Journalism, like other relatively old professions, changes over time and adapts to modern standards.
The initial mechanism for creating mass media was created in the German city of Mainz in 1450. The author of this revolutionary invention was Johann Gutenberg, who went down in history as the first printer.
This invention by a German scientist laid the foundation for the creation of print media. However, initially printed media, we can say that it was relevant in the circles of higher society, based on the fact that writing was not common in lower-class societies. Everything changed at the end of the 19th century, with the industrial revolution, the quality of life in society began to improve, and the level of erudition increased in Western countries. Against the background of social progress, in Western countries, the demand for printed products increased, people were no longer deprived of literary works, and society demanded daily news to satisfy the natural sense of interest given by evolution, that’s exactly how the first journalists appeared.
The main principle of old, i.e. classical journalism was to create a bridge that would connect the reader with the information, in this case, the journalist as a subject was out of the game and the reader remained face-to-face with the existing information, in this case, the interested person had the opportunity to conduct a short analysis according to his views and draw a personal conclusion. Soon the news delivery methods improved and journalists, to a certain extent, took on the role of analysts themselves in reporting, the journalist turned from a distributor of news into a creator of the public mood, however, at the same time, the ethics of classical journalism provided for unbiased reporting of news.
Today’s mass media is radically different from the old one, first of all, the means of information dissemination have increased.
Thanks to the technological leap of the 20th century, the most current news is now distributed in the shortest possible time, and all over the world.
However, unfortunately, in the background of technological progress, we see a regression of journalistic ethics, all over the world. Owners of large media no longer believe that quality will sell, and therefore, as a daily product, we get cheap products, because editors try to raise the rating at the expense of yellow information or completely immoral scandals. The concept of objective media has disappeared in the world, even the largest Western media do not hide their biased editorial political course and actively campaign even for the benefit of private political parties, and the world cultural war has shown us that liberal and relatively conservative mass media are fighting each other not because of ideological beliefs, but because of finances and influence. They confront each other.
The situation is doubly difficult in Georgia, where in 2007, at the peak of the total control policy of the previous government, the powerful structures destroyed the independent media outlet “Imedi” and then turned it into a state television. Georgian people, full of hope, believed that with the change of government, independent media outlets would start functioning in the country, however, instead, we got party televisions, which violate the ethical norms of journalism almost every day and cannot even hide direct aggression towards opponents, yes, unfortunately, Georgian media today has fallen to the point that Journalists appear to us as representatives and political party, media shamelessly obey oligarchs and rich businessmen in power, perhaps that is why it is not surprising that journalistic institutions are named as one of the most unpopular institutions in society today.
I want to believe that the journalists of my generation will succeed and return to the old, glorious name of Georgian journalism and will be real professionals in their work. I deeply believe that this is just a temporary, shameful episode in the history of our country.
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