Abstract

This article investigates the contemporary Georgian opinion press as a system in decline since the start of the third millennium. Drawing on media-theoretical reflection and close observation of journalistic practice, the author argues that falling readership is not explained by economics alone but by structural changes in news values and genre. The press, he suggests, pursues scandal and sensation, reduces journalism to interviewing, and becomes monotonously politicised and one-sided. As established forms such as feature article, profile article and reportage disappear, narrative depth and investigation give way to speed and ideological emphasis. The argument is illustrated through the case of the village of Ditsi, where coverage remained fixated on visible barbed wire rather than confronting the deeper consequences of creeping occupation.