mass media

The article aims to identify the criteria of the "image" of a migrant and "migrant" infrastructure, to describe the problems of interethnic relations, integration of migrants from Central Asia in a Russian city (using the examples of cities in Chelyabinsk region). The author relies on 540 interviews with the local population of six cities of the region (Chelyabinsk, Kopeysk, Magnitogorsk, Miass, Zlatoust, Troitsk), as well as the results of observations, content analysis of mass media and Internet resources.

The main methodological problems a mass media researcher usually faces are considered in this article. The author deems it possible to overcome them by using coders, preliminary articulating controversial issues, and taking into consideration existing principles of media outlets’ functioning.

The article presents the analysis of theories and hypotheses of foreign as well as Russian authors who studied social aspects of the media. The value of various scientific schools which developed their own interpretations and ideas is noted, however all the analyzed theories reveal the social character of this means of communication. The aim of the research is to explain the theoretical foundation to study the media as a social phenomenon as well as examining the notion of a suicide in the perspective of the media theory.

Certain premises of the key Russian legal documents (i.e. Constitution, Doctrine of Information Security, and Conception of State Information Policy of the Russian Federation) conducive to the media literacy formation are considered in this article.

Certain premises of the federal laws of the Russian Federation (i.e. «About Mass Media», «About Information, Information Technologies, and Protection of Information», «About Providing Access to Information Concerning State and Municipal Bodies’ Activity») conducive to the media literacy formation are considered in this article. Political dimension of media literacy is substantiated.

The article is devoted to the study of the concept of “information sovereignty” and the basic means of its implementation. The article reveals the reasons that have aggravated the demand of the state for the construction of information sovereignty. Moreover, the paper reveals the main components of it. Further in the item, the concepts of the “information shield” policy and the “information sword” policy are analyzed and conceptualized. The differences between them are detected, the resources necessary for their realization are analyzed.

The subject of this research is the transnationalization of mass communication as a phenomenon directly related to globalization. Based on the comparison of the views of different scientists, the author analyzes the place of the media and communications in modern society, in the transition of different social relations (economic, political) of the levels of competence of national States at the international, supranational level.

The main methods to counteract manipulative techniques used by mass media for political purposes are considered in this article. Among others, the author argues the necessity to compare information from different news sources, to check credibility of the facts conveyed by journalists, and to evaluate the extent to which a story is balanced.

The article provides a sociological rationale of constructing moral panics in Russian society in 1990- 2010s. Statistical data are used, as well as a secondary analysis of the results of sociological research: both the research of other scientists and their own author’s developments.

Based on public surveys results’ analysis, the main features of Russia’s youth disposition towards politics are considered in this article. The author describes the media component of the youth political culture within the context of the degree to which their media literacy is formed and suggests pessimistic and optimistic tendencies the phenomenon under consideration has.