The problem of information distortion worsened in recent years, but it also existed centuries ago. In fact, since its inception, information has been a valuable resource and tool to influence public opinion and, if necessary, represent information in a favourable light. The phenomenon of information distortion is not new and is closely related to the history of human development. However, with the development of forms and tools of communication and as the characteristics of the information environment change, the ways of distortion become more complicated. Besides the increase in number of types and forms of such distortions, the number and variety of approaches to its exploring increases, including the methods of its classification and criteria for differentiating, which fully meets the need to systematize the forms of information distortion in response to ongoing changes. This article attempts to critically analyse the methodological basis of the phenomenon of distorted information and to identify the main directions and methodological approaches to its study.

The article represents the trends in information content, which is produced by the most popular Russian women bloggers. The purpose of the article is to study the discursive fields formed by female influencers in the Russian segment of the online space. Women influencers are able to formulate the gender specificity of published content, which leads to the transformation of discursive fields, first in the online space, and then in offline reality. The main channel of communication between influencers and the target audience is social media, which, on the one hand, provide an illusory freedom of expression, on the other hand, build a new, latently functioning hierarchical system for managing public opinion. Having a direct channel of communication with the audience, female influencers are able to broadcast the gender agenda, reproduce gender stereotypes, fixing them in the existing transit of social action from online to offline space. As a result of the network and linguo-discursive analysis, conclusions were drawn about which discursive fields broadcast by female influencers are the most popular among users, which in the future will not only construct their lifestyle, but also affect the perception of the gender agenda that reveals various aspects of a woman (self-realization, family, career, politics, education, etc.).

Crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic affect people’s behavior, since most people react with fear and fear-related behavior. In these days, social media is used by many people all over the world and thus, people as well as public and private organizations and groups actively share, post and comment messages on social media. In this way, many people can be reached in a very short time. However, not all posts on social media can be defined as a credible news. On one hand, many people, groups and organizations make use of social media to spread rumors and fakes and on the other hand, many people believe in rumors and fakes spread on social media. For many people, differentiating between news and fakes is not easy. In this context, the present article uses the quantitative data collection method to investigate whether parents in the Federal Republic of Germany do more frequently believe in rumors and fake news on social media than childless people do. The results show that people with one or more children under the age of twelve do more frequently believe in fakes, i.e. that COVID-19 vaccination changes the genetic material, than childless people do.

The study is dedicated to the study of the problem of social loneliness. The theoretical and methodological base determines the significance of this phenomenon for modern society. In this regard, the issue of gender segregation in determining the factors of increasing social loneliness is extremely acute, since to a greater extent the marital and much less reproductive behavior of women can be associated precisely with the process of avoiding social loneliness as a social phenomenon, which requires clarification of these factors of the demographic development of society. Questions of studying social loneliness are also raised in the context of the need to preserve traditional family constructs. Modern social forms of avoiding social loneliness often form prerequisites for the distortion of family tradition and transform family and social forms of interaction. The article presents assessments of the phenomenon of social loneliness in the minds of women on the basis of a study. Social loneliness is considered in the context of women’s marital and reproductive behavior. At the same time, a comparison is made of the concepts of “social loneliness” and “happiness” within the considered subsample, differentiated by gender. The definitions of the concepts of “female happiness” and “index of happiness” are given, a scale of assessments of the happiness index in the interval between two antagonistic terms is given, and the index is calculated for the considered subsample. The results are based on the author’s empirical all-Russian research conducted in the spring of 2022 (N=2500, in the gender distribution, the sample population of women was 43% – 1075 people). The sample was defined as continuous, random, and at the last stage nested, since only one gender group was taken within the framework of this article – women. The results of the study are aimed at finding ways to reduce the risks of the formation of destructive socio-psychological constructs in women’s perception of themselves and the world through the prism of social loneliness, and also contribute to the development of recommendations for the development of sustainable family constructs of the traditional type.

The article considers verbal elements of perfectionism as a communicative strategy of promotional discourse in annual reports of large industrial companies for the representation of outstanding company performance aimed at developing a positive public image. A sampling of 2882 contextual occurrences of keywords with the perfectionist semantics served as the material for the research (best, maximum, high, improvement, increase, increase, growth). The keywords characterized inherent corporate activities. Research methods – statistical sampling and content analysis. According to the obtained results, perfectionism penetrates through the key company activities – production of high quality products, socially responsible corporate governance, improvement of financial management, implementation of best practices for the use of energy resources, increase in personnel involvement by means of effective monetary compensation and nonmonetary benefits, ensuring a high level of social protection for employees. Less numerous data were obtained in business process management, health, safety and environmental protection, digital technologies. Perfectionism in annual reports accentuates needs and interests of the target audience – high quality products, social well-being, including customers, investors, stakeholders, employees, and citizens of presence regions.

The system of communication management of public authorities faces the task create and support a positive image in order to increase the index of citizens’ trust in the government institution of the country as a whole. Due to the of problems related to the lack of control of information flows and a low level of trust in public authorities, the successful completion of this task it is not always possible through internal human and expert resources. In solving such problems, it is important to involve external consultants who, using the expertise and experience, should increase the effectiveness and ensure the effectiveness of communication solutions. In this paper, the author actualises the importance of the use of communication consulting for public authorities, and draws out the key communication problems of the institution together with the applied tools of communication consulting.

The relevance of the article is predetermined by the need to protect and translate the Russian civilizational code in the new geopolitical reality. The methodological basis of the study was the methods of content analysis of the works of leading researchers, as well as discourse analysis of publications in the media and on information resources. The author focuses on culture as one of the foundations for the preservation and transmission of the Russian civilizational code. In this regard, the researcher refers to such categories as cultural sovereignty and cultural immunity. The article analyzes the legal sources, the priority of which is the preservation of the Russian civilizational code. Based on the analysis of the space of social communications, the author draws attention to public support for legislative initiatives aimed at strengthening Russian cultural immunity, as well as protecting Russian cultural sovereignty. The article positions the importance of updating the ideological foundations of interaction between the state and society in the context of preserving the Russian civilizational code. Besides, the attention is drawn to the issues of the value-semantic foundation of the activities of the modern Russian political elite, which hinder the effectiveness of social communications. The researcher puts forward the thesis about the expediency of developing the educational direction of educational and upbringing activities, focused on the translation of the Russian civilizational code in the youth information environment.

Patriotism can be valuable only when a person makes certain conscious decisions and takes concrete active actions. Thus, patriotism, like other values, can be realized through awareness of its prescriptive power and its acceptance by a person as a principle of activity. The disclosure of the essence of patriotism by Ivan Ilyin makes it possible to formulate such moral principles as respect, love and pride in one’s motherland. In addition, the essence of patriotism forms the primacy of the national legal culture (but not its exclusivity), uniformity of ways and methods of the spiritual life of the people, preservation of the established spiritual and moral way of Russian life (national character), and peculiar acts of national structure and self-determination. Patriotism also presupposes the unity of the national cultural system and the spiritual and cultural achievements of the people, the creative unity of people in the national culture, the brotherhood of peoples and the inviolability of national autonomous life. The authors proceed from the understanding that the operation of these principles is the basis of state legal consciousness and the unity of the internal life of the state union. Therefore, it requires their recognition, legal protection and regulation at the federal level.

The article reveals some problems of the content of the media image and the process of its formation against the background of the escalated political and economic confrontation. The authors update some characteristics of the media image phenomenon and its role in the development of the region and ensuring its national sovereignty. The research is based on the analysis of the media image of the Chechen Republic as the most complex from historical, confessional, political and other points of view. An important aspect of the formation of a positive content of the media image of Chechnya is the media image of its head. The phenomenon of the media image of the region is presented by the authors in its influence on the formation of the worldview of the society, fullness of emotional, semantic, subjective content. Based on the analysis of the experience of the Chechen Republic, the authors come to the conclusion that the promotion of a positive media image of the region in the media with the participation of regional and federal authorities can ensure the solution of the most acute socio-economic problems of the region as an integral part of the Russian state.

This paper examines the concept of digital solidarity that emerged in the era of high technology development, digitalization and digital culture. As a form of social support and approval in the digital space, this kind of solidarity is gaining popularity due to the possibility of using universal codes and hashtags to mark certain topics, indicate belonging to the community and “recognize” one’s own in digital communication. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the processes of communication in the digital space, which has created a need for the formation of new cultural codes and meanings in the digital environment. In certain areas, for example, in the environmental agenda, there is a special need for labeling a community if it is at the stage of emerging and requires information coverage. Using the example of digital solidarity in an environmental theme, explored through hashtags on social networks, this article reveals a new form of social interaction that promotes social integration and the joint expression of ideas. As a result of the study, hashtags of the first and second order are identified, which determine the range of topics, involvement in issues and are used mainly in combinations to enhance the effect and increase coverage in social networks.

The article is devoted to storytelling technology, which involves the production and promotion of optimized stories in the interests of companies and their products. The authors explore the dynamic development of this area of science and practice from structuring universal technologies to focusing on certain models of construction and actual application of these technologies in various socio-economic contexts. As a special perspective, the authors consider the interrelated concepts of “storytelling” and “conflict”, which perform the task of conflict management in order to obtain a positive effect. It is shown how the conflict component of the story simultaneously serves to make it more attractive and to promote the conflict towards its constructive solution. The practice of creating immersive stories that arise spontaneously or in an organized manner among consumers and the media, as well as the reaction of companies to them in the form of creating counterstories, is demonstrated. The experience of storytelling of three major corporations is analyzed: Procter & Gamble, Philip Morris and McDonald’s.

The paper represents theoretical and practical approaches to applying storytelling as modern technology for the transmission and representation of information. Storytelling has accompanied mankind throughout the ages of its civilized development, which is probably why storytelling is so effective in modern practices of managing public opinion. The authors offer the detailed definitions of the concepts of storytelling and narrative, and provide key sociological and philosophical concepts that determine the possibilities of storytelling in the formation of social identity. Storytelling is presented as a form of interactive sociocultural activity for the exchange of stories (meanings) and as a method of socio-cultural communication that can be used in various ways of managing public opinion and interaction in social groups (communities). The effectiveness of storytelling lies in establishing an emotional connection with the contact audience based on the identity, which engages, forms the loyalty and trust of the audience. In conclusion, the authors provide examples of the practical application of storytelling by companies and brands as a modern tool of communication, and draw the conclusions.