Peculiarities of Professional Media Education in 1920s: Methods of Training Military Correspondents (On the Example of the Magazine “Education and Upbringing”, 1924–1926)

The studies of the specialized military-political publications of the 1920s usually consider only approaches to organizing the political and educational work of commanders with personnel. Filling the gap, this article focuses on the media educational approach to the analysis of print media that examines the activities of newspapers and magazines as a kind of media platform for the training of regional workers and village correspondents (rabsel'cors), and military correspondents (voencors). The article reveals the main methods of training military correspondents by the specialized magazine “Education and upbringing”. Voencors were supposed to participate in creating a mass press, perform information functions and be propagandists, agitators, and organizers of the movement of military correspondents. Based on the analysis of the journal publications the author identifies the main approaches to rabsel'cors and voencors’ training: the introduction of special headings that attracted the Red Army soldiers to read periodicals and create wall newspapers; recommendations for establishing connections between military correspondents and village correspondents; publication of articles by the main authors of the journal on the organization of wall newspapers; analysis of military correspondents’ publications; responses to letters from readers. As a result, the author comes to the conclusion that the military-political magazine “Education and upbringing” should be considered not only as a means of ideologically educating the serviceman of a new type but as a necessary guide for novice correspondents of specialized and universal media.