Mass Media in Shaping the Judiciarys Public Image

Abstract

The formation of the image of Russian courts is part of the information policy of the judicial system of the Russian Federation, which determines the interaction of the courts with the public and the media. Public opinion of the law, courts and judges is created, among other things, by newspaper reports under the heading «From the courtroom», TV simulations of trials, radio broadcasts like «Your Lawyer», etc. However, today all traditional media are online, new (online) mass media have appeared, including those on legal topics, and specialized Internet portals of legal information. Under the influence of technological factors, changes in genre, stylistic and communication of journalistic works are taking place, and these trends actualize the need to study judicial journalism in the digital environment. How is the media representation of courts changing in the online space? What distinguishes legal information portals, specialized online publications: genres, multimedia, new formats for presenting information? How do they affect the image of the judicial system? We analyzed the texts of online versions of Russian newspapers, Internet portals of legal information and specialized online publications based on the following criteria: the compositional content, genre and stylistic features, the use of additional multimedia tools, and the communicative strategy in terms of shaping public opinion of justice. The study examined 160 texts covering court proceedings. The research revealed the lack of journalistic publications about the real problems of the judicial system, the insufficient use of innovative ways of presenting information both on traditional media sites and in the new media. The research put forward recommendations on the use of new forms of presenting information in judicial publications in order to form the image of the judicial system. The proposed recommendations can be useful to a wide range of journalists, media managers, students of Journalism, Advertising, and Public Relations.