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Concept of the journalist in online-media and its reflection in the newest V. Pelevin's prose

Karpov Ernest Sergeevich

ORCID: 0000-0002-8908-2705

PhD in Philology

Associate Professor, Department of Journalism and Television Technologies, Kosygin Russian State University (Technologies. Design. Art)

115561, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Kashirskoe Shosse str., 132/1, sq. 46

calib_mr_stolz@rambler.ru
Other publications by this author
 

 
Grabel'nikov Aleksandr Anatol'evich

ORCID: 0000-0003-1415-8241

Doctor of History

Professor, Department of Mass Communications, Faculty of Philology, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia named after V.I. Patrice Lumumba

117198, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 6

grab@mail.ru
Gegelova Natal'ya Sergeevna

ORCID: 0000-0002-0043-7590

Doctor of Philology

Professor, Department of Mass Communications, Faculty of Philology, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia named after V.I. Patrice Lumumba

117198, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 6

mikhail0001@mail.ru
Murzina Ol'ga Viktorovna

ORCID: 0000-0001-9134-5570

PhD in Pedagogy

Associate Professor, Department of Journalism and Television Technologies, A.N. Kosygin Russian State University

119071, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Malaya Kaluzhskaya str., 1

murzina-ov@rguk.ru

DOI:

10.25136/2409-8698.2023.5.40875

EDN:

NITXHE

Received:

28-05-2023


Published:

04-06-2023


Abstract: Digitalization, the development of the Internet and media technologies lead to transformation not only of functions of journalism, but also to the analysis of the conceptual model of a journalist, which also gives a result in a literary text. Viktor Pelevin subtly captures emanations of this kind and, at least allegorically, but quite accurately represents them in postmodernist artistic text. In the article we will focus on the study of the image of a journalist as the author of a media text and his role in shaping reality, presented in Pelevin's works. The material of the study was the novels "The Sacred Book of the Werewolf" (2004) and "Empire V" (2006). The paper presents the results of the analysis of media space, implemented in the works of V. Pelevin, which is the subject of the study. The novelty of the work is due to the fact that for the first time the role of journalism in the formation of the chronotope of a postmodernist work is analyzed on the example of V. Pelevin's novels. A successful attempt has been made to apply the knowledge of online news journalism to media texts in the structure of a work of art. Cultural-historical, structural-typological methods and structural analysis were used. The article is devoted to the study of the media space, which is considered as a simulacrum of reality, in the structure of the artistic world of a postmodern work. It is proved that the media space created by journalists is mosaic, its boundaries are conditional, blurred or completely absent, in the organization of space at different levels we see a rhizomatic structure, the author often uses the mirror principle.


Keywords:

youth journalism, online media, new media, news production model, media space, modern journalist, Viktor Pelevin, postmodernism, modern domestic prose, virtual space

This article is automatically translated.

 Introduction

The purpose of the study is to analyze the image of a journalist presented in a modern postmodern text.

At the moment, there are almost no scientific works devoted to the study of media discourse and its role in the artistic world of V. Pelevin, however, this issue seems to us relevant not only for modern literary studies, but also for research in the field of journalism.

The empirical material of the study was V. Pelevin's novels "The Sacred Book of the Werewolf" (2004) and "Empire V" (2006). The sample does not include the novel "Generation "P"", although quotes from the work are mentioned in the article, which is explained by a significant amount of research devoted to the analysis of the specifics of the introduction of journalism and PR into the literary text, while journalistic notes presented in the novel "The Sacred Book of the Werewolf" also deserve attention in connection with an accurate representation of the processes taking place in modern journalism.
We believe that the issue of the influence of information technologies on modern man, as well as the designation of the media space as a simulacrum of reality, are typical of Pelevin's text, and therefore we turn to the novel "Empire V", where the information space is mentioned, in particular, the influence of glamorous publications on the formation of the worldview of the layman, but journalistic texts are not presented. The structural-typological method and structural analysis were used. 

Research results

We are witnessing the process of transformation of modern journalism under the influence of online media in particular and the Internet as a means of instant transmission of a message in general, which is reflected in scientific discourse, as evidenced by numerous publications (for example, the textbook "Internet Journalism. Theoretical foundations" by A.A. Kalmykova and L.A. Kohanova, dissertation "Transformation of narrative techniques in multimedia journalistic projects" by D.G. Kochanova, etc.) and presentations at conferences.

Among the features of modern journalism are multimedia, cross-platform, orientation to multimedia storytelling, the importance of interactivity and data visualization is increasing [1]. However, despite the positive changes accompanying the process, researchers identify weaknesses. One of the key problems, as E. Yuan points out, is the question of the reliability of journalistic material [2, p. 233]. O. A. Gavrikova notes that the media nowadays are focused on entertainment content, as evidenced, in particular, by the dominant clickbait headline. The reason for such changes is the fierce competition for the attention of the audience and the change in the request of consumers of information [3], which is reflected in fiction, in particular, in the novels of V. Pelevin.

The writer accurately, albeit in an allegorical form, reflects the changes taking place in modern media and reveals their role in the perception of the world by the audience.  Pelevin accurately represents reality: for example, A.Y. Golovin in the article "Robot Journalism: the future that came earlier than scientists expected" mentions the novel "iPhuck 10", notes that "... the future that Pelevin describes" is a reality for us [4]: artificial intelligence that creates content for onlinemedia is already actively involved in the work of journalists.

As a joke (in which there is a large amount of truth), V. Pelevin's works are called a digest of the key events of the past year. The art form is secondary and is a way for the author to sum up, since, despite the attraction to hyperbolization and fantastic plots, the author touches on the most relevant, topical and acute events for readers, and also saturates the art world with recognizable cultural codes.

Reality becomes the material of artistic comprehension for Pelevin, which allows A.V. Dmitriev, the author of one of the first dissertations devoted to the work of V. Pelevin, to conclude that the characters face a new reality, the author's interpretation of events builds a "labyrinth of meanings" [5].

Pelevin compiles familiar plots, filling them with recognizable reminiscences for the reader [6, p. 73]. Often in the work the author combines real-life people, mythological heroes and fictional characters.

Before proceeding to the description of the research results, it is necessary to focus on the models of news production relevant to modern online media (we will talk about them further): N.O. Kolchina distinguishes narrative (make story) and semantic (make sense) models. The first involves non-emotional information about events that have occurred over a certain period (most often, a small one). Within the framework of the semantic model, the journalist gives events a certain connotation, embedding the fact in the context [7], thus including the audience in a certain discourse and creating a specific frame around the situation.

V. Pelevin, creating the artistic world of the novel in particular and the artistic universe in general, goes even further: journalistic activity develops within the framework of the semantic model of creating journalistic content, however, the information occasion is distorted, and its image no longer becomes the primary source that took place in reality, but a simulacrum of reality, and forms a special media space, the characteristics of which correspond to the features of the Pelevin chronotope identified by A.Yu. Melnikova: mosaic, eclectic, illusory, characterized by the conditionality of boundaries (often even formlessness) and the attraction to rhizomaticity, nonlinearity and specularity [8].

Let us proceed directly to the analysis of the influence of journalists as episodic characters of the work on the formation of the appearance of reality, presented in the artistic world of a postmodern work. Let's consider three publications included in the text of the novel "The Sacred Book of the Werewolf" and prove that the information space becomes a crooked mirror of reality. Pseudo-journalistic materials are written in the genre of soft news, are provided with headlines, and, if possible, real (in the context of the plot) facts are used. The main character finds all three materials on the Internet portal "rumors.ru" - the name allows you to call the site yellow press.

So, first, the author tells us about an accident that happened to the main character: during the session, a person dies because he sees her in the image of a werewolf. The next day, the heroine accidentally reads about the incident on the Internet:

A BUSINESSMAN FROM INDIA COMMITTED SUICIDE IN FRONT OF THE SECURITY SERVICE

The National Hotel in Moscow will soon become a high-risk zone in the public consciousness. Muscovites have not yet erased from memory the terrorist attack at its entrance [we are talking about the terrorist attack on December 9, 2003 - author's note.], and here is a new high-profile case: a forty-three-year-old businessman from the Indian state of Penjab committed suicide by throwing himself out of a fifth-floor window. So, in any case, according to two security guards who constantly work in this hotel. <...> It was established that shortly before the death of the businessman, a demimonde girl visited [9, p. 46].

In the above text, we see the implementation of a semantic model: the author of the note brings the audience not only to a negative perception of the tragedy, but also of the hotel as a whole, combining unrelated events (suicide and terrorist attack) in a single communicative act. The euphemism "demimonde girl" is used.

Let's take another example. According to the plot of the novel, the sister of the main character kills her husband, as the main character learns from a note with the title "English aristocrat found dead in the cathedral of Christ the Savior." The text of the material is not given, but such speech cliches are mentioned, such as, for example, "frozen grimace of unspeakable horror" and expressive vocabulary, focused not on informing the audience about what happened, but entertainment and creating a certain connotation. Here the author's satire on journalists is more clearly visible – a favorite technique of V. Pelevin. The material does not reflect the reality in which the reader is immersed.  

Despite the fact that the notes are about a murder and it seems that the message about such events is not intended to entertain the reader, we are inclined to believe that such notes can be attributed to an infotainment.  E.E. Pronina writes about the "black chronicle", focused on entertaining the reader at the expense of frightening details and skillfully placed accents. Journalistic material is likened to a detective [10, pp. 141-145].

The third example of describing the media as a crooked mirror is the material "A sick predator seeks refuge in Bitsevsky Park", which appeared after the main character was seen by residents during a chicken hunt [the essence of the hunt is that a werewolf fox steals a chicken in front of people, experiences shame, which becomes a catalyst for the final transformation: into in the novel, such a transformation is called "supraphysical"].

The reader looks at what is happening through the eyes of a participant in the events, a mythological character, while journalists explain what happened, finding rational arguments and building a different causal relationship. Thus, Pelevin recreates a text that does not correspond to reality, also representing the question of authenticity that we mentioned earlier.

The writer gives journalistic materials in a literary text the features of a "yellow" media text: thus, a sensation becomes the subject of discussion, the sources are not reliable, the author is subjective and uses expressive vocabulary in order to entertain the audience [11].

Concluding the review of the novel "The Sacred Book of the Werewolf" in the media discourse, we will give another example that vividly demonstrates Pelevin's negative attitude towards modern journalists. The main character learns from a news release about a terrorist act. The author pays special attention to the description of the journalist: "A correspondent standing on the lawn appeared on the screen – the wind ruffled his yellow hair, and a half-smile played on his face, like a reflection of some pleasant secret into which he was privy together with the viewer" [9, p. 45], V. Pelevin calls the presence of negative topics in the issue "a good catch" [9, p. 45]. p. 45] for journalists.

Journalists create a media space, focusing on the needs of society [12], which can be called postmodern. Among the features of such a society, A.A. Radugin and E.M. Gurina note the following: the dominance of information as an inexhaustible renewable resource; hyperreality and hypertowar (reflections on the significance of the image of the product, not its functionality and usefulness, the gap between the signifier and the signified appear in the reflections of the heroes of Pelevin's works); simulation; globalization; commercialization [13]. The listed characteristics can also be seen in the subject of interest to us.

As A.A. Suitcase writes, information becomes a product of consumption, and in this context it is appropriate to call the reader/viewer a "consumer". The journalist forms an understandable picture of the world for the audience [14, p. 25], which, according to the plot, runs counter to real events, in connection with which we use the term "simulacrum" in the article in relation to the media space.

Next, let's turn to the novel "Empire V", in which, as part of the course of a young vampire, the main character Rama gets acquainted with such concepts as "discourse" and "glamour". Glamorous magazines reflect reality in a crooked mirror, offering the reader a simulacrum of reality. Such media become a method of modeling reality.

One of the Chaldeans [people who serve vampires], the head of the discourse, expresses an important thought for this article: "Black Noise is the sum of all varieties of discourse. In other words, this is white noise, all the components of which are thought out and paid for. An arbitrary and random set of signals, in each of which there is nothing random and arbitrary. This is the name of the information environment surrounding modern man. <...> The purpose of Black Noise is not direct deception, but rather the creation of such an informational background that makes it impossible to accidentally understand the truth" [16, p. 276].

G.A. Brandt notes that glamour in the work is a kind of limited field presented for human activity: "The view of glamour as a kind of field, a frame, a way of ordering reality, finally, as a barbed wire that does not allow human thought to take a step aside ..." [15, p. 132]. The author, exploring glamour in Pelevin's perception, reveals such characteristic features as the cult of the surface, the dominance of the visual over the semantic content (the desire to "look" rather than "be") and calls reality a simulacrum.

Concluding the review of V. Pelevin's work in the context of online media and their reflection in the literary text, it is appropriate to recall the analysis of the story "The Zenith Codes of Al-Efesbi" and the novel "S.N.U.F.F." by A.L. Bobyleva. The author points out that the understanding of manipulative media technologies is also present in these works. The literary critic calls the reflection and reflection of what is happening on the agenda media reality. A.L. Bobyleva comes to the conclusion that both works "sound like a warning" [17, p. 446].

The author definitely speaks negatively about the work of journalists in other works (for example, in the novel "Generation P" the following idea is expressed: "Nowadays people learn about what they think on TV" [18, p. 219], "... reality is the material world that is shown on TV" [18, p. 98]. proving that journalism has the prerogative to interpret reality), additionally endowing them with the ability to create collective illusions, however, the examples given are sufficient to form an idea of the role of journalists in V. Pelevin's work.   

Conclusion

So, the article presents an overview analysis of the representation of the image of a media journalist and the functions of online journalism in the works of V. Pelevin. Working within the framework of the semantic model of news production, journalists go even further: they do not create meanings by superimposing them on a real event, they construct a simulacrum of the event by superimposing certain connotations on it.  

A distinctive feature of V. Pelevin's work is an appeal to the comic, the author tends to the grotesque, hypertrophiing and distorting the features of modern online journalism, which can be traced in the examples given in the article. Despite the fact that journalists appear to readers almost in a demonic guise, it is this style of narration that makes the reader wonder: "... isn't this nonsense about our world?" [19, p. 94].

The considered examples showed the conceptual transformation of the image of a journalist and the new functions of media texts in the reflection of a work of art. The development of the Internet and technologies lead to the transformation of not only the functions of journalism, but also a change in the conceptual model of a journalist. New genres and forms are emerging, mediated by the influence of youth journalism. V. Pelevin sees emerging trends, often predicting them, and acts as a mirror that reflects the processes taking place in youth journalism and new media.

References
1. Avdonina, N. S., Bogatyreva, V. N. (2020). Current trends in digital journalism and new media. In Bulletin of the Amur State University. Sholom Aleichem" (9-18), no. 2(39).
2. Yuan, Ye. (2021). The influence of modern online media on the activities of a journalist. In Successes in the Humanities (232-236), no. 10.
3. Gavrikova, O. A. (2020) Pragmatics of clickbaiting in the intertextual space of media discourse: abstract.. … dis. can. philologist. n. Ufa, (24).
4. Golovin, A. Yu. (2020). Robot journalism: the future that came earlier than scientists expected. In Higher education for the XXI century: digital transformation of society: new opportunities and new challenges (32-35), XVI International Scientific Conference. Reports and materials: at 2 pm Volume Part II, M.
5. Dmitriev A.V. (2002). Neomythologism in the structure of V. Pelevin's novels: diss. ... k. philol. n.: 10.01.01. Volgograd, 2002.
6. Kikhney, L.G., Gavrikov, V.A. (2020). Lev Naumov's prose in the context of "mystical realism" in Russian literature of the XX-XXI centuries. M.: Amsterdam: Tardis.
7. Kolchina, N. O. (2013). Marketing of educational services. In Integration of education (Pp. 48–51), 4 (73).
8. Melnikova, A. Yu. (2009). Virtual space in time in the postmodern text (V. Pelevin "The Sacred Book of the Werewolf"). In Bulletin of KSU im. N. A. Nekrasova (Pp. 123–125), 3.
9. Pelevin, V. O. (2011). The sacred book of the werewolf. M.: Eksmo-Press.
10. Pronina, E.E. (2006). Psychology of journalistic creativity. M.: KDU.
11. Kodanina, A. L. (2022). Journalism as the fourth power: the transformation of the profession in the transitional era. In I.A. Savchenko, Yu.V. Kozlova, N.A. Ageeva (Eds.) Transformations of public consciousness in the transitional era: materials of the international scientific and practical conference April 21–22, 2021 (Pp. 92-96). Vol. 2. Social changes in the theories of the middle level, Nizhny Novgorod: NGLU.
12. Gradyushko, A. A. (2023). Platformization in digital journalism: new media production strategies. In Proceedings of BSTU (Pp. 34–40), 4, 1.
13. Radugin, A. A., Gurina, E. M. (2014). The main characteristics of the postmodern era. In Philosophical Sciences. Omsk Scientific Bulletin (Pp. 88–91), 5 (132).
14. Chemodanova, A. A. (2022). Infotainment as a television directionþ In International scientific journal "Word in Science", (24-27), no. 4.
15. Brandt, G. A. (2010). Glamor as a discourse: obvious observations. In Discourse-Pi (Pp. 131–133), 9, l. 1–2.
16. Pelevin, V. O. (2021). Empire V. St. Petersburg: ABC, ABC-Atticus.
17. Bobyleva, A. L. (2016). Manipulative technologies of mass media as a subject of literary reflection in the prose of V. Pelevin in the 2010s. In Izv. Sarat. university New ser. Ser. Philology. Journalism (Pp. 443-446), 16, 4.
18. Pelevin, V. O. (2022). Generation “P”. M.: AST.
19. Bazylev, O. S. (2007). The artistic world of the work as a method of self-expression of the author. In Bulletin of the Chelyabinsk State Academy of Culture and Arts (Pp. 92–96), 2 (12).

First Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The article presented for consideration "The concept of a journalist in online media and its reflection in modern prose", proposed for publication in the magazine "Litera", is undoubtedly relevant, due to the consideration of the features of the "inclusion" of mass media in modern works of art. The article is groundbreaking, one of the first in the theory of Russian journalism devoted to the study of such topics in the 21st century. However, we believe that the title of the article does not fully correlate with the content, since the author sets the task to consider the concept of a journalist in modern prose, and the research is carried out on the practical material of several books by V. Pelevin. Thus, it can be concluded that Pelevin's prose is all modern prose, which is a deliberately false statement. The author needs either to update the title by focusing on Pelevin's prose or to expand the content by considering other works by other modern Russian and foreign writers. Structurally, the author departs from the generally accepted canons of scientific research. Thus, the unclear purpose and objectives of the study, the methodology chosen by the author, the actual volume of the language corpus on which the practical part of the study is conducted, as well as the principles of its selection. The introductory part of the study does not contain an overview of theoretical sources and scientific directions on the raised issues. The text of the article is not coherent, the logic of the scientific narrative is not traceable. The conclusion does not present specific conclusions that would correlate with the tasks set. The bibliography of the article contains 12 sources, including theoretical works in both Russian and English. Unfortunately, the article does not contain references to fundamental works such as monographs, PhD and doctoral dissertations. In some cases, the requirements of GOST for the design of the list of references have been violated, in terms of non-compliance with the generally accepted alphabetical arrangement of cited works. Thus, works in Russian are mixed with foreign-language works, traditionally located at the end of the list, the alphabetical principle of bibliography is not observed. In general, it should be noted that the article is written in a simple, understandable language for the reader. Typos, spelling and syntactic errors, inaccuracies in the text of the work were not found. The overall impression of the work is mixed, the topic stated in the title does not fully correlate with the content, the topic is not disclosed, the author's concept is not expressed, there is practically no increment of scientific knowledge. The work is inherently poorly scientific. The practical significance of the research lies in the possibility of using its results in the process of teaching university courses in literary studies. The article will undoubtedly be useful to a wide range of people, philologists, undergraduates and graduate students of specialized universities. The article "The concept of a journalist in online media and its reflection in modern prose" can be recommended for publication in a scientific journal after the text has been finalized.

Second Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The work of Viktor Pelevin is perceived ambiguously in the mass of critical sources: some of the studies extol the writer to the level of "modern classics", while others level the artist's name with words, indicating an obvious guideline for duplication, repetition in texts of most of what was already said in early work. Indeed, Victor Pelevin is read, studied, quoted; it is difficult to imagine the literary process of the late twentieth – early twenty-first century without this figure. The subject of the research of the reviewed article is the concept of a journalist in online media using the example of Victor Pelevin's texts. The empirical research material was the novels "The Sacred Book of the Werewolf" (2004) and "Empire V" (2006). The author of the article notes that "the issue of the influence of information technology on modern man, as well as the designation of the media space as a simulacrum of reality, are typical for Pelevin's text, in connection with which we turn to the novel Empire V, which mentions the information space, in particular, the influence of glamorous publications on the formation of the worldview of the layman, but journalistic texts do not presented." Methodological censorship is focused on the use of cultural-historical, structural-typological methods, as well as the principles of structural evaluation of texts. At first glance, the research groundwork is constructive, complex, multidimensional; however, in general, the work has a clearly unfinished appearance, there is practically no analysis of the analysis of artistic constructs. Almost everything is reduced to a kind of weak description and retelling. For example, "so, first the author tells us about an accident that happened to the main character: during the session, a person dies because he sees her in the form of a werewolf. The next day, the heroine accidentally reads about the incident on the Internet (for brevity, we will give an abbreviated note, our comments are in square brackets): A BUSINESSMAN FROM INDIA COMMITTED SUICIDE IN FRONT OF THE SECURITY SERVICE. In the above text, we see the implementation of a semantic model: the author of the note brings the audience not only to a negative perception of the tragedy, but also of the hotel as a whole, combining unrelated events (suicide and terrorist attack) in a single communicative act. The euphemism "demimonde girl" is used, or "next, let's turn to the novel "Empire V", in which, as part of the course of a young vampire, the main character Ram gets acquainted with concepts such as "discourse" and "glamour". Glamorous magazines reflect reality in a crooked mirror, offering the reader a simulacrum of reality. Such media become a method of modeling reality," or "completing the review of V. Pelevin's work in the context of online media and their reflection in the literary text, it is appropriate to recall the analysis of the novel "The Zenith Codes of Al-Efesbi" and the novel "S.N.U.F.F." by A.L. Bobyleva. The author notes that the understanding of manipulative media technologies is also present in these works. The literary critic calls the reflection and reflection of what is happening on the agenda media reality. A.L. Bobyleva concludes that both works "sound like a warning", etc. The work does not have a serious conceptual basis, the topic as such has not been disclosed, the purpose of the study has not been achieved. The fragmentary nature is characteristic of the entire text, and the fragmentary nature is manifested even in the final block: "the examples considered showed the conceptual transformation of the image of a journalist and the new functions of media texts in the reflection of a work of art. The development of the Internet and technology lead to the transformation of not only the functions of journalism, but also a change in the conceptual model of a journalist. New genres and forms are emerging, mediated by the influence of youth journalism. V. Pelevin sees emerging trends, often predicting them, and acts as a mirror that reflects the processes taking place in youth journalism and new media." The work is devoid of serious scientific novelty, the material has no theoretical significance, it can be conditionally called a serious study. It is advisable for the author to present the image of the "journalist" in Victor Pelevin's prose in a slightly different way, to define the conceptual interpretation of this nomination from a slightly different position. In the course of finalizing the study, it is also advisable to strengthen the bibliographic list with serious research both on the work of V. Pelevin and methodological developments within the framework of conceptology. In this form, the article "The concept of a journalist in online media and its reflection in the latest prose of V.Pelevina" cannot be recommended for publication in the scientific journal "Litera".

Third Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

V. Pelevin's work arouses increased interest among both readers and researchers. It almost immediately and firmly entered scientific circulation. The understanding of the artistic reality created by Pelevin in his novels, their poetics, and motivational structure is carried out both in scientific articles and in dissertations. The "Pelevin phenomenon" itself was awarded scientific study - an interesting discussion material on this topic was published in the journal "Questions of Literature". Anyway, Pelevin is an extremely sought–after author, especially among modern youth, and therefore one of the primary tasks is to study his ways of influencing the reader, his reflection on modern mass media. Thus, the relevance of the reviewed article is beyond doubt. The subject of the study were V. Pelevin's novels "The Sacred Book of the Werewolf" (2004) and "Empire V" (2006). Explaining his choice, the author clarifies that "the sample does not include the novel Generation P, although quotations from the work are mentioned in the article, which is explained by a significant amount of research devoted to the analysis of the specifics of the introduction of journalism and PR into a literary text." A feature of the methodological base of the study is the application of the theoretical provisions of mass media and communication theory to the analysis of a literary work. In our opinion, this approach is productive and promising. The author himself indicates the structural-typological method and structural analysis as the main research methods. The purpose of the study is clearly defined – "analysis of the image of a journalist presented in a modern postmodern text." Of course, it would be more logical to formulate the goal more specifically – "... in the work of V. Pelevin", but the author considers Pelevin's work as a typical, and therefore representative phenomenon of postmodern literature, by which one can judge general trends, therefore this formulation is quite appropriate. The scientific novelty of the article consists in the fact that it provides an overview of V. Pelevin's work in the context of online media and their reflection in the literary text; the position of the image of a journalist in the system of images of Pelevin's novels is revealed. In particular, it is indicated that journalists are episodic characters in his work, but they form the face of reality. How this happens is considered by the example of an analysis of three publications included in the text of the novel "The Holy Book of the Werewolf", during which it is illustrated how the information space turns into a crooked mirror of reality. It is very important that in the process of analysis the mechanism of "distortion" of reality in the journalistic text is revealed, the techniques that journalists use when creating such texts are indicated. The author of the article calls such materials "pseudo-journalistic", notes that they are "written in the genre of soft news, provided with headlines, and real facts are used whenever possible (in the context of the plot)." It also indicates the predominance of "expressive vocabulary, focused not on informing the audience about what happened, but on entertainment and creating a certain connotation." Another important observation is that Pelevin's images of journalists are always satirically presented, and their materials are endowed with "yellow" media text features: thus, the subject of discussion becomes a sensation, the sources are not reliable, the author is subjective and uses expressive vocabulary in order to entertain the audience." All this becomes a form of the author's assessment of the processes taking place in the mass media, aimed at the mass consumer of news. All this allows the author of the article to conclude that "the writer accurately, albeit in an allegorical form, reflects the changes taking place in modern media and reveals their role in the perception of the world by the audience." The article is well structured. It contains an introduction that outlines the goals of the study, its methodology, and the theoretical basis. The main part reflects the main observations on Pelevin's texts. In conclusion, generalizing conclusions are given. The list of references is representative. The article will be in demand in the study of modern literature, in university courses on journalistic ethics and professional communication, and it can also be used in school literature teaching. The article "The concept of a journalist in online media and its reflection in the latest prose by V.Pelevina" is recommended for publication in the journal "Litera".