Attitude to Law as an Indicator of the Journalist’s Legal Culture (Based on the Materials of an Expert Survey)

The article discusses an important part of the professional culture of a journalist – legal culture, which is based on knowledge of legal norms and journalists’ attitude to the law, manifested in their lawful behavior and, in general, in the activities of modern Russian mass media. As part of the research project of the Department of Theory of Journalism and Mass Communications at St. Petersburg State University, Professional Ideology of Journalism, a pilot study of the normative-legal discourse of journalists’ professional culture was conducted. The empirical basis for the study was expert interviews with representatives of print media who have extensive experience in journalism, including the position of editor-in-chief. The purpose of the research is to reveal how sectoral legislation determines the content of journalists’ activities; how journalists feel about the Russian On the Mass Media law and the normative regulation of media activities in general; and, ultimately, how journalistic activities embody the three structural components of a journalist’s legal culture: 1) cognitive; 2) motivational-refl exive and 3) activity-practical. The results of the processing of expert interviews show that, in general, journalists have a respectful attitude toward industry-specifi c legislation and consider the current law On Mass Media to be a basic document regulating freedom of expression and many other issues of media activity. Although the freedom of speech, which was enshrined in the Russian law on mass media and later in the Constitution of the Russian Federation, has not become a tradition, a norm of life, creativity and professional culture of journalists. Keywords: law, legislation, legal culture, freedom of speech, journalist, expert survey