The trichotomy of the methodology of journalistic activity in the context of a gradual transition to the universalization of the psychological portrait of a journalist

Smekalina Kristina Sergeevna ORCID: 0000-0002-4578-6727 Lecturer, Department of Journalism, Media Communications and Advertising, Moscow University named after Alexander Sergeyevich Griboyedov. 66A Zeleny Prospekt str., office 310, Moscow, 111396, Russia kristinamiheeva1996@gmail.com

IntroductionThe professional orientation of an applicant planning to enter the Faculty of Journalism, or a student already studying at such a faculty, is largely due to his personal qualities, in particular – temperament, emotional lability and willingness to interact with respondents, including in conditions of communicative discomfort.

At the same time, admission to the Faculty of Journalism and further work in the profession in modern conditions does not involve psychological testing, primary orientation in understanding one's emotional intelligence and other criteria for selecting applicants and students. This determines the relevance of this study, designed to formulate a scientific methodology for assessing the emotional intelligence of a future professional. There is a stereotype that students who have turned to journalism are mainly those who have no problems with communication, are liberated and free to communicate. Meanwhile, the practice of teaching at the Faculty of Journalism convincingly proves that many students come to the profession experiencing significant difficulties with communication, in the hope that it is studying at the faculty that will allow them to overcome communication barriers. Accordingly, there is a dissonance of the expected and real situation, leading to ineffective practice of teaching, completing assignments and subsequent work in the profession. Taking into account the recently increased requirements for the correlation between the curricula of higher education and the labor market, the undertaken research is of particular importance.

The purpose of this study is to consider the ratio of representatives of various psychological types among journalism students of 1-4 undergraduate courses. It is based on the classification of communicative types by G. Y. Aizenka ^[1], which divides people into extroverts and introverts. The very typology of this scientist is based on the initial dichotomy introduced by K. G.Jung ^[10]. Modified and reinterpreted, it acquires its own characteristic features. Thus, the definition of the concept of "introvert" includes an understanding of a person who is modest and shy, prone to pessimism. "He takes decision-making seriously, tends to plan and think about actions in advance, and not give in to sudden impulses. Loves order in everything, highly appreciates moral norms. He controls his feelings, it is difficult to get him out of himself" ^[9]. The contrarian concept is "extaert" – "a sociable person, aimed at developing contacts outside, a wide circle of acquaintances. He is good-natured, cheerful, carefree and optimistic. Impulsivity, short temper, and actions under the influence of the moment are typical for him. Has a tendency to aggressiveness and risk" ^[9]. Let's add that Jung did not refute the presence of a neural link. Currently, it is defined as "ambiversion". This concept was introduced by E. Conklin ^[2].

In this study, the following tasks were set:

1) to find out whether students-journalists experience problems with interpersonal communication in the course of professional activity and collecting material;

2) compare the data obtained with their distribution by personality types;

3) summarize the obtained patterns and propose a solution to the identified problem.

Materials and methodsThe object of this study was the personal characteristics of potential journalists in correlation with their professional experience and identified difficulties.

The subject of the study is defined as the relationship of temperament and communicative patterns with the primary experience gained during attending classes, completing assignments and passing practice.

To identify communicative types among respondents, a questionnaire method was used, which made it possible to more accurately determine the relationship of people experiencing difficulty in collecting information, in terms of gender, and their attitude to a particular psychological type. Comparative analysis, in turn, made it possible to identify the pattern and identify the problem areas of this issue.

Revealing the definitions of the above terms, it is necessary to focus attention on one of the dominant positions of adaptation of potential journalists in the journalistic modern professional environment. Degitalization of work processes and interpretation of results affects the form of convergence of journalistic genres and the formation of new media. It should be noted that R. I. Maltseva speaks about modern media technologies and multi-vector adaptation in journalism ^[4]. Moreover, a person's predisposition to certain behavioral patterns, perception and the formation of a communicative process when collecting information can be considered an addendum to the results of this study. The need to analyze this aspect is also due to the crisis of traditional journalistic genres and the genesis of new media ^[8], the formation of which also takes into account the adaptation to convergence in terms of not only the training of journalistic personnel, but also the retraining of existing ones. And in this vein, it is necessary to talk about the study and analysis of psychological characteristics and predispositions directly. The emergence of new media is also based on the crisis of verbal content, which Molchanova M. M. and Lekova P. A. write about ^[5] Considering verbality in the context of an information gathering tool in journalistic activity, we can also talk about a creative way of transmitting information in a modern media text, as T. A. Lenkova writes ^[3]. It should also be noted that both A. G. Pastukhov ^[6] and A. A. Schneider ^[7] speak about new media, about the real perspective and problems of the development of this phenomenon and adaptation to it both from the point of view of the audience's perception of information, and from the point of view of training and development of professional personnel.

Research results

Students of the Faculty of Journalism are considered potential journalistic personnel. In this regard, the task is to find out not only their motivation and interest in this profession, but also their psychological predisposition to this activity. For more accurate identification among the students of the above-mentioned faculty of the Moscow University named after A.S. Griboyedov, a questionnaire was conducted to find out whether they experience difficulties in collecting information.  131 people took part in it: 40 boys (30.5% of the total number) and 91 girls (69.5% of the total number).

According to the results, the answers were distributed as follows: out of 131 respondents, 8 people answered "yes", which is 6.1% of the total. 54 respondents answered "No", which was 41.2%. 68 people were marked in the "Sometimes" column, which was 51.9%. Also, among the total number, one person did not answer this question – it was 0.7%.

There were 3 boys and 5 girls who answered positively, which is 37.5% and 62.5%, respectively.

Of the total number of young men who answered, the percentage is 7.5. Girls – 5.5.

The distribution of respondents who answered "yes" by personality types gave the following results:

§ Introverts – 2 people, which is 25%;

§ Extroverts – 6, which is 75%;

§ Ambiverts – 0 people;

§ Refrained from answering – 0 people.

Analyzing the results in relation to the total number of respondents by distribution by personality types, you can see the following:

· Introverts – 2 people out of 48, which is 4.2%;

· Extroverts – 6 people out of 59, which is 10.2%;

· Ambiverts – 0 people;

·         Refrained from answering – 0 people.

The answer "Sometimes" to the question "Do you have difficulties collecting information?" was given by 68 people. Of these, 18 boys and 50 girls, which is 26.5% and 73.5%, respectively.

Speaking about the overall ratio of those who answered "Sometimes" to this question with the total number of respondents divided by gender, the following results can be revealed: the number of boys is 45% of the total number of focus groups of boys, the number of girls is 54.9% of the total number of focus groups of girls.

Identifying a pattern based on the results relative to the distribution by personality types, those who answered "Sometimes" to the question "Do you have difficulties collecting information" it turns out that:

· Introverts – 25 out of 68 people, which is 36.7%;

· Extroverts – 28 people out of 68, which is 41.2%;

· Ambiverts – 12 people out of 68, which is 17.6%;

·         3 out of 68 people refrained from answering, which is 4.4%.

Analyzing the responses of all respondents with a distribution by personality types, you can see the following results:

· Introverts – 25 out of 48 people, which is 52.1%;

· Extroverts – 28 people out of 59, which is 47.5%;

· Ambiverts – 12 people out of 19, which is 63.2%;

·         3 out of 5 people refrained from answering, which is 60%.

Among those who answered "no" to the question "Do you have difficulties collecting information?" there were 54 people. Of these, 36 are girls and 18 are boys, which is 66.7% and 33.3% respectively.

If we take statistics in relation to the total responses of respondents divided by gender, the ratio of results is as follows: the number of boys is 18 out of 40, which is 45% of the total; the ratio of girls is 36 out of 91, which is 39.5% of the total.

The breakdown of the number of "no" respondents by personality type showed the following results:

· Introverts – 21 people, which is 38.9%;

· Extroverts – 24 people, which is 44.4%;

· Ambiverts – 7 people, which is 12.9%;

·         2 people refrained from answering, which is 3.7%.

The results regarding the total number of respondents by distributed personality types are as follows:

· Introverts – 21 out of 48 people, which is 43.75%;

· Extroverts – 24 people out of 59, which is 40.7%;

· Ambiverts – 7 people out of 19, which is 36.8%;

·         2 out of 5 people refrained from answering, which is 40%.

            DiscussionsThe conducted research proves that more than half of the respondents among the students of the Faculty of Journalism have difficulties with collecting information.

Speaking about the ratio of results by personality types, it is also possible to identify a predisposition to this among respondents with both introversion and extroversion.

This study demonstrates the need to classify the methodological base for collecting information in journalistic activities for an impeccable adaptation to modern realities in the conditions of digitalization of not only media content, but also training and work of a journalist. The need to adjust the theoretical and practical orientation in teaching to personality types and to allocate certain methods of collecting information for each individual psychotype is due to the predisposition of students to the systematic perception of the theoretical information presented. In addition, this development facilitates the training and work of potential journalists, as well as the choice of a specific type of professional activity.

The variability of the typologization of information collection methods in accordance with the respondents' belonging to a particular personality type may be as follows: journalists prone to introversion can use such methods of information collection as observation, working with documents and questionnaires; for extroversive representatives of this profession, the use of an interview / conversation, survey or experiment is justified. However, the latter type has a reason to be used regardless of the psychological predisposition of the journalist.

            Conclusions 1.     

Adaptation in the training and work of a journalist depends on the type of his psychological predisposition. It is caused by the convergence of traditional genres and methods of journalistic activity in the era of digitalization and contribute to the formation of new media.

2.      According to the results of the conducted research, more than 60 percent of journalism students have difficulties in collecting information.

3. The distribution and emphasis on the methods of collecting information regarding the commitment of a journalist to a particular activity is determined by the results of the conducted research.