Humanitarian Resistance in Russian Higher School during the

Pandemic: The Case of Journalism Education

Sergey G. Korkonosenko

and Marina A. Berezhnaia

Department of the Theory of Journalism and Mass Communications, Saint Petersburg State University,

7/9, Universitetskaya naberezhnaya, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation

Department of the TV & Radio Journalism, Saint Petersburg State University,

7/9, Universitetskaya naberezhnaya, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation

Keywords: University, Humanitarian Resistance, Technocracy, Commercialization, Journalistic Education.

Abstract: The article examines a relatively new phenomenon of humanitarian resistance, which is becoming widespread

in higher education. It represents an intellectual and practical pedagogical reaction to the expansion of

technocracy, digitalization and commercialization at universities. These trends have intensified in the context

of the pandemic. The case of journalistic education in Russia has been selected for the actual study. The main

material for observations was obtained through expert interviews with leading teachers of a number of

universities; to verify the conclusions, the authors use theoretical works and discussions in the pedagogical

community. As a result of the analysis, it turns out that teachers mostly vote for the spiritual and cultural

values of education and consider it essentially important to conduct active interpersonal communication

within traditional forms of classes. In this regard, their position coincides with the mood of the students’

parents, as sociological surveys revealed.

1 INTRODUCTION

Currently, the practice of educational institutions is

experiencing the modifying effect of several factors

that interact and mutually reinforce each other. In

particular, this relates to the COVID-19 pandemic

and the explosive development of digital information

technologies. Obeying the dictates of the pandemic,

education is moving to a remote format, and this

entails the use of digital remote communications.

Based on the experience of recent months, a

significant part of parents of schoolchildren are

opposed to replacing direct communication with the

teacher with computer dialogues. So, according to a

survey of residents of 20 cities in Russia, most parents

are confident that this will negatively affect the health

and psyche of their children, the assimilation of

educational materials and communication skills with

peers (Solodovnikov, 2021). In turn, teachers of the

Russian higher school say that with the transition to

the distance format, they have less free time and

increased workload, they do not consider the distance

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format comfortable for themselves and for students;

87.8% of teachers surveyed believe that it is better to

conduct classes in full-time format (Shtykhno,

Konstantinova and Gagiev, 2020, p. 76).

Meanwhile, higher school teachers express

concern about another trend that has an international

character. The dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences

from University of Helsinki Hannu Nieminen writes:

“Both scholars and policymakers largely agree that in

the last 20 years European higher education policy

has turned from policy based on democracy and

culture towards policy driven by market-based

ideals” (Nieminen, 2018, p. 73). Thus, at the initiative

of the management bodies of educational system and

specific universities, a change in strategic guidelines

is added to medical and technological factors. The

Russian pedagogical community identifies this

danger and responds to it intellectually. Pedagogical

community has generated a concept of humanitarian

resistance to reduction of the humanitarian

component in education in favor of technologization

and client-oriented relations. The pandemic context

Korkonosenko, S. and Berezhnaia, M.

Humanitarian Resistance in Russian Higher School during the Pandemic: The Case of Journalism Education.

DOI: 10.5220/0011110500003439

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference "COVID-19: Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals" (RTCOV 2021), pages 55-59

ISBN: 978-989-758-617-0

has strengthened such sentiments and teachers began

to perceive digitalization "not so much as

technological modernization, but ... as the loss of a

meaningful component of life in favor of mechanical

... algorithms and standards" (Murzina, 2020, p. 107).

Since we are considering the case of journalism

education, it must be said that in this area there is also

a conjunctural pressure from the pandemic and

digitalization in their alliance. It is characteristic that

in 2021 World Journalism Education Congress and

European Journalism Training Association changed

the former title of their joint conference to

“Journalism education in the era of social networks

and artificial intelligence: digital technologies and

ethical values” (https://ejta.susu.ru/programme/). In a

research practice, the authors of the latest empirical

projects propose a related formulation of the question:

computer technology required a new organization of

the journalists' labour, and the coronavirus pandemic

forced educational institutions to switch to distance

learning (Grabelnikov, 2020, p. 715).

However, it is difficult to agree that only

technological innovations, medical conditions and

commercial reasons determine the essence, forms and

trends of the university journalism training. For

example, it can be viewed in the light of national and

cultural traditions in spiritual life, as well as in a broad

system of academic activity and as an established

practice that has its own internal integrity, a set of

working means and methods, a hierarchy of

intellectual and ethical priorities, etc. Undoubtedly,

experienced mentors from Russian universities have

mixed opinions regarding the impact of conjunctural

and stable factors on the state and prospects of the

journalism school. The purpose of this article is to

identify their positions towards the preservation of the

humanitarian basis of education, in particular, in the

conditions of the coronavirus pandemic.

2 METHODS

The main method used was expert interviews with

heads of departments and well-known teachers from

different cities and universities of Russia. The

interview scenario included different topics besides

technologies and COVID but the humanitarian

background of education turned out to be the leading

idea of the conversations. In turn, the expert

interviews were an integral part of the comprehensive

research project "Theoretical and Pedagogical

Schools of Journalism in Russia" (2019-2021)

performed at the Department of the Theory of

Journalism and Mass Communications of St.

Petersburg State University with participation of

many other departments and universities in Russia

and abroad. The project has been described in

previous publications (Berezhnaya and

Korkonosenko, 2021). A total of 10 semi-structured

interviews with a video recording were conducted in

2020-2021, with average length of 40 minutes each.

Deans of journalism faculties, heads of departments

and professors of specialized faculties, as well as

organizers of non-university professional educational

projects became our experts. Additionally, the

methodology includes a comparison of the collected

data with concepts and assessments offered by

Russian and international scholarly and pedagogical

corporations.

3 RESULTS

First of all, the interlocutors speak in solidarity in

support of the humanitarian basis of journalistic

education, for example, in such forms:

"Without the humanitarian component of our

education, including philological one, you can't teach

journalism (not media communication). One of the

main skills is a competent, expressive presentation of

non-banal thoughts about what is happening

around."

"Philosophy, cultural studies, economics must

necessarily be. As a result, widely educated people

appear who can't write carelessly, for it is not

interesting for them to write this way. An educated

person has a deeper and more diverse understanding

of life."

"We must understand that a journalist not only

has basic skills, but he is a socialized person, he

understands what is happening, can compare,

analyze. And there is the humanitarian side of

education, even the philosophical one."

"I am for fundamental humanitarian learning to

be in the first place. For example, we have a good

department of stylistics and literary editing, we pay a

lot of attention to literature. Not only because we

ourselves grew out of the philological faculty and

many of us became candidates and doctors of

philology. But also, because, after all, the word is the

main thing in journalism."

The experts see a journalist primarily in the roles

of analyst, critic, and a thoughtful observer of the

processes in the world around him. In this respect, the

Russian paradigm of education differs significantly

from foreign ones.

RTCOV 2021 - II International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference " COVID-19: Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals

(RTCOV )

“Our journalism is originally publicistic, that is,

solving the eternal problems of life with the help of

journalistic articles.”

“The American and Scandinavian traditions

suggest separating practical journalism from theory

of journalism. I think such a separation does not help

foreign colleagues. The more I look at what is

happening today, the more I am convinced of it.

Critical thinking, which a journalist needs, is formed

fragmentally and only at the level of pragmatics, and

not at the level of a systemic vision of the world.”.

At the same time, anxiety about the future of the

journalism school regularly arises during the

interview process. It is not an easy task to divide the

experts' statements into separate questions

concerning threats to the humanitarian nature of

education, since in spontaneous speech different

topics are intertwined with each other. For example,

as noted above, technocratic concepts and

innovations are closely related to the circumstances

introduced by the pandemic. Teachers see the most

concrete manifestation of this connection in the

spread of distance education online.

"The experience of working in isolation, at a

distance showed how teachers and students long for

direct communication. Apparently, distance learning

is both useful and necessary as an additional tool,

especially if we are talking about some kind of

courses that cannot be studied in any other way. But

distance cannot be a substitute for direct

communication. Particularly when it comes to

journalistic education."

"The leading universities included in the top

global rankings offer their online classes.

Globalization is globalization, but people always live

in a particular place and study at a particular

university. And, probably, we need to talk about

glocalization. But despite this, students are still

striving for a real place, for real teachers, not virtual

ones. They strive for communication. The experience

of teaching in self-isolation has shown this once

again."

There is reason to worry that the use of distance

learning instead of real communication will increase.

For instance, at St. Petersburg State University, since

2017, both basic and optional disciplines

(Philosophy, History of Russia, Fundamentals of

University Life) have been included in the curricula

of the Bachelor of Journalism in electronic format.

The list of them in master's programs is expanding, in

2020 the number of online courses ranged from 10 to

15 percent of the total number of courses and cover

all university-wide disciplines, including elective

blocks, and after the choice of elective courses online

disciplines take up to 30 percent in the schedule of

students. Qualified teachers in no way deny technical

progress, they realistically assess and accept the need

for changes, including personnel renewal.

"It is important for us that a teacher being a

practitioner is able to work in new conditions. It is

important to be ready to keep up with the times. There

are many experienced journalists of the old formation

who find no strength to step over their old habits and

learn to work using new tools."

“Traditionally, we are very text-centric, but at the

same time we must be technological, understand new

technologies, somehow fit them into our traditions.”

Opposition is being caused by attempts to use

progressive technologies to unify knowledge and

competencies, which inevitably arises as soon as the

diversity of personalities in the educational process is

lost and the direct interaction of the student with the

teacher is reduced. Actually, the humanitarization of

education is provided primarily by the interaction of

human individuals within it.

"Unification is a bad future. The unification in

humanitarian university education is, you know, just

the death of education completely."

Surely, the damage from the unification

orientation in education increases significantly when

it is coupled with similar requests from the industry.

Universities face such requests for simplified

qualification.

"The labor market is beginning to demand: we

need the identical specialists with the identical set of

technological skills, the identical understanding of

their duties for those editorial offices that earn money."

On the other hand, a purely commercial

interpretation of journalistic work in business echoes

commercialization and pragmatization in

arrangement of production processes at universities.

Journalism teachers see these trends no less clearly

than representatives of other fields of education.

"The commercialization of education leads to that

we accept everyone. I do not know how to teach in

these conditions. We must close our eyes to the fact

that there is a swamp. And the function of upbringing

goes away completely."

“We accept a large number of first-year students,

this happens simultaneously with the reduction of the

teaching staff. There is less and less time for

individual work”.

Humanitarian Resistance in Russian Higher School during the Pandemic: The Case of Journalism Education

Thus, the entrepreneurial strategy of the

universities’ functioning and development comes into

conflict with the humanitarian mission of education.

This conclusion clearly follows from the interview

participants' speeches.

4 DISCUSSION

It should be said, firstly, that none of the interlocutors

used the notion of "humanitarian resistance",

however, secondly, that their attitudes and views

correspond to this concept in essence. This

correspondence is manifested in the very

understanding of the humanitarian nature of

education. According to the researchers of the

modern higher school, “the humanitarization of

education can be defined as a directed pedagogical

process that takes into account the features of the

emergence and creative development of the

individual … ensuring the development of a

humanitarian orientation of an individual, capable of

self-determination and self-realization in the

contemporary sociocultural space” (Elkanova, 2017).

It was these areas of training and graduate qualities

that the interview participants emphasized.

Moreover, the special kind of activity of a journalist

strengthens the accents, since the profession

encourages him express himself openly in the

environment of social communication.

Russian professors declare the priority importance

of the socio-cultural component in journalistic

education. According to them, “contemporary

journalism requires professionals, whose education is

based on three basic pillars: knowledge of the society

and its culture, knowledge of the nature of journalism,

and knowledge of professional skills. Two pillars

were present in the USSR already, and have been

transformed into a new post-Socialist and digital

reality of the Russian journalism education”

(Vartanova, 2017, p. 22). There are also proposals to

strengthen the cultural content of curricula, for

example, to increase the role of aesthetics in the

structure of professional qualification. “The

combination of aesthetic and functional components

in professional training meets the challenges of the

modern media market, expands the range of

professional practices, gives hope for humanistic

perspectives of the industry” (Berezhnaia, 2019, p.

207).

Some foreign researchers also emphasize that it is

impossible to limit educational programs to utilitarian

instrumental training: “The role of the university is to

prepare students not only to be employed but also to

participate effectively and critically in the democratic

community” (Reese and Cohen, 2000, p. 214).

However, the ideas of Russian colleagues go far

beyond democracy, they operate with categories of

humanistic philosophy and humanitarian priorities of

the profession. Particularly, these motives are clearly

heard while discussing pedagogical strategies: "The

education of future professional journalists on the

samples of a great worldview style,

anthropocosmism, is seen as a promising educational

strategy" (Poelueva, Indrikov and Belyatskaya, 2016,

p. 13).

Let us emphasize that we are talking about the

Russian model of journalistic activity and related

education, whereas other national systems may have

other guidelines. Alignment according to some

universal international model not only does not

promise achievements and advantages, but it is also

impossible for deep reasons of civilizational

differences. Broadly speaking, “Russia is often

considered a civilization of its own” and in this

connection, social science in Russia is not

internationally “convertible” (Shirokanova, 2012, p.

269). Some Western scholars accentuate cultural and

civilizational differences in relation to the journalistic

school: “Entrenched ideological beliefs about

totalitarian control over the academia prevented

Western scholars from readily examining the broader

historical and cultural context in which university

journalism education developed in Russia”

(Antonova, Shafer and Freedman, 2011, p. 140). In

this context, Russian scientists reasonably advocate

continuity in the functioning of domestic journalism

schools and their development on their own

methodological basis, which has humanitarian design

(Blokhin, Korkonosenko and Khubetsova, 2015, p.

108).

Comparing the content of expert interviews with

theoretical ideas and assessments shows that they

have common vectors of thought movement.

Education is considered in the coordinates of

fundamental academic training saturated with

cultural, socio-moral and, in general, humanitarian

meanings. Naturally, these pedagogical attitudes

resist technocratic and entrepreneurial intentions, the

intensive spread of which is provoked by the

conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Humanitarian resistance in higher education is not a

local special case, but a widespread phenomenon, at

the level of views, moods and practical pedagogical

RTCOV 2021 - II International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference " COVID-19: Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals

(RTCOV )

activity. It is directed against excessive

technicalization (primarily digitalization) and

commercialization of university life, in defence of the

values of enlightenment, interpersonal interaction and

the qualitative diversity of educational practice. The

COVID-19 pandemic generates a favourable

environment for the growth of negative trends, which

is most clearly manifested in the expansion of online

distance learning. Based on the material of

journalistic education in Russia, it is clear that the

teaching community for the most part adheres to the

humanistic pedagogical ideology and strives to

implement it in current work.

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Humanitarian Resistance in Russian Higher School during the Pandemic: The Case of Journalism Education