Audiovisual content of cultural journalism in wartime to the issue of national identity

Abstract

The research relevance is defined by the mission of cultural journalism that is clearly aware of the changes in society’s values and historical topics, modern narratives of Ukrainian culture, language, and history both for the domestic consumer and abroad. The research subject is the audiovisual content of the Ukrainian media space, which is represented by a community of media professionals, amateurs, and video bloggers. This is due to the simplification of video production technologies and the availability of communication platforms for the distribution of audiovisual content. The aim of the research is to consider the impact of cultural journalism in the form of audiovisual content on the processes of creating national identity and self-awareness of Ukrainians during the war. The methods of content analysis, cultural and semantic analysis were used to achieve the goal.

As a result of the research, the special role of wartime cultural journalism in the process of creating national identity was proved. It should also be taken into account that long-term research into the nature of an audiovisual work has proven the power of its influence on the processes of forming values and the worldview of a mass audience, however, this segment of the media space is not used enough in cultural journalism today.

The majority of audiovisual content in the media today consists of conversational informational and analytical formats like video blogs of experts, analysts, and opinion leaders on relevant wartime topics. Many young Ukrainian YouTube amateurs create and promote such content very actively. At the same time, the creation and distribution of similar projects by professional media have a non-systematic nature, often a convergent form. On the one hand, the simplification of video production technologies and the availability of communication platforms led to the explosion and distribution of amateur audiovisual content on the topics of Ukrainian culture and history. On the other hand, insufficient attention of journalists and editors of Ukrainian media to audiovisual journalistic works of artistic and journalistic genres on the relevant subject is observed. Hybridization takes the place of genres into situational formats and the rapid development of cultural journalism and video blogging covering the topics of Ukrainian culture and history. The specified processes testify to the effectiveness of the factors of national identity creation in the media space today and outline the perspective of research on the specified problem.