The article examines the current state of Russian theoretical and educational schools of journalism in the context of global trends in the development of journalistic education. The authors critically assess the established methodology for building international university rankings, which, according to a number of parameters, is not able to identify the achievements and advantages of Russian universities. It is necessary to abandon the monocentric coordinate system in favor of a polycentric methodology. In this case, opportunities open up for the productive use of a cultural and civilizational approach, which involves the analysis of journalistic education in genetic relationship with the cultural environment in general and national journalism with its stable features in particular. From the above positions, the Russian practice of training journalistic personnel is organically related to the concept of theoretical and educational schools, which to a much lesser extent can be attributed to the practice of many universities abroad. It implies in-depth academic training with strong social and humanitarian accents, the ideological and conceptual originality of each of the schools, the presence of recognized leaders and the continuation of their initiatives in the works of their followers, providing teaching with fundamental educational publications and, in turn, inseparable interaction with the professional industry. Russian journalism schools have a number of properties and achievements that are not typical for other national educational models, and act as leaders in the corresponding parameters. To confirm these assumptions, it is necessary to conduct a special comprehensive study. The “Theoretical and Pedagogical Schools of Journalism in Russia” research project, implemented at St. Petersburg State University, is aimed at solving these problems. The project program includes the reconstruction of the preconditions and main milestones in the history of journalistic education in Russia, a structural and functional analysis of the current conditions, the creation of a portrait gallery of the founders and outstanding representatives of schools in the country's universities.