MEDIA

JOURNALISTS ABOUT JOURNALISM

Dr. Igor Yakovenko

From June 15th till June 18th during the All-Russian media festival "All Russia - 2004 ", The "Public Expertise" Institute has conducted the poll among almost 2,000 participants of the Festival - journalists from the whole Russia.

The journalists from 54 regions of Russia participated in the poll. Among them 40% were the representatives of the state media, 31% - of privately owned media, 25% - municipal media, 4% - the staff of the RUJ (Russian Union of Journalists) regional branches and officials.

Age structure of respondents:

18 - 24 years old - 11, 2%
25 - 35 - 24%
36 - 50 - 34, 4%
51 - 60 - 25, 6%
older than 60 years - 3, 2%

57, 5% of the poll participants were women, 42, 5% were men. The majority of respondents (73, 3 %) were the representatives of the printed media. The electronic media representatives were the minority: 14, 4% are working on the TV, 8, 4% on radio.

The salary of each 4th respondent was less than 5 000 RR (Russian ruble), 37, 2% of the respondents receive less than 10 000 RR, 15, 1% - up to 15 000 RR, 8, 8% - up to 20 000 RR. 4, 6% of the respondents receive the salary in amount over than 20 000 RR, 3, 9% - over than 30 000 RR.

RESUME:

1. Opinions of journalists concerning a freedom of speech in Russia were divided approximately fifty-fifty: half of the respondents consider that there is a freedom of speech in Russia; half thinks that there is a lack of speech freedom. Journalists estimate the condition of a freedom of speech in Russia in general higher, than in their regions. Concerning the freedom of speech in region there is a small overweight of negative estimations (53 % of negative estimations and 45 % of positive), and concerning the freedom of speech in Russia there are more positive estimations (51, 6 % of positive estimations and 47,4 % of negative).

2. Journalists from private owned media are more optimistic estimating the level of the speech freedom in Russia and their own region. The journalists from the municipal media are the most pessimistic:

The most pessimistic estimation of the condition of a freedom of speech in Russia was among journalists younger than 25 years old and older than 60 years. The most optimists are those from 25 to 35 years old.

3. Journalists working on radio were more optimistic estimating the level of the speech freedom in Russia, comparing with their colleagues from TV and printed press:

4. Among all forms of censorship, the most typical one for Russian journalists is the self-censorship:

5. The journalists from private owned media feel themselves most free. Journalists from municipal media feel the least free.

Young journalists are those who in the greatest degree collide with censorship from the editor and the media founder:

6. Estimating the activity of the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ), the respondents were most critical on its work on solving the social problems of journalists: the average estimation was 2, 36 on five-point system.

The most positive estimation was on the RUJ activity on carrying out the creative competitions: the average mark was 3, 92 on five-point system.

On "three with plus" and "three with minus" (on five-point system) the journalists have estimated work of the RUJ on the professional retraining of personnel (3, 16) and the legal protection of journalists (an average estimation was 2, 83).

The majority of poll participants have named the legal support as a priority direction of the RUJ work (57,5 %), half of the poll participants (50,5 %) have named the professional perfection, 41 % - the solving of social problems, 32, 3 % - care on creative growth.

The majority of poll has estimated the condition of the Russian journalism avoiding extreme estimations: the average value of estimations of journalism condition at the federal level was 3, 27 on a five-point scale, the estimation of journalism at the regional level was 2, 93, i.e. the journalists estimate federal media on a professional level higher, than regional. (We have to remind that 91, 2 % of poll participants were not Muscovites).

The young journalists estimate the condition of journalism at the all-Russian level (an average estimation was 3, 5 points) more positively, and journalists older than 60 years had the average estimation of 2, 8 points. The condition of regional journalism by both young and experienced journalists was estimated equally low.

8. Half of the Russian journalists had no idols in profession neither in the past, nor in the present. The most authoritative journalists for the colleagues are Mr. Parfyonov (13,7 %), Mr. Pozner (13,0 %), Mr. Peskov (9,8 %), Ms. Petrovskaya (3,16 %), Mr. Shuster (2,81 %), Mr. Minkin and Ms. Sorokina (2,46 % each).

9. The journalists estimate the economic conditions of media on a "three with minus" (on five-point system):

Also, journalists from private owned media in the average give twice more often positive estimations to the economic situation of media, than journalists from the state and municipal media.

10. The majority of journalists have not found out the trade-union organization in their media. Those who have appeared to be ready to estimate their trade unions had twice more negative estimations, than positive ones.