SCIENCTIFIC ISSUES IN ILIA CHAVCHAVADZE’S “IVERIA”

Abstract

The article refers to the coverage of scientific issues in the newspaper “Iveria”, founded and edited by the well-known public figure, writer and publicist Ilia Chavchavadze. Coverage of scientific issues is important for studying the history of Georgian scientific journalism of the 19th century. The introduction includes a small excursion about the process of formation/development of scientific communication and scientific journalism. Science journalism originates from the publication of the Digdarshan magazine, with the first copy published in 1818 in Bengal, India, which published articles on important scientific issues. It should be noted that it was released in Bengali, Hindi, and English languages. Besides, one of the first articles published by a science correspondent in the history of the mass media was William Crookes’ article “Storm in the Bay of Biscay” published on January 18, 1871, in “The Times” newspaper. However, in 1928 particularly, the history of science journalism began after the appointment of James Crowther as a science correspondent for “The Guardian” newspaper. However, the transition to truly open science i.e. wide coverage of scientific issues and problems by means of mass information eventually commenced at least in the 19th and 20th centuries. Society showed a higher interest in science and its issues. Such interest and relationship were two-way: the sense of responsibility and accountability of scientists to the society increased, on the one hand, and the level of public awareness and education increased on the other hand and being just curiosity at the beginning, afterward, there was a desire for science as a force and institution for the public good. It became necessary to inform the public about the current events in the field of science, which turned out to be mutually beneficial. Science acknowledged that relations with other social institutions are vital and the mass media began to widely cover scientific topics. Since the beginning of the 19th century, after the publication of the first Georgian newspaper, the periodicals of that time, regardless of the social and political trends, paid considerable attention to science, and lots of materials were published about this issue. The introductory letter of the Iveria newspaper published in 1877 under Ilia Chavchavadze’s editorship states that Iveria aimed to promote scientific knowledge (scientific achievements) in society. “Learning, knowledge, science – are efforts which cannot be confronted by any obstacle nowadays: neither a fist, nor a sword, nor the number of troops” – as Ilia writes. Ilia published the newspaper “Iveria” in 1877. The first issue was released on March 3 in the format of a political and literary newspaper, although the outcome exceeded expectations due to the truly phenomenal abilities and encyclopedic knowledge of the founder and editor-in-chief, Ilia Chavchavadze. Thus, as a result of the thematic-genre research and analysis of materials published in “Iveria” in 1877-78 (a total of 92 issues) and taking into account main trends, it was identified that “Iveria” newspaper was an indisputable flagship in the history of Georgian journalism in terms of scientific coverage. Issues of science are within the priorities of the editorial policy of the newspaper.