Russian Medical Journalism: Historical Tradition and Current Trends

Abstract

The current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic has formed a large-scale audience demand for medical information, which has affected both the media agenda, which significantly increased the number of publications on social and medical topics, and the actualization of media research in the field of representation of medical and social issues by modern mass media. A review of the main trends in currently actively developing medical journalism suggests a retrospective look at the formation of this specialized segment of the mass media, a description of the key stages and features of its formation, which, along with a general description of the structural and content features of modern medical and educational information resources, is the subject of this article. Given the lack of research in this area, the work outlines the historical context for the development of medical periodicals in Russia, shows the relationship between the development of medical science, social values ​​and ideas, and the process of formation of medical journalism in Russia. Against this background, an analysis of the features of the presentation of medical information in modern mass media, including regional ones, taking into account the global crisis situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, both in terms of content and thematic terms, and in terms of the formats being implemented, showed the continuity of the tradition and the demand for mass medical journalism. audience, and also made it possible to identify its modern specifics, namely the problem-thematic and format-genre differentiation of content, as well as the request for expert opinion and the strengthening of the subjective principle in publications.