The political and international areas are particularly conflict-prone; in order to achieve their goals, the warring parties use all available means - from economic to political-ideological. With the escalation of confrontation between Russia and Western countries, large-scale conflict situations involving mass media arise. Despite the fact that the conflict is based on the global strategic interests of the leading countries of the world, it is still possible to take certain steps towards relieving tension and give a positive impetus to international relations. This would be facilitated by the introduction of the institute of mediators in the field of international journalistic conflicts with the involvement of people of goodwill - first of all, professionals from both the Russian and western sides who would specialize, in particular, in the field of media criticism. The empirical base of the article was made up of publications by leading Western newspapers which, according to their typological characteristics, are considered qualitative.