CC BY
10УДК 91.130 92
Imaginary (Mythical) Characters as Axiological Markers of Social Mythology in the Mind of Young Social-Humanitarian Intelligent People of Russia in the Second 10-year Half of the Twenty-first Century Beginning
Andrey V. Ulyanovsky*
Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, 48 Moika River Embankment, St. Petersburg, 191186 Russia 1
Received 27.11.2008, received in revised form 17.12.2008, accepted 24.12.2008
The “top of mind” content of the young socio-humanitarian intelligent people of Russia has been received in a form of text descriptions of 3,000 printed characters in volume and unique visual illustrations of more than 240 image units which are divided into four clusters approximately equal between each other in the number ofprinted characters: images of adverts and brands, city folklore, books, mass media production.
The problem of understanding in this area comes from the overwhelming dependence on the content of distribution channels - factual carriers of information (text books, books, mass media production, multimedia, commercial communications). Often, there is support based on experience and hypotheses of experts or on generalized data on all layers ofpopulation.
The research this article is based on fills an incredibly important gap in the area of social mythology. This gap is connected to understanding the entire synchronized net of images that appear to be the content of Russian population’s conscious mind with regard to age, level of education, lifestyles, and subcultures.
Keywords: imaginary (mythical) characters, social mythology, Russia, images of adverts and brands, city folklore, mass media.
Introduction
In 2006, the book called “The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived”2 by Jeremy Salter, Allan Lazar, and Dan Karlan came out. The book describes the imaginary luminaries that in the authors’ opinion had the most influence on life of Americans. Marlboro Cowboy, Big Brother, King Arthur,
Santa Claus, Hamlet, and Frankenstein Monster start out the list of these characters. According to the statement of one of the authors of the book Jeremy Salter to the Reuters agency the objective of the research presented in the book is “the result of our imagination, characters that we bring out from our minds to the real world”.
Corresponding author E-mail address: [email protected] © Siberian Federal University. All rights reserved
Karlan Dan, Lazar Allan, Salter Jeremy. The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived: How Characters of Fiction, Myth, Legends, Television, and Movies Have Shaped Our Society, Changed Our Behavior, and Set the Course of History.
- Harper Paperbacks, 2006. - 336 c. ISBN: 0061132217
*
The principally important feature of this American book is the artistic concept of selecting the characters: “The idea of the book was just to entertain the reader” -Lazar Allan says.
The idea to write such a production was born three years ago when the authors came across the book “The History’s 100 Most Influential People”. According to Dan Karlan choosing 101 personalities from the final short-list of 500 names literally led into real battles between the authors. In their book each character is accompanied by a short essay about its either bad or good influence1.
This article and the book of Americans mentioned above seem to be on the same topic -modern mythology and it makes it different from many encyclopedias and text books that describe images of classical mythology and world history. But the methodology of identifying the images in the research this article is based on is rather different from the American one.
First of all, selection of a hundred of American imaginary heroes was based entirely on the goal of reader entertainment.
Whereas the selection for the given research was based on multiple long brainstorms in groups of 10-20 young people in the first stage and volunteer choice of the objects for describing by the same people in the second stage.
As a result of such double procedure, the final list of characters is not just a fantasy about their meaning and influence in Russian society in the view of three authors but a result of the series of group interviews with quite a few dozens of participants. Therefore, the list of 240 characters is much more objective and is much closer to the experimentally developed list by the methodology of development.
Secondly, 240 imaginary figures of the given research were remembered and described by the defined audience of young people who
1 http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-10-16-influ-ential-people-list_x.htm?csp=34
study the socio-humanitarian fields of education of the age of 19 to 27 with the predominance of female participants.
Thirdly, there wasn’t a primer requirement to describe only human characters in the given research - the imaginary (mythical) creatures of all kinds could be in the “list of 240” - there were people, plants, animals, robots, spirits, magicians, and various fairy-tail figures.
And finally, the given research and the American book have only 16 characters in common. The imaginary (mythical) characters from the given research in the following check list is spelt in English and its analog (if it is not significantly different or if they have the same brand) - in parentheses. The number given in brackets is the number of the figure according to the count of the book of the American authors2.
Lewis Carroll’s Alice (34), Barbie Doll (43), Camel on the packet of Camel cigarettes (the character of the traveler Joe Camel from the commercial of Camel cigarettes, 78), Voice of the on-board computer (HAL 9000 computer itself from the movie by Stanley Kubrick “The Space Odysseus of 2001”, 66), James Bond (51), Don Quixote (17), Dracula (33), Uncle Sam (61), Lilith (99), Luke Skywalker (85), Mickey Mouse (18), Peter Pan (70), Santa Claus (4), Superman (64), Crazy Frog (Kermit the Frog, 67), Tarzan (49).
It strongly proves that the citizens of Russia first of all live in the Universe of Russian language. Moreover, the process of globalization just slightly touched the emotionally imaginative sphere of Russian people’s mind.
At the moment it doesn’t make any sense in Russia (except for just plain curiosity and interest) to “try on” the images of the imaginary heroes that are discussed in a foreign language, in foreign cultures. These images in a high degree are foreign to the population of Russia.
2 Americans have their imaginary luminaries listed in order of going down the ratings.
However, it should be noted that the existing coincidence of 16 characters still proves that there is a common cultural baggage in the modern lingual universe of Russian and English (American) language.
In general, the research that this article is based on makes up an incredibly important gap in the area of social mythology. This gap is connected with understanding of the entire synchronized net of images that represents the content of Russian people’s conscious mind.
The problem of understanding in this area comes from the overwhelming dependence on the content of distribution channels - factual carriers of information (text books, books, mass media production, multimedia, commercial communications). Often, there is support based on experience and hypotheses of experts or on generalized data on all layers of population that have as much meaning as notorious “the average residents’ body temperature in a hospital”.
This research is focused on real facts of social reality - the content of the top layers of mind of the young socio-humanitarian intelligent people who study in universities in St. Petersburg but represent many different regions of Russia. The research is devoted to the spontaneous remembering of the imaginary characters - the level known in the Western classification as “top of mind”.
At these circumstances, receiving the content of mind and displaced areas of the mind of Russians, i.e. receiving the information with the deep and systematic methods was not an objective of this research work as it had already been covered enough1.
One of the leading sociological research organizations of St. Petersburg oriented on research in business sphere WorkLine Research (ComCon) recognized the method and the results
1 Синкевич З.В., Крокинская О.К., Поссель Ю.А.
Социальное бессознательное.- СПб.: Питер, 2005.
of the given research. In the review published in the newspaper The Business Petersburg2 the WorkLine Research director for strategic planning Mikhail Podushko notes that the method of the research has its roots in the ethnographical methods of included observation. Moreover, M. Podushko notes that it is important not only to receive the list of imaginary (mythical) characters just as it is but also to receive the subjective descriptions of each character. The descriptions give the additional grounds for quality analysis and correct interpretation. In the given research this work has been done as well but the volume of the received field descriptions is quite large (30 author’s sheets - 40,000 typographical units each) and comes out as a separate book.
Research participants presented full text with descriptions of imaginary (mythical) characters at the competition of the manuscripts within the innovation project of modification humanitarian education in Russia. The project is carried out by the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia as a winner in tender conducted by the Ministry of Education. The project for publishing a book of 30 author’s sheets () under edition of Ulyanovskiy A.V. “The 240 Imaginary Characters of Mass-Media Era: Russia, 21st Century” was approved in the competition and the manuscript was recommended for publishing in 2008 as an innovation project.
The book is to be published as educational methodical advice of the Ministry that recommends the book for studying in the specialized courses as a part of the whole system of higher education in Russia.
Expert grading of the material by the journalists’ specialized editors offices from the perspective of the actuality of the research is an indirect proof of its high actuality and essentiality. Overview of the research results attracted the
2 Тихонова А. Герасим и Муму вьіжили//Деловой Петербург. - 21 мая 2007 года. - С.32.
Fig. 2. «Vovochka ideological». A unique case: the character of V.I. Lenin (Ulyanov) split in the mind of the audience into two independent mythological images - little Volodya Ulyanov and the “Grandpa Lenin”
Fig. 4 «Paper tiger». The creature of political rhetoric of Mao-Dze-Dun, a metaphor of the United States, turns out a very lively image
Fig. 3. «Cheburashka». Nice and naive cult character of the soviet animation for the littlest spectators of 1970-1980’s nowadays is perceived as an image that is in correlation with marijuana. Today, this character of the urban folklore, allergy of helplessness and with quite limited intelligence. After the Winter Olympiad in Sochi where this image was taken by Russian officials as a talisman the perception of this figure will most likely change
Fig. 5. «Germans». Together with the Finnish and French people they are most understood and favorite nations to the young Russian socio-humanitarian intelligent people (the research took place in St. Petersburg - bordering with Finland city)
interest of Russian central sectored magazines
- in the field of innovative models of business development management1 and advertising communications2, and the corresponding overviews of the project were published.
Materials and methods
There were 52 text authors and 13 illustrators who participated in “The 240 imaginary (mythical) characters...” project. Generally, participants were from 19 to 27 years old. The absolute requirement was that they had to either have a degree in a humanitarian-social field (psychology, mass-media design, marketing, advertising, public relations) or to be college students in the corresponding departments.
The project reflects a synchronized cut-off of the social reality of the young socio-humanitarian intelligent people of Russia in 2007.
The procedure of selecting the authors involved a strict and as impersonal as possible selection of artistic talented young people who suited the criteria for the project fulfillment out of more than 7000 ambitious candidates.
Such “selection hierarchy” requires a stretched for more than a year procedure of shrinking the number of candidates.
In the first stage, only 1400 people out of those 7000 who want to study in the faculty of Human Philosophy at Herzen State University with the competition of 5 students per a spot get accepted (since there are young people of different age participate in the project this process was accounted annually for four years).
Then, taking into account the results of the first year of studies there is an annual selection of the best students by the specialized intelligence rates and artistic potential to study
1 Ульяновский А.В. Вымыслы нашей реальности // Менеджмент Роста. - № 2(4), 2007. - С.78-81.
2 Ульяновский А.В. Анна Каренина и Муму: последние классические герои русского брендинга // Рекламные Идеи. - №4, 2007. - С.84-89.
in the Department of Public Relations and Advertising (educational programs with the highest competition at the faculty). It shrinks the number of potential authors from 1400 people to about 350.
Considering the work results in fulfilling the tasks on creativity and taking into account personal motivation the necessary number of participants - 52 text authors and 13 illustrators were chosen out of 350 candidates.
First Stage
All participants were divided into groups of 10-20 people and every group worked on composing a list of creatures “that needed to be mentioned in the given list”. Such discussions were held at least four times - so the participants had the opportunity to make all the changes, corrections and additions that they felt were needed.
Second Stage
In the second stage, all the data was put in a table that came out as long as “about one and a half long meter” and every participant had an opportunity to tick the characters that they personally wanted to describe. In order to reach the best balance and to be fair to everyone the distribution was done in circles: at first, everybody marked two characters, then in the next circle two more characters and they kept taking characters like this until all participants decided they had finished their “recruiting”. So the procedure of texts assignment was efficient even though complicated in organization.
Methodological and theory-experimental bases are identifiedby philosophy-anthropological and interpretation-experimental approaches. In doing so, methodological intention of the philosophical anthropology as a systemized knowledge on human being synthesizing methodological approaches and conclusions
in philosophy, psychology, cultural studies, sociology, and history, as well as science, is taken as the basis of the present research work.
Theory-experimental bases for the analysis of the ethical and aesthetical issues of social mythology are defined by a concept of mythocentrism of mass communication that is understood as reaching social practicability when fulfilling the communication audiences’ ground needs, a concept of socio-cultural activities understood as social efficient activities of creating, mastering, saving, spreading and further developing of cultural values.
The following statements make the grounds for the research: two basic principals of philosophical anthropology:
1. The principal of anthropological reduction - justification of the way of human existence in the situation ofthe latest disintegration of the united structure of existence, reduction of human existence to the sphere of culture, and
2. The principal of practical-active objectivity in adequate cultural forms which require active interaction of natural science with humanitarian studies to benefit the research.
Sample description of a character in the research
An enthusiastic participant of the research, young specialist in public relations Roza Vasilyeva (St. Petersburg) described the image of imaginary (mythical) character Uncle Ben:
Uncle Ben is a senior African-American, with grey head and a bow-tie. By 1943 when Uncle launched his famous rice in the American market, he had already been quite well-known in the close community of rice farmers.
[■ ]
The name of Uncle Ben is often associated with another very famous uncle in America - Uncle Sam. According to the hierarchy of needs developed by psychologist Abraham Maslow, both these
characters have occupied the basic and most important needs of a human being: needs for food and security. Therefore, the duet of Ben and Sam has carved their names in the history of the USA forever as people who take all worries about everyday needs away and who give people an opportunity to think about the eternal, spiritual, etc.
[.....]
A well-known Russian rock musician Mongol Shudan has written a song about Uncle Ben:
I had a dream last night about Uncle Ben’s I would not wish to my worst enemy to have such a dream
I’d rather have seen a Mercedes That shines as a samurai’s sward Everything inside of me turned upside down Children home lover job
Somebody on a jar is looking right at me from Such a present for the folks
Chorus:
I’m tired of this
Haven’t seen since I was born
A black odd man
Who is cheerfully grinning
I have got an idea
I’ll strangle this time
Either an aunt or an uncle
Is feeding us little by little
Results
Participants of the proj ects had an opportunity to describe five to six imaginary (mythical) characters or create up to 20 illustrations.
«Medved», Transformers (before the movie of the same name came out in Russia!), great heroes of Lucas’ “Star Warriours" - Luke Skywalker, Dart Wader, Jota, Chewbacca, 3-PO, and R2-D2 - all were remembered and easily drawn but none (!!!) of the participants took
the responsibility to describe these characters till summer of 2007 when several new authors chose them just because of the strong motivation to participate in the project. It is hard to believe but the young generation of people aged 18-25 is not involved in the twisted adventures of Luke Skywalker.
The same situation as with Luke Skywalker but even more obvious in its tendency happened regarding some other characters - they were literally described within a week before the manuscript was taken to printers in February of 2008. The characters are Alf, an American, an Englishman, Crazy Squirrel, Ivan Vasilyevich, Hub-O’-My-Thumb, Peter I, Poruchik Rzhevskiy, Wanton Parrot (Kesha), and Chukchi man.
If we look at these characters from the position of social mythology dynamics completely represented by the theory of branding, then we find out the following: images of characters, which are easy to remember, are known; they were easily drawn by the artists, but the writers did not want to describe them. Therefore, regardless high acknowledgment and awareness about them these characters are characterized by low involvement in their images by the audiences (it is easier to draw an image than to write about it). The term “respect” is not implied to these images, which seem very well-known, that means that the images are gradually going out from the memory extent. It is obvious that Peter I drifts from being extremely biased in the soviet machine to an image that is only interesting to history specialists (history of St. Petersburg here is ready to move back to more than half of the century away - the early fortresses Nienshantz and Landscrona). Ivan Vasilyevich is more of a character of one of the most popular in Russian history comedies “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes the Occupation” by Gayday than a tragic historical figure of the first Russian imperator.
In cross-cultural dimension, it is interesting that lively and emotional reaction was caused by the mythological characters of a German, Russian, French, and Finnish man. Images of an American, Englishman and a Chukchi man are already/yet emotionally distant to the young socio-humanitarian intelligent participants of the project, even though these characters were included in the list of images that are “in the air”.
The picture is quite the opposite with the images of The Flu, The Stomach (an anthropomorphic image of a chocolate bar Nuts), Ilya Muromets (the research took place before the full-length cartoon “Ilya Muromets” by K. Bronzit came out), Mummy Troll and his friends, Crazy Wolf (toothpaste “Blendax”). They are known and understood, but their suitability in the world of the modern youth is not great. These images were left unillustrated...
It needs to be acknowledged that the images of the three heroes of Russian epic (as the basic epic of the Russians) are suitable for the youth as only the cartoon characters.
Discussion of results
1. Young people described many fabulous characters but almost did not take any classic characters. The exception is Anna Karenina. Yes, Anna Karenina - “Last heroine” of Russian classical literature for Russian sociohumanitarian youth (mostly among girls)1.
2. The research results show that the characters of Russian classical literature are not worthy, are not accepted and have little influence on modern Russian city youth aged 19-27 years old. That means that in the deep layers of mind the characters of Chekhov, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Pushkin (they are studied at school) exist, but young people do not associate themselves with these characters, the characters are not interesting to the youth and they do not come to
their mind “on their own”. To our opinion, such situation is a clear sign that such school subject as Russian literature in its modern condition is not methodically correct.
3. 83 out of 240 imaginary (mythical) characters that were described in total were human figures. More specific detail on people as imaginary (mythical) characters are given below in the following order: sex, age of the character/number of times described (out of the total number that equals 83).
- men / 49 (83);
- boys / 14 (83);
- women / 16 (83);
- girls / 4 (83)
3.1. It is immediately striking that in the minds of today's youth the number of people as imaginary figures of art, culture and business is small and is 30% of the total number of animalistic images. Maybe this reflects the fact that physical reality itself becomes a less important element of consciousness.
People rushed to the exotic images in their most different manifestations.
3.2. Men predominate. This fact is proved by the orientation of the Russian female culture at the men's images in its massive manifestations. Characteristically, the number of «not yet men» -boys (14) is approximately equal to the number of women characters (16).
3.3. Characters of girls are not relevant to young women - with spontaneous recall of only four images. This can be an indicator of reorientation of women from traditional roles within the family to scenarios typical for modernized society. In doing so, it may be considered a Russian feature of significant traditionalism in area of infantilism among young women with higher socio-humanitarian education.
4. It’s interesting to compare the number of people, animals and robots that are present in the minds of young Russians in the following order:
Characters (Number)
- People (83);
- Animals (70);
- Robots (19),
Including those that are robots, the following:
- Electro-mechanical robots (8);
- Magical robots (imaginative power source and the principle of action) (4);
- Biorobots (4);
- Non-material Programmes (3).
Non-material programs as robots maintain
the myth of uncontrolled telecommunications well1.
4. 1. A widespread point of view that characters created by human being, holders of artificial intelligence predominate in the worldview of the youth has not been confirmed yet, at least among Russian young women (images of robots occupy less than 8% of the total list of imaginary figures). Electro-mechanical robots are still the leaders.
4. 2. Animals also occupy almost one third of the world of imaginary (mythical) characters (29%), only slightly giving way to the characters of human nature (33%). And this is despite the fact that the world of Russian residents of a city with a population of over one million inhabitants out of all real animals accounts two to four most common types of pets, some fish (in the aquarium and on the market), birds and several types of insects. Plus, there are a few more animals and “creatures of the sea” in the form of food and clothing material.
5. The animals that were chosen as the prototypes of some imaginary (mythical) characters are as following:
The most popular creatures among young women in our research are representatives of
1 Mosco, V. The mythology of telecommunications deregulation // J. of communication. - N.Y., 1990. - Vol. 40, N 1. - P. 36-49. - Bibliogr.: p. 48-49.
family of cats and birds. In total, eleven figures of cats and six birds were mentioned. A more detailed analysis of cats divides them into domestic and wild. Domestic cats make six out of a total number of cats.
Thus, cats and birds are the most relevant images of animals to the authors.
Such animals as a dog, a cow/bull, a hare/ rabbit, and viruses/microbes were mentioned four times each. The significant images of viruses and microbes most likely come up in connection to the growing number of advertising campaigns for cleaners and disinfectants and dairy products production companies. Microbes and viruses have become images of current reality of the surrounding urban environment. It is quite possible that their share in total number of imaginary characters will continue growing further. A human being is more and more interested in microcosm, and the popularity of ideas of nanotechnology (nano-sizes of molecules are much smaller than germs and can be compared to viruses) makes these microscopically small living creatures closer and clearer to people. The microscope is no longer perceived as a window “in a different world”. In the twenty-first century microscope is simply a “door to another room”.
A bear, a pig, a camel and a beaver were mentioned three times each and make a group of “winners” of our popularity championship. This group is stable: a pig was supported in Russian culture the characters of Hryun Morzhov, Piglet and the three pigs (which have been reckoned as a pig in a general count). A beaver is presented as a kind animal, with great originality of appearance, expressive sound of the name and the construction skills of behavior. A beaver is something like a nice wizard. In fact, his skill manifested without the participation of complex abstractions of human consciousness. In this regard, drawing together of images of Beaver and Forrest Gump by formal features is appropriate. Gump also had limited
mental activity, but achieved outstanding results regardless the lack of rational thinking - thanks to his kindness, sincerity and authenticity.
The image of a camel is close to Russian culture, not only because camels live on Russian territory, and because of their historical use in the military purposes that date back to Peter I, their unique appearance and the fact that there are camel in every zoo but also thanks to Camel cigarettes and the advertising images of Picnic chocolate bars.
The case with a bear is strange. This symbol of Russia, the ancient totem beast of Russians, seems to be loosing the representativeness in the “operational” part of the mind of Russian females. Neither Vinnie the Pooh nor Medved can do anything about it. A dangerous substance of this predator still has its effect.
Animals that are mentioned fewer times are already close to random election fluctuations. That means that random factors and single cases of appreciation could have strong influence on their presentence or absence.
A squirrel, a hedgehog, a wolf, and a turtle were each mentioned twice.
Identified and described once were:
A sponge, a dinosaur, a snake (Russian dragon), a whale, a crocodile, a frog, a mouse, an insect (a fly), a monkey, come to life plant fruit (little pepper), a donkey, a fish, an elephant, an ostrich, and a giant worm (in fact - an underground dragon).
6. We can find out what place in the minds of the study group take images inspired by cinema (including animation), advertising, fiction literature, and actual modern life folklore. The final results are given below in the following format:
The source of appearance of the imaginary (mythical) character for a young man/ representativeness in the overall list, the number of characters
- Movies, animation / 61
- Fiction literature (printed) / 72
- Advertising and brands (television and promotions) / 66
- Modern folklore “word-of-mouth” / 42.
6.1 The picture seems fairly balanced - all
channels bring commensurate contribution to the formation of mass consciousness, but fiction still somewhat predominates.
Conclusion
It turns out that creating images oftrademarks, brands, and advertising should be done very carefully due to the natural ironic personality of Russian people and the ability to literally wrest meaning of an image “inside out”. Centuries of totalitarian pressure developed an extremely important for life in such circumstances feature. A resident of Russia has high, literally childish trust to the rumors and versions of interlocutors. However, he feels falsehood of social coercion of any kind from miles away, to the extent of his full force he counteracts and would not be lazy to share such scandalous discoveries about such errors of this or that brand image with eight to twelve1 of his friends (and those in turn with theirs.).
An important conclusion is that art, folklore, and business areas of knowledge are very mixed from now on: art and fold images come into symbiosis with brands, and the brands in turn become true artistic and folklore realities.
Hypotheses claimed by A. Mol find proof -there is a so-called “Mosaic picture of the world”2 appeared in the minds of modern consumers. This means that people get information on a distinct variety of subject not from one source and not strictly in a systematic order (such a structure of knowledge characterized graduates of classical
1 Дымшиц М. Манипулирование покупателем. М., 2004.- С.28.
universities). The worldview of a modern consumer is like mosaic sets of information fragments drawn from broadcast media, various professional courses and seminars, and also as a result of horizontal exchange of opinions. At the same time, these fragments are not stored in minds on the basis of classifications by fields of knowledge, but the sets based on similar emotions, external features and similar situations of consumption - in the places where these pieces of information were received.
4. In order to create successful projects in business nowadays it is vital to be able to integrate them with artistic experience and urban folklore (modern mythology3). With regard to imaginary beings, this concept means the principal abolition of the conceptual boundaries between art, classical mythological and modern mythological images on one hand, and brands, trademarks promotions, advertising communications - on the other.
Issues for further research
In this regard there are two questions considered interesting:
1) How does the correspondence between four mentioned channels producing the imaginary images in different age groups? and
2) Due to what source’s contribution has an advertising channel occupied its present quarter share in comparison to the Soviet period in history when advertisement did not exist at all?
And if the first question requires additional research, the exact answer to the second question does not seem to ever be found out. One can only assume that since the Soviet period was characterized by intensive informal culture of “word of mouth”, a sort of mechanism of “letting the steam out” in a confrontation to totalitarian pressure, in an era
3 Ульяновский АВ. Мифодизайн: коммерческие и Моль А. Социодинамика культуры. - М., 1973. социальные мифы. - СПб.: Питер, 2005.
of greater intensity and transparency of media as a meaning creator1, modern folklore2 gave up almost half its influence in favor of advertising and brand images.
The study of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic objectivities of social mythology in the field of consciousness of young sociohumanitarian intelligent people of Russia by the methodology of included monitoring and focus opens up a possibility of further, deeper text processing. Including:
Narrative analysis - proper allocation of narrative (narrates the events) parts of texts from non-narrative (reasoning, descriptions, assessment) in order to analyze independent from the situation and constitutive for self-identification of tellers (authors of the texts) component based on a mechanism of projection of their personal
1 Набокова, Л.С. Мифологическое сознание общества: СМИ как творец смыслов //Вестн. Краснояр. гос. унта. Гуманит. науки. - Красноярск, 2005. - N 3. - C. 39-43.
2 Riviere, C. Mythes modernes au coer de l’idelogie. // Ca-hiers intern. de sociologie. N. S. - P., 1991. - A. 38, vol. 90. - P. 5-24. - Bibliogr.: p. 24.
stories and a story told voluntarily and with involvement.
Identification and analysis demonstrated archetypes of collective unconscious.
Identification of how applicable the American sociological approach of analysis of mythmaking in consumer society3 for Russia and the use of the results of this study as empirical basis on the issue of transformation of social myth in consumer society4.
Contextually semantic analysis means developing a portrait of collective emotional attitude towards actual reality, synchronized by thematic areas (cinema, fiction, brands, urban folklore).
Content analysis means identifying of semantics relevant to young socio-humanitarian intelligent people, through their visual interpretation in drawings as well5.
3 Fischer, C. Considering the “magical” world of consumption // Berkeley j. of sociology. - 2005. - Vol. 49.
- P. 137-157.
4 Ritzer, G. The “magical” world of consumption: Transforming nothing into something // Berkeley j. of sociology. - 2005. - Vol. 49. - P. 117-136.
5 Studies in mundane reality// Qualitative sociology. -N.Y., 1989. - Vol. 12, N 4. - P. 333-431.
