socially important aspects of life.

As we see, in journalistic texts, executed even within a single thematic direction, social factors can manifest themselves in different ways - phenomenologically actively influencing components. They ultimately determine the quality level of the social function that is necessarily inherent in any journalistic text.

The social aspect of the work appears in conjunction with the ideological aspect. However, these are different concepts, as evidenced by the analysis of the above examples. The ideological aspect, reflecting the cognitive-semantic side of the text, is specifically manifested in its concept - “the linguistic embodiment of the concept” [13], a peculiar semantic core. In the texts we are considering, the concept is expressed in various ways: in the work of Doroshevich, it comes down to full of sincere regret, though not without a civil pathos and edification of the affliction with teaching the Russian language. In the work of Korolenko, the idea of ​​a sharp opposition to the arbitrariness of those in power comes to the fore, and as a result, this text becomes an especially active influence on political discourse. Agranovsky’s concept is formulated in an emphatically calm tone and is clearly not colored by overexpression, does not belong to the category of risky, explosive journalistic experiments - it boils down to the problem of the development of university science, asserts the need for continuity.

Thus, it can be said that in the process of creating a journalistic text, its corresponding conceptually-specific basis is formed, which is characterized by integrity and completeness in the ideological-cognitive relation, and it is formed with the maximum possible consideration of the influence of external factors.This conceptual basis exists in the form of certain - similar or completely different - to ideologists, materialized in the text due to symbolic complexes. That is why V.N. Voloshinov could rightfully notice: “The domain of ideology coincides with the domain of signs. Between them you can put an equal sign. Where the sign is, there is ideology. To everything ideological belongs a sign meaning ” [14] . The nature of the social “charge” of the work, its ability to influence social processes in some way or another depends on the nature of the conceptual framework, its level of influence on the reader’s consciousness.