Information factors affecting political socialization of Russian youth

Abstract

The paper considers the peculiarities of the process of the political socialization in modern conditions, i.e. in complication of all spheres of human life and society, primarily the informational and socio-cultural component of this process, which is now dominated by non-linear trends – traumas and gaps. The author (1) represents the informational and social factors of risks and vulnerabilities for the system of interactions of the agents of political socialization under the conditions of pluralization of meanings, simulacres, and the artificial creation of “non-events” and “post-truth”; (2) substantiates the necessity of preservation of value components of socialization of youth as a social group with specific socio-psychological characteristics manifested in social and political spheres; (3) attempts to systematize social and digital information factors that influence the political consciousness and the process of purposeful socialization of young people, their civic activity and involvement in the political processes of the country.

The empirical study was aimed at identifying the degree of media activity of non-party youth associations and their influence on the political consciousness of Russian youth. The contentanalysis was conducted on the Medialogia media monitoring system to identify the quantitative characteristics of the publication and media activity of several of the most popular youth social movements and structures (the Nashi Youth Movement, the Revolutionary Communist Youth Union, the Yunarmiya Movement), as well as the Federal agencies for youth affairs of the Russian Federation, the Committee of the State Duma of the Russian Federation on youth policy and the National Council of Youth and Children’s Associations of Russia. The sample included more than 140,000 materials published between February 2019 and February 2022 in print media, radio, TV, Internet and news agencies at the federal level.