Culturology of Journalism: Problems and Prospects for Institutionalization

The article gives a critical review of specialized publications in order to clarify the current state of general culturology and against this background to assess the prospects for the development of culturology of journalism. In the first part of the article, based on the analysis of scientific and educational literature, three main problems of theoretical culturology are identified. The first of these is the uncertainty of the status of culturology and its place in the general system of science and education. Some scientists call it an autonomous discipline, others present it as a wide field of knowledge in which all scientific industries studying culture are united. The second problem is the absence of a generally accepted and shared definition of culture by the entire professional community of cultural scientists. This makes it difficult to understand what the central object of study of culturology is. The third problem is the ambiguity of the structure of culturology. Some theorists divide it into the theory of culture and the history of culture, others consider it structural elements of various social and humanitarian disciplines. In the second part of the article, the formation of a cultural direction in the science of journalism is traced and the developments accumulated in this area are analyzed. Differences in the approaches of domestic and foreign researchers, as well as culturologists and media specialists, are shown. The author comes to the conclusion that in the process of institutionalization of culturology of journalism as a new independent branch of knowledge, it is necessary to take into account the problematic situations that have developed in general culturology. Clarification of problematic issues will contribute not only to the increase of new knowledge about journalism, but also to the development of general culturology.