The article is devoted to the socio-political understanding of the functioning of the political and administrative elite in the modern information and communication space. The relevance of the research topic is based on the need to redefine, in current political and social reality, the concepts of political elite and administrative elite, as well as to identify its distinctive features. The authors lead theoretical foundations for defining the concepts of political elite and administrative elite from the point of view of linguistics and political science, analyse the approaches and models of western and domestic researchers on the problem of relations between the political and administrative elites, and put forward the thesis about the relative independence of the administrative elite as a category of political science analysis and the validity of studying public administration outside the framework of the concept of the dichotomy of political and administrative elites. The final part of provides the authors’ assessment of the role and the pathways of Western political elites in the context of modern geopolitical reality.

The article examines the specifics of political cognition as a structural element of political communication. The main task of the study is to identify, in the conditions of an ideational turn, the characteristics of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization political and media axis, modeled in scientific and media publications and conditioned by different logic and political cognitions of the authors. The mediatization of modern political discourse makes it possible to consider ideology as a potential opportunity that creates grounds for organizing the institutional present through the symbolism recontextualization of the institutional past. The Argentine sociologist, anthropologist and semiotic, Professor of Communication Sciences at the University of San Andres, Elisio Verona’s position is recognized as a priority in understanding ideology. Critical linguistics is considered to be the most productive in terms of representing and describing the multiplicity of interaction between participants in political communication, balancing communication of political cognitions. In the conceptual modeling process, elements of political analysis are used, based on the appeal to ideas as causal variables. The research is carried out taking into account the importance of causal-constitutive logics, while causal logic is recognized as the priority logic of communication, with an orientation towards the idea as a focal point. The authors consider the idea of cooperation, which models the SCO’s institutional functions, through cognitive presentations in scientific and media sources, and ground its interpretation on the terminological and conceptual apparatus of Russian constructivism.

The development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and machine learning algorithms is increasingly influencing various aspects of social life, gradually finding its place not only in social media but also in journalism (Newman). They are actively being integrated into various fields of mass media, enabling the automation of several processes within media companies, thereby optimizing the work of journalists, editors, and media managers. This topic represents a pertinent issue in the modern information society (Túñez López et al.). AI and its machine learning capabilities have become integral parts of the processes of content creation, analysis, and distribution, bringing new opportunities along with significant challenges. For instance, personalization algorithms allow for the adaptation of information to the individual interests and preferences of each user, increasing their engagement and satisfaction with the content. Thus, social networks and many other internet platforms are personalized for each user based on their demographic profiles and personal data. This article provides an overview of current scientific data on the potential risks associated with the use of content personalization algorithms in mass media. The results and conclusions of the article will help to better understand the nature of these risks and the associated challenges for the field of mass communication.

The article is devoted to the construction of a political brand of a candidate in the elections of the President of the Russian Federation in Telegram. The authors consider the official channel of the candidate as one of the components of the communication activities of the politician within the framework of the election campaign. At the same time, this communication activity is studied from the point of view of the text component – both individual materials and the communication canvas of the channel as a whole. The study was conducted based on the examination of posts published in the official Telegram channel of the candidate for the post of the President of the Russian Federation Nikolai Kharitonov in the period from January 9, 2024 to March 21, 2024 (from the moment of publication of the first post to the publication of the final interview on the results of the election campaign, a total of 69 text messages). The analysis has shown the cross-cutting images used by the politician in the posts – heart / soul, home, and village. The authors analyze these images in relation to the political brand and sum up the results of the campaign in Telegram in terms of maintaining the required level of positioning of the political brand.

The article is devoted to the consideration of event communication using the example of participation in the all-Russian event “Night of Museums” by museums of universities and scientific organizations of St. Petersburg in 2024. A sociological survey of St. Petersburg residents showed sufficient awareness of the “Night of Museums” event: every second person knows both about the event and about its holding in 2024 in the Northern capital. However, those wishing to take part in it in 2024 did not exceed 20%, especially to visit museums of universities and scientific institutions (2%). Analyzing the category ‘event communication’ at the intersection of methodological approaches of political science and discourse science, the author considers it promising to study the mutual influence of three discursive constructs: museum discourse – discourse of state memory policy – discourse of national identity, considered in relation to modern political realities of Russia in the context of the implementation of the national security strategy.

The article is devoted to the potential of mass media in popularization of volunteering among students. Development of media technologies inevitably influences the process of socialization. Digital media resources have a strong influence on the formation of behavior patterns, norms and rules, and therefore their capabilities can be used to develop a prosocial orientation in the behavior of young people. Promotion of volunteer activities involves an appropriate choice of channels and methods of presenting information in the mass media, taking into account the characteristics of the audience. Effective constructs in this process can be strategies that involve the possibility of influencing decision-making at the subconscious level, including on the basis of priming, framing, imprinting by focusing the audience's attention on strategically important moments and situations. The combination of social, cognitive and information technologies makes it possible to include manipulative techniques in the communicative and information space that contribute to the formation of an attractive image of volunteering and motivation of corresponding behavioral attitudes.

The article examines the dynamics of creativity perception in successive attempts to study its interpretations in the social sciences and proposes a social and communicative approach to understanding the categories of creativity and the creative subject. The authors analyze the approaches to defining creativity in various research paradigms, which shows the applicability of the socio-communicative approach with a critical view on socio-psychological and sociological definitions of creativity. The text represents the discussion of the criteria and features of creativity and consider the main parameters and criteria of creativity as a communicative phenomenon. The authors propose a new understanding of the concept of creativity and explain it through three related concepts: (1) creative process, (2) creative subject and (3) creative product. At the end, the authors substantiate the typology of creative products and discuss the essence of the consumer value of creative products, highlighting its rational and emotional dimensions.

The article reveals the essence and content of the personal digital sovereignty in the context of dynamically developing digitalization processes. The relevance of the topic is based on the growing need in security of personal, private and other sensitive data in the digital space. The use of digital profiles and accounts containing sensitive and confidential information, the use of smart devices, programs and technologies raises the question of understanding the digital sovereignty of the individual, the ways to ensure it, and the problem of communication in the digital space as a whole. In scientific and practical literature significant attention has recently been paid to the digital sovereignty of the state. However, the peculiarities of the development of a digital society, i.e. the issues of protection of the rights and interests of individual in the digital space, remain poorly studied. The subject of the article is the personal digital sovereignty, its basic characteristics and structural elements. The authors reveal the main approaches to defining the essence of this concept from the standpoint of many disciplines and branches of knowledge. The study is concluded with the authors’ definition of the concept of “personal digital sovereignty”.

The article examines the problems of interethnic communications in the context of changing state information policy and from the point of view of the increasing impact of mass media on social processes in the world. The author introduces the concept of pseudo-communication used by subjects of the global information space, in particular, within the framework of information confrontation. Analyzing the space of political communication, the author draws attention to its saturation with information noise, verbal aggression, which creates problems and barriers in the process of communication between states. These problems are no less characteristic of interethnic communications, that is, for the processes of interaction with certain ethnic groups or between them. Noting the growth of the ethnic factor in modern political processes, the author calls for taking into account the range of problems inherent in interethnic communications at the present stage of their development, in the formation and practical implementation of the state information policy, which should respond to the needs and interests of society, taking into account the cultural and ethnic diversity of its representatives.

The article, based on the results of a comprehensive political analysis, substantiates that in the modern socio-political reality, the formation of a multipolar world, the problem of the effectiveness of political communications are closely related to the potential of political and administrative power elites. The communicative qualities of a modern politician are enhanced by value-civilizational and moral parameters, the ability of strategic vision and the ability to maintain civilizational and value discourse in the political and economic system and direct it towards sustainable advanced development of society. This, in turn, involves the analysis and development of parameters for diagnosing the quality of modern Russian political and administrative elites, their moral and professional adequacy and aptitude; so is the actualization and solution of the problem of deviations at the elite level of political power. In order to form a value model of political communications of the Russian elite, it is necessary to comprehensively consider management systems based on specific values (including management of public values), identify and position public values as determinants of socio-political development, develop mechanisms to counteract the value degradation and marginalization of national elites, take into account the propensity of the Russian government to identify internal and external enemies in the previous stages of development, and also to the uncritical borrowing of the models of democracy alien to the Russian cultural and civilizational code, and the image imitation of elite qualities.

The authors proceed from the classical understanding of the elite as a social group endowed with power and capable of influencing public opinion. The paper represents the examination of the role of elites – political, economic and social – in the formation of public ideas, values and political attitudes. The problem is conditioned, on the one hand, by the intensification of geopolitical confrontation and the formation of polar ideological concepts on both sides of the ocean, on the other hand – by the dynamic change in characteristics of media environment, which lead to increased centrifugal processes and polarization of public opinion on current events, values and ideology. The authors take into account the widely accepted hypothesis of relative homogeneity of elites (Huntington, Sklair) in the sense that cultural differences and stereotypes influence decision-making in this environment the least. This assumption became the starting point in choosing the topic, predetermined the search for possible points of contact in building a public dialogue, and, in general, served as the basis for a conceptual assessment of the ability of elites to resolve insurmountable contradictions between different segments of the political media space. The authors identified similarities and differences in the understanding of the social and political role of elites in the East and West and proposed possible routes for the development of dialogue. The study is based on the works of the classics of the theory of elites, as well as on modern research in the field of social communication and media.

Comprehensive improvement of the state of the environment is currently the subject of government decisions, programs and projects in Russia. This affects the interests of various audiences: business, the public, federal and regional influence groups, and hence requires strategic communications aimed at explaining, expanding the number of supporters, uniting efforts, legitimizing the governmental decisions, and changing the behavior of the audiences. The purpose of the study is to analyze the place of strategic environmental communications in the action program for the implementation of state environmental strategies. The author relies on theoretical studies of Russian and foreign authors on this issue. In the practical part, she analyzes communications in the process of forming the national project “Ecological Well-Being”. The results of the conducted study of the media and official resources of state authorities allow to consider several communicative models of behavior: public and non-public. The stage of formation of the national project is accompanied by non-public communication, which creates certain risks when information is released into the public space, since criticism and disagreement with the adoption of relevant decisions may arise from various groups. The author offers a list of possible conflict topics and examines the features of the formation of strategic environmental communications, based on M. Harvell’s matrix.

The development of digital technologies in the Russian healthcare system implies communication processes, e.g. interaction of management structures and performers, doctor-patient communications, standards of medical care, and many others. This requires solving a number of managerial, organizational, and ethical problems. The Russian government has defined the main goals of healthcare digitalization: providing the population with medical services at a qualitatively different modern level, satisfying the modern demands of society, allowing the use of modern achievements of world and domestic medicine in the widest possible range. The authors consider the problems of digitalization of medicine, the solution of which is proposed through the optimization of communications of the professional community. The proposals have been developed based on the generalization of the results of sociological surveys of patients of Moscow dental clinics “Use of electronic medical records” (March 2022) conducted by the authors, a survey of residents of Tomsk (N = 107) and Moscow (N = 157) waiting for an appointment at city clinics (March 2022), as well as a substantive analysis of the websites of professional online communities “Analysis of the content of discussions in online communities of medical workers” (August 2018 – February 2019). A secondary analysis of data is based on the sociological studies by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM). Based on the results of the study, it was established that a number of problems are associated with the legal uncertainty of procedures and methods for applying digital technologies, the issue of developing communicative competencies in the professional environment remains relevant, the need for an exchange of experience in the implementation of digital technologies in the practice of doctors and administrators, professional development of personnel, and the involvement of the most active employees in the processes of designing and implementing digital technologies.