Communication in the public sector is a key tool for responding to sudden crises. It allows to check the interpretation of what is happening in accordance with changing circumstances and prevent the risks of irreversible obligations, when the authorities make management decisions in conditions of the pandemic crisis, which has raised the bar of their responsibility to protect citizens. COVID-19 is considered by the author as a starting point in the transformation of traditional communication schemes and the institutional consolidation of new communication practices and models of crisis communication. Public sector organizations face different challenges in comparison to private ones, because they are influenced by social structures, power dynamics and a higher level of media control. The pandemic accelerated the processes of media convergence and defined in it a communication collaborative strategy for the development of crisis communications in the public sector. The beginning institutionalization of crisis communications makes it possible to systematize communication strategies and increase the effectiveness of the tools and means used for the proper organization of crisis communication in the public sector. The core of modern crisis communications is social media, which, in fact, is equated with traditional media and entered into direct competition with them, primarily due to the ability to monitor crisis problems and decentralized rapid communications. To keep control over the process of informing the citizens in a crisis, the authorities must act in accordance with a certain communication scenario. The model of crisis communication for the public sector is still being formed. It needs to be re-conceptualized in an increasingly personalized, emotional, and hybrid media landscape.

The paper reveals the features of innovation activity in the higher education system in Russia. The authors summarize the reforms planned in the Strategy of innovative development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020, analyze the current state and prospects for the deployment of innovation, and draft some proposals for university practice. The article analyzes the collective nature of the subject of innovation activity in a regional university, as well as the problems of interrelationships between its individual groups. It highlights information and communication problems in the course of organizing and implementing university innovation activities, in particular, in the process of forming innovation competencies. The problems of commercialization of the results of scientific activity in regional universities of the country are considered separately. Specific sociological data gathered by the authors is used to verify conclusions and propositions. The main conclusion: innovation activity in a regional university (especially in a classical university) is developing slowly and with great difficulties, in particular, due to numerous information and communication problems of interaction and the formation of a corporate innovation culture.

The paper examines the historical connection of phonetics with general linguistics, and reveals why this area of linguistics did not develop neither consistently, nor simultaneously in the structure of philological sciences. Attention is paid to the modern media-text approach to such an area of phonetics as intonation; the latter, in turn, is viewed as part of communication theory. It is hypothesized that such an attitude to sound, to the phoneme, has already been considered among the Futurists, Dadaists, Lettrists, Budelyans and Oberiuts, who interpreted sounds as an unknowable phenomenon that is beyond the cognition of the mind. Here the place and the pragmatic role of modern science on current approaches to phonetics in communicology is determined, where intonation does not refer to either cognitive science or paralinguistics, but, at the same time, unites these two areas of practical speech production. It is hypothetically assumed that such approaches were realized by some representatives of trends and schools of the direction of modernism of the early twentieth century.

The relevance of the research derives from the necessity to analyze new risks of online self-diagnosis of health conditions amidst the increase in the number of Internet requests for diagnosis and treatment of Covid-19 and identification of the first coronavirus symptoms. Tensions in society are growing due to the fact that the pace of epidemic is accelerating and the number of people infected with coronavirus is growing every day, encouraging individuals to self-diagnose in the internet, as hospital hotlines are overloaded, and doctors’ visiting hours are reduced due to a large flow of the infected. Moreover, the article examines the risks that online self-treatment entails without professional supervision and control. The analysis of modern research on what pushes individuals to online treatment and self-medication is presented in the article. The author reviews statistical data on the actual number of Yandex search queries regarding the diagnosis and treatment of coronavirus infection. At the end of the article, the author determines both the processes in the field of medicine that can be automated and the processes with a low technical potential for digitalization.

The paper highlights the problem of gender stereotypes and gender stratification and provides the description of constructionism and discourse analysis as the methodological foundations of gender studies. Gender is viewed as both a social construct and discursive practice. The author proposes a specific methodology for discourse analysis that takes into account the specifics of social media. The methods of research include analysis of linguistic data, processed through the lens of constructionist analysis, discourse and content analysis. The author grounds the study on M. Foucault’s approach that influenced discursive and constructionist studies. The features of the articulation of the topic are shown based on materials of the social network VKontakte. The author reveals the discursive techniques, with the help of which indicates the position and role of the subject. In social networks, unlike other media discourses, the problem of gender relations is expressed exaggeratedly. With the traditional spectrum of plots for stereotyping, the network newspeak is prone to use language play and genre fusion. Hence, the polar features of gender discourse in the network space should be noted: the coexistence of aggressive orthodox patriarchal judgments with sarcastic rethinking of gender roles and the manifestation of egalitarianism in the interpretation of masculinity and femininity. Gender discourse is represented as an element of ideological discourse that the author designates as modern newspeak, which is characterized by the ability to politicize any aspect of culture and strive for domination.

The concept of “soft power”, which has entered the official lexicon of the Chinese Communist Party, has American roots. At the heart of Joseph Nye’s concept is a call for flexible use of the “intangible power resources” of culture and political ideals to influence the behavior of people in other countries. For the Chinese power groups, Nye’s concept looked like a modern development of the “Art of War” reasoning, so J. Nye’s idea received a deep cross-cultural resonance in China.

The article presents two main aspects of the research carried out by the author of the article on the influence of the concept of “soft power” in the political process. Firstly, the influence of the concept of “soft power” on the political process: the fourth generation of Chinese leaders, led by President of the People’s Republic of China Hu Jintao, focused on soft power as the basis for the strategy of intercultural communication; Xi Jinping introduces the principle of cultural confidence, including values in the political discourse of modern China in a new era. This defines a new task of “soft power”. Secondly, “soft power” as a tool of political communication: the culture and ideology of Confucianism has a significant influence on the political process communication of the PRC. In these conditions, the ideology of the PRC adapts and uses Confucian concepts as a brand of intercultural communication and a kind of ideological bridge that can serve to ensure the preservation of national identity, form a positive image of the state and strengthen the country’s international position, and will become the basis for internal cohesion. Hence the authorities actively work to adapt “soft power” to the tasks of modern domestic and foreign policy. The studies carried out on this topic have shown that the concept of “soft power” of the PRC is a powerful instrument of the political culture of the PRC and a viable strategy of intercultural communication.

The article is devoted to the topical problem of interaction between culture and economy. The sociology of culture studies this issue in order to identify the factor role of culture and economy in the mechanisms of sociogenesis in modern conditions. The author examines the role and place of socio-cultural traditions, norms and values in the economic system of society and the economic activity of modern Russian society; within the study the attention is drawn to what determines reality and forms a space for communication of subjects of social relations. In this regard, the work defines the socio-cultural tradition as the basis of communication, interaction between culture and economy. The author analyzes the development of views and ideas on the relationship between culture and economy in the works of foreign and domestic researchers, and also considers tradition as the basis that forms the economic model of human behavior. Based on research the author considers the sociocultural tradition the core that determines, explains and predicts human behavior in economic life.

This article examines the problems of communication between the government, society and the mass media in the field of extremism prevention through a systematic information policy aimed at identifying the causes and factors that determine radical manifestations, determining measures aimed at their localization, and forming a persistent rejection of illegal behavior of citizens and their associations in society. The competent organization of interaction between the government, society and the media makes it possible to synthesize their efforts in the field of extremism prevention. This approach encompasses not only basic security-based counter-terrorism measures, but also systematic preventive steps to address the underlying conditions that encourage individuals to radicalize and join violent extremist groups. It is necessary to develop specific recommendations and action plans at the federal, regional and local levels of both state and municipal authorities in active interaction with the mass media, in particular, focusing on the root social reasons why some people are attracted to extremist organizations and what measures to combat extremism are most effective.

The paper represents the author’s view on the development trends and issues of digital transformation in the field of PR activities of government bodies. The author reveals and substantiates the need for active development in the Internet space of balanced communication of the authorities with the citizens. The author proceeds from the assumption that for a PR-service employee, the Internet is a new information reality that has a significant impact on the mechanisms of public opinion management. An open dialogue, built on a constant and improving basis, in parallel with the development of Internet technologies, is the basis for a balanced and most effective communication between the authorities and the public. Based on the study, the author comes to the conclusion that the conservative system of civil service needs to adapt to the information needs of the audience, offering an adequate list of convenient interactive services, easy messages and formats of interaction.

In current conditions of digital transformation, the study of youth leadership is of particular practical importance. Knowledge of the characteristics of information and mass consciousness, psychological and social characteristics of the functioning of youth leadership, the willingness of the masses to follow the leader in the youth environment, acquire special significance. The research in the field of youth leadership shows that extracurricular, social work does not always create optimal conditions for the formation of leadership qualities of a young person. Young people today are immersed in digital technology, hence, the previous practices of identifying and developing leadership qualities no longer work in the youth environment.

The purpose of this research in the field of leadership development is to identify problems in the formation of leadership potential and their actualization at the regional level. This should contribute to a better empirical understanding of some important aspects of the leadership development process. The author proceeds on the assumption that occasional, local survey-based research projects are unlikely to add much value to this nascent science of leadership development. In contrast, methodological and analytical approaches based on a personalized approach to leader development are likely to provide more information than those that attempt to model average trends in a given sample.

The relevance of the study is substantiated by to the need to develop effective measures for localization and overcoming possible negative consequences of ethnoconfessional processes in the border regions of the Russian Federation, which is achieved with a developed level of the ethno-confessional space of public communication. The methodology for organizing such a space is based on the concept of public values management, which considers social development through the prism of active involvement of stakeholders in the discussion of socially significant tasks and participation in the implementation of the decisions made. The aim of the work is to determine the social barriers of this space that impede the interaction of its stakeholders. Based on systematization of relevant publications, the authors reveal the essence of the concept of “social barrier of communication” and classify them; based on the expert survey conducted by the authors in 2020 among representatives of the main stakeholders, level of manifestation of the identified social barriers is determined.

Scientific novelty of the paper consists in the introduction of the definition of social barriers in the ethno-confessional space of public communications, the author’s classification of these barriers based on the structure of two-way symmetric communication, within which communicators, message, channels, efficiency / result and situation can be distinguished. This classification made it possible to single out the following social barriers to communication: for communicators, these barriers are manifested as low activity and initiative, differences in the thesauri of communicators and their low communicative and communication competence; for messages – falsification of messages and imitation of the communication process; for communication channels – their mismatch and a feedback barrier; for the expected result – its mismatch; for a communication situation – the displacement of the actualization of events. According to the expert survey, among these barriers, the key ones are low activity and initiative of representatives of stakeholders, the desire to imitate the communication process instead of real dialogue and partnership, and the lack of feedback (lack of reaction of some stakeholders to the actions of others).

In the research of the past decade, Russian sociologists are increasingly turning to communication theories in the discourse of constructing social reality and actualizing the meanings of the modern socio-cultural environment. According to the author, one of the most promising, although not devoid of internal contradictions, is the “Theory of coordinated control of meaning” by W.B. Peirce and V.E. Kronen. Appearing in American science in the second quarter of the twentieth century as a philosophical project, it quickly became the methodological basis for many empirical experiments. The purpose of this study is to present the management perspectives of this theory in the context of Public Dialogue as a project implemented in the late 90’s of the XX century in Cupertino (California). The corresponding range of tasks is also outlined here, namely, to show how ontological theory becomes the basis for building a social technology for managing interaction processes in the urban environment and what management resources were used to achieve the final goal of the project. In the conclusions, the significance of communication as a primary social process is formulated, which determines the expansion of six concepts as the basis of the “grammar” of the theory of coordinated meaning management.