The article examines a relatively new phenomenon of humanitarian resistance, which is becoming widespread in higher education. It represents an intellectual and practical pedagogical reaction to the expansion of technocracy, digitalization and commercialization at universities. These trends have intensified in the context of the pandemic. The case of journalistic education in Russia has been selected for the actual study. The main material for observations was obtained through expert interviews with leading teachers of a number of universities; to verify the conclusions, the authors use theoretical works and discussions in the pedagogical community. As a result of the analysis, it turns out that teachers mostly vote for the spiritual and cultural values of education and consider it essentially important to conduct active interpersonal communication within traditional forms of classes. In this regard, their position coincides with the mood of the students’ parents, as sociological surveys revealed.