Mediatized by policy and demediatized in practice: Representation of Russian youth policy in the social media accounts of the authorities

This paper examines how well the government agencies responsible for the implementation of specific areas of national youth policy in Russia manage to cover this topic on their social media resources, and identifies relevant trends for the space where the state and youth communicate. The results of our qualitative and quantitative content analysis of posts showed that the topic of youth policy does not receive proper coverage on the agencies’ own social media accounts. Most often, youth policy is discussed in the context of covering events for young Russians. In addition, much attention is paid to documenting meetings of government officials to discuss issues within their areas of competence. At the same time, reports on specific government measures to support young people, current initiatives, and success stories of young Russians who take an active part in the development and implementation of the country’s youth policy rarely get published on the agencies’ accounts. The potential of the format for discussing youth policy in an open dialog on equal terms with the audience has yet to be tapped into. We believe it is possible to view the identified features of the communication strategies of the agencies as manifested demediatization of interaction between the state and youth

TRANSLATION OF THE TRAVEL WEB PORTAL TEXT CONTENT AS A WAY TO GLOBALIZE REGION BRAND

The article presents an analysis of the translation of the Volgograd and Volgograd region travel web portal from Russian into English and German within the aspect of the globalization process and promotion of the region brand. The authors concentrate their attention on the origin of functionally equivalent translation directed toward the linguo-cultural and pragmatic adaptation of the source tourist texts for a global recipient. The paper reveals that the translator is to choose a comprehensive strategy to create a globalized version of the travel web portal, that is to preserve the optimal amount of general information, eliminate information irrelevant for the global recipient, minimize the loss of the key information important from the pragmatic perspective of creating a globalised version of the target text, and, if appropriate, add more detailed or explanatory information which can better provide obtaining of the information about foreign culture and history by a foreign recepient. The efficient translation of the text content of the travel web portal aimed at a "global recipient" is achieved and provided by translation technologies chosen by the translator in accordance with the discourse determined strategies. Such technologies create functionally equivalent translation opportunity: the source text is adapted for a "global recipient" by considering culturally important and pragmatically adequate situation context

Specifics of Young People Media Communication With the State in Social Networks

В условиях глубокой медиатизации традиционная модель коммуникации государства и граждан активно трансформируется под влиянием интернет-технологий. Целью данной статьи стало выявление особенностей взаимодействия молодежи с государственными ведомствами в социальных сетях на примере анализа коммуникативных интенций. В выборку попали 767 комментариев от пользователей под постами в официальных аккаунтах Росмолодёжи, Министерства спорта и Министерства культуры во ВКонтакте – крупнейшей российской социальной сети 1. Анализ полученных результатов свидетельствует о заинтересованности молодежной аудитории в выстраивании коммуникации с органами государственной власти. В ходе онлайн-дискуссий пользователи, как правило, пытаются презентовать собственную картину мира, поделиться своими рассуждениями и привлечь к ним внимание. Значительная доля интенций указывает на стремление комментирующих критически воспринимать публикуемую ведомствами информацию и давать ей самостоятельную оценку, будь это одобрение и похвала или критика и разоблачение. Реже проявляется стремление оказать реальное влияние на деятельность государственных структур, добиться от них конкретных результатов. Деструктивные интенции практически не встречаются под публикациями ведомств. Результаты исследования могут быть востребованы при выстраивании коммуникационных стратегий органов власти в социальных медиа, поскольку среди приоритетов государственной молодежной политики указываются формирование информационного поля, благоприятного для развития молодежи, а также интенсификация механизмов обратной связи между государственными структурами, общественными объединениями и молодыми гражданамиThe growing influence of Internet technologies and deep mediatization of social practices contribute to the transformation of the traditional model of communication between the state and citizens. The purpose of this article was to identify the peculiarities of digital interaction between young citizens and government on the example of comments, posted under the publications of public authorities in VKontakte, the largest Russian social network. The study is based on the results of intent-analysis of comments (N=767) from users under the posts of The Federal Agency for Youth Affairs, The Ministry of Sports and The Ministry of Culture. The results show the youth audience’ interest in communication with the state authorities. In online discussions, users usually try to present their own worldview, share their reasoning and draw attention to it. A significant percentage of intensions indicates the commenters’ desire to critically perceive the information published by the officials and evaluate it independently, whether this is approval or criticism. Less often, they show the intention to exert real influence on the activity of public authorities. Moreover, users’ communication in the accounts of public authorities are almost free from destructive intentions. The study seems particularly relevant in the context of Russian youth policy priorities, which include formation of an information field favorable to youth development as well as the intensification of feedback mechanisms between governing bodies, public organizations and young citizen

Branding in Urban Discourse Space: Region’s Identity as Attraction Factor

The research is focused on branding as a communicative process and aimed at defining the region’s identity role in provision of its tourist attraction. Linguistic analysis of the branding process is concentrated on optimization of language means and urban semiosis quality. City’s identity is viewed as a complex of exterior and other markers, building its complex image and playing an initial role in city’s branding. The aim of territory’ branding is to present the uniqueness of a certain region and its competitiveness. A city is a complicated multilayer communicative formation that creates a special type of discourse around itself – urban discourse. The space of this discourse is determined by such textual phenomena as a text-city, an urban text and a text about a city. The authors outline the role of naming in city branding and consider a great importance of a city’s identity in creating a text content aimed at increasing attraction of a city as a tourist object. City’s identity allows one to understand its uniqueness and mental representation by a representative of its “own” and “foreign” cultures and optimize branding strategies with the aim to fix positive images of a city and attractive image of a global-centred and locally original territory

Branding in Urban Discourse Space: Region’s Identity as Attraction Factor

The research is focused on branding as a communicative process and aimed at defining the region’s identity role in provision of its tourist attraction. Linguistic analysis of the branding process is concentrated on optimization of language means and urban semiosis quality. City’s identity is viewed as a complex of exterior and other markers, building its complex image and playing an initial role in city’s branding. The aim of territory’ branding is to present the uniqueness of a certain region and its competitiveness. A city is a complicated multilayer communicative formation that creates a special type of discourse around itself – urban discourse. The space of this discourse is determined by such textual phenomena as a text-city, an urban text and a text about a city. The authors outline the role of naming in city branding and consider a great importance of a city’s identity in creating a text content aimed at increasing attraction of a city as a tourist object. City’s identity allows one to understand its uniqueness and mental representation by a representative of its “own” and “foreign” cultures and optimize branding strategies with the aim to fix positive images of a city and attractive image of a global-centred and locally original territory

Using the Data-Compression Method for Studying Hunting Behavior in Small Mammals

Using the data-compression method we revealed a similarity between hunting behaviors of the common shrew, which is insectivorous, and several rodent species with different types of diet. Seven rodent species studied displayed succinct, highly predictable hunting stereotypes, in which it was easy for the data compressor to find regularities. The generalist Norway rat, with its changeable manipulation of prey and less predictable transitions between stereotype elements, significantly differs from other species. The levels of complexities of hunting stereotypes in young and adult rats are similar, and both groups had no prior experience with the prey, so one can assume that it is not learning, but rather the specificity of the organization of the stereotype that is responsible for the nature of the hunting behavior in rats. We speculate that rodents possess different types of hunting behaviors, one of which is based on a succinct insectivorous standard, and another type, perhaps characteristic of generalists, which is less ordered and is characterized by poorly predictable transitions between elements. We suggest that the data-compression method may well be more broadly applicable to behavioral analysis

Reflection of Metanarratives in Youth Online Communities (on the Example of VK and Telegram)

«Цифровая молодежь», или поколение Z, составляет почти треть населения России. Медиапотребление молодых россиян сосредоточено преимущественно в цифровой среде, а именно – в социальных медиа. В данном исследовании представлены медианарративы, выявленные в популярных у молодежи сообществах на платформах VK и Telegram, отражающие метанарративы российского общества. Было определено, что в повестке дня «цифровой молодежи» превалируют медианарративы, направленные на воспитание патриотизма, исторической памяти, традиционных семейных ценностей и здорового образа жизни. Между тем присутствуют и «небезопасные медианарративы», обращающие внимание на наличие в стране проблем, коррупции в регионах, одобряющие употребление алкоголя и курение“Digital youth”, or generation Z, makes up almost one third of the Russian population. Media consumption of young Russians is mainly concentrated in the digital space, more precisely, in social media. This study presents media narratives identified in communities popular among young people on the VK and Telegram platforms, reflecting the metanarratives of Russian society. Thus, the agenda of “digital youth” is dominated by media narratives aimed at fostering patriotism, historical memory, traditional family values and a healthy lifestyle. Meanwhile, there are also “unsafe medianarratives” that draw attention to the presence of problems in the country, corruption in the regions, approving the use of alcohol and smokin