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The Role of TECH Companies in the Development of Digital Media and their Political Agency

https://doi.org/10.21453/2311-3065-2025-13-2-65-73

Abstract

The paper is dedicated to the transformation of digital media relations (MR) in the context of the increasing political agency of technology companies (TECH companies). The author proceeds from the premise that at the turn of the 2010s such corporations such as Google, Amazon, as well as their Russian counterparts (Yandex, VK, Sberbank) became key media-political actors with normative, ideological and infrastructural functions in the digital space. The manuscript examines the institutional role of digital platforms as infrastructural and ideological intermediaries that determine the framework of public discussion. It has been established that the information activities and media relations of these companies are acquiring features of political communication. Empirical data confirm the shift from traditional models of interaction with the consumer of products to political communication with the general public. The conclusion is made about the formation of TECH companies as new political actors and reveals the institutional evolution of their PR & media activities in the direction of public diplomacy, digital sovereignty and ideological positioning.

About the Author

Z. A. Khubezhova
Osmocode LLC
Russian Federation

Khubezhova Zarina Arsenovna – director of Public Relations department; postgraduate student and senior lecturer at the Department of Information Process Management at the Institute of Public Administration and Management, RANEPA

191014, St. Petersburg, Kovensky lane, 5/B.



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For citations:


Khubezhova Z.A. The Role of TECH Companies in the Development of Digital Media and their Political Agency. Communicology. 2025;13(2):65-73. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.21453/2311-3065-2025-13-2-65-73

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ISSN 2311-3065 (Print)
ISSN 2311-3332 (Online)