Charity Promotion in Mass Media: Problems and Prospects of Using Photos

The purpose of this work is to identify typical characteristics of photographs that illustrate journalistic materials about charity and reasons for their appearance. The object of the research is photographs which are used in charitable materials published in "Takie dela"; subject is typical characteristics of these photos. The work consists of two parts. In the theoretical part the main stages of the development of charity in Russia and the problems that it faces have been identified. Moreover, the ways of charity promotion in media have been examined and the impact that photos have on people’s mind have been studied. Such sources of information as "Dilemmas of Philanthropy" by the doctor of philosophical science R.G. Apresyan, "Problems of Charity in Modern Russia" by the doctor of philosophical science G.L. Tulchinsky, "On Photography," "Illness as Metaphor" and "Regarding the Pain of Others" by American writer S. Sontag have been used in the research. In the practical part the analysis of photographs used in various charitable journalistic materials published on the website "Takie dela" has been made, the typical characteristics of such illustrations have been identified and the reasons for their appearance have been determined. Keywords: problems of charity, photographs, Internet media, perception