Информативные признаки определения предвзятости и достоверности электронных СМИ Текст научной статьи по специальности «СМИ (медиа) и массовые коммуникации»

Информативные признаки определения предвзятости и достоверности электронных СМИ

Оспанова У.А., Атанаева М.К., Акоева И.Г., Булдыбаев Т.К.

В настоящей статье приведены результаты репрезентативного социологического опроса населения Казахстана о различных аспектах достоверности и объективности в электронных СМИ. Цель данной работы - установить значимые по мнению населения Казахстана признаки достоверности и объективности информации новостного характера.

В результате анализа были выделены информативные признаки достоверности и объективности. Были определены приоритетные признаки критериев достоверности и объективности с точки зрения Казахстанского населения. Согласно опросу, охватившему 3200 респондентов из 16 регионов Казахстана, приоритетными признаками, позволяющими оценить публикацию по критерию «достоверность», являются: наличие в публикации ссылки на адекватный и объективный источник; наличие указания имени уважаемого автора; освещение одного и того же события различными ресурсами (кросс-чекинг, наличие дискурса с другими публикациями). По критерию «необъективность» приоритетными являются такие информативные признаки как наличие манипулятивных техник; наличие признаков ангажированности автора. Также результаты исследования показали, что у половины населения Казахстана (51,9%- 59,1%) отсутствует или неразвит навык критического восприятия информации в электронных СМИ, уверенного опознания достоверной и объективной информации. Ключевые слова: СМИ, информативные признаки, достоверность, объективность, социологический опрос

Ospanova U.A., Atanayeva M.K., Akoyeva I.G., Buldybayev T.K. Informative features of bias and reliability of electronic Mass Media This article presents the results of a representative sociological survey of the population of Kazakhstan on various aspects of reliability and unbiasedness in electronic media. The purpose of this work is to establish significant features of reliability and unbiasedness of news from the point of view of Kazakhstani population.

As a result of the analysis, these informative features were identified. Priority signs of criteria of reliability and objectivity from the point of view of the Kazakhstan population were identified. According to the survey, which covered 3,200 respondents from 16 regions of Kazakhstan, the priority features, allowing to assess the publication by the criteria "reliability", are: the presence in the publication of a link to an adequate and objective source; presence of indication of the name of the respected author; coverage of the same event by various resources (cross-checking, discourse with other publications). According to the criterion of "bias", such informative features as the presence of manipulative techniques are priority; presence of signs of the author's engagement. Also, the results of the study showed that half of the population of Kazakhstan (51.9% -59.1%) lack or do not develop the skill of critical perception of information in the electronic media, confident identification of reliable and objective information.

Keywords: mass media, informative features, reliability, bias, sociological survey

Данная статья подготовлена в рамках реализации ПЦФ №BR05236839 Комитета науки Министерства образования и науки Республики Ка-

Introduction

Along with the continually increasing volume of information, the society is currently concerning on the issues of reliability in the media and the deterioration of confidence in the media and the press. The public began to realise that the media can distort information covered and use it as a tool for manipulating public beliefs. This modern trend of media influence on the society is studied by the scientific community, both in the world and in Kazakhstan.

The overwhelming majority of researches of the media influence on the society focuses on the aspects of the media and the content of publications. Thus, Flegel and Chaffee [1] stress out that in terms of content generation, there is a tendency when a certain range of privileged persons influence or directly participate in the preparation of the publications, sponsor pages in social networks, provide financial support and incentives for bloggers, individual journalists and the media. Thus, the journalistic community, lobbyists or/and PR specialists [2, 3, 4, 5], social and political organisations impact the society using this tool. Distorted information disseminates differently compared to the truthful. The MIT research [6] proves that false data spread much farther, faster, deeper and broader than truth in all categories, and the effects of false political news are more pronounced.

In their article "Trust in Media and Journalism" Kim Otto and Andreas ^hler [7] state that the aspects of trust in the media and journalists including its factors become pressing. The Edelman Trust Barometer Survey in 28 countries, taking into account 33 thousand respondents focused on the issues of trust and reliability shows that in 2018 compared to the previous year decrease of trust in the social platforms and increase of trust in traditional press and the Internet media [8].

The scientific community in Kazakhstan studies the media influence in connection with the implementation of the state policy aimed at shaping

захстан

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public economic and social beliefs. Omashev in his four-year research "The role of the media in the development of the political, economic and spiritual life of Kazakhstan" determines the ways and methods of presenting economic matters in newspapers, radio and television as a factor of the state political course [9]. In the research "Sociocultural diversity of Kazakhstan mass media in the global world: problems of preserving national identity" Ramazanov explores and describes the impact of the media [10].

The media gains authority if its content meets the expectations of the audience/public in terms of reliability and unbias. These requirements to information become especially important for electronic media where deliberate or unintentional dissemination of false, unverified or incorrect messages is a common case. It follows that features indicating reliability and unbias of information serve as informative features of trustful media content capable of influencing the society.

The review of the literature focusing on reliability among others includes its indicative features as follows:

- a reference in the text to a competent source;

- a reference to a primary source of information;

- an indication of the name of the credible author;

- rating/reputation of the media (websites of news and information agencies, electronic media and the similar);

- coverage of the same event by various web resources (cross-checking, discourse with other publications);

- availability and authenticity of photos and videos confirming the content of the publication;

- the relevance of the text's title/heading to its content;

- mention of verifiable facts.

The "unbias" criterion shows the author's neutrality when communicating information, and implies a multi-dimensional presentation of the material. So far, as stated in the article "News: Beyond the Myth of Objectivity" by J. Francis Davis there are disputes in the scientific community about the possibility of separating facts from opinions when communicating news and especially analytical material [11]. Comprehensive coverage and presentation of different points of view in the interpretation of facts is a must [12]. Informative features of bias include:

1) the statement of the expressed personal opinion of the author in the media text;

2) manipulative techniques in the media text. This feature is an integrated notion since it would be difficult for respondents who do not have field-specific knowledge in journalism and pragmalinguistics to identify and distinguish their types. Therefore, we mention only some of the examples of informative features of manipulative techniques as follows:

- the degree of generalisation;

- politisation;

- call to action;

- distortion of information;

- appealing to emotions;

- linguistic means of manipulation: substitution of notions, repetition, suggestion, and other;

- abuse of place and time of information delivery, toplining, and other.

3) features indicating the author's engagement.

Our research focuses on the opinion of the end

users of information - population of Kazakhstan. The purpose of this work is to determine the features of the reliability and bias of media texts which are significant for Kazakhstani people.

Materials and methods

The research design included the following:

1. A sociological survey by the method of face-to-face interviewing;

2. The analysis of electronic media impact on the population in order to determine the informative features of the reliability and bias;

3. Listing up priority features upon reliability and bias criteria.

According to the information of Ministry f National Economics of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as of 2017, the population of Kazakhstan comprised over 18 million people of which 52% are women, 57% are urban population, 61% aged 15-64. And, as stated in the national collection "Statistics of the educational system of the Republic of Kazakhstan" 37% of the working-age population of Kazakhstan hold a higher education degree and 33% - vocational education certificates.

We interviewed 3,200 respondents aged15 and older in 16 regions of Kazakhstan (14 regions and 2 cities of national significance), of which 91% are aged 15-64. 38% of the respondents hold a higher education degree, 43% have vocational education certificates. The majority of the respondents are women (53%). 55.7% are officially married (55.7%). 61.8% of the survey participants are Kazakh, 26.8%

are Russian, and 8.4% belong to other ethnic groups. In terms of employment, the largest respondent groups include the employees of the private and public sectors (29% and 18%), pensioners (13%), students of secondary professional and higher education institutions (10.2%).

The survey was conducted to obtain data to determine the extent and nature of the impact of electronic media on the society. The questionnaire did not contain direct questions about the reliability and bias features in electronic media content. The obtained results are indirect. Therefore, we retrieved those that are related to the reliability and bias in the population's perception and listed top-mentioned priority features.

Results and discussion.

The survey showed that 60% of respondents prefer electronic media (social networks, bloggers -for 30.3% of respondents, news websites - 29.5%) as the main source of information.

58% of respondents admitted that the media influence their opinion on the situation in the country (we will conditionally call them "influenced by the media"), while 9.1% of respondents could not answer the question ("incapable of assessing the influence of the media"). Every third respondent (32.9%) denies the influence of the media on his viewpoint ("unaffected by the media").

The typical profile of people influenced by the media: urban citizens; mostly women; generally aged 45 up (45-54 years - 59.6%, 55-64 years -61.6%, 65 and up - 59.3%); Kazakhs (58.8%); using Kazakh as their first language (59.6%); with secondary education (61.7%); and with the lowest (68.4%) and low (59.6%) income.

People unaffected by the media are mostly rural citizens; men; aged 20-24 years (36.7%) and 2534 years (35.3%); representatives of other ethnic groups - non-Kazakh and non-Russian (39.4%); using both Kazakh and Russian languages (34%) or Russian only (33.7%); with incomplete secondary education (37.1%) and higher education (34%); with a low level of income (34.5%).

Those incapable to assess the influence of the media are generally women; respondents aged 1519 years (11.9%); Russians (10.7%); with incomplete secondary education (10.6%); with the highest level of income (12.3%).

The majority (78-83%) of the respondents can determine what the influence of the media is aimed

at, the purpose of communicating the message to the audience. According to our calculations, the number of people falling under the influence of electronic media comprises 35% or more than 6 million people.

The survey confirmed the urgency of reliability issues in the electronic media.

According to the respondents' assessment, the frequency of fakes appearance in social networks is expectedly higher - 37.7% compared to 21% in official media.

Are the respondents capable of perceiving information in the media critically, to identify its reliability and unbiasedness? The survey confirmed that the respondents generally fall short identifying the reliability. 59.7% of respondents failed to answer the question about ways to distinguish proper journalism from rumours and lies, or chose ambiguous responses such as 'everyone decides themselves' or 'time will show', and 3.5% answered that 'there is no difference between truth and fakes' or 'nowadays they all lie'. The remaining 36.8% of respondents can determine the reliability of the information and offered 35 variants of answers which can be interpreted as informative features. Fig. 2 is a representation of the ranked answers.

Analysis of the answers showed that most of the respondents mentioned the following features of identification of reliable information, using which an ordinary, unsophisticated viewer/reader can try to recognise a message based on rumours and lies:

* arguments, facts and references in the material (12.8%);

* trust in the journalist, his/her credibility (9.5%);

* cross-check of information, use of several sources (5%);

* field report/video with the date specified (3.6%).

However, every second participant of the survey (51.9%) was confused by the question of what indicators can be used to assess the reliability of the information published (Table 1). The most frequently mentioned features are the following:

- arguments and facts in the message (13,1%),

- cross-check of information in other sources (7.2%),

- the response and disputes in society, i.e. the stir in society caused by the message and the rate of its dissemination in everyday life (7,0%).

Comparison of the data in Fig. 1 and Table 1 shows the resemblance between the wordings of

Table 1

Based on your experience and knowledge, what criteria indicate the reliability of the information (% of the total number of respondents)

Answers Share, %

Not sure 51,9%

Arguments, facts 13,1%

Compare with other sources 7,2%

The response of society (covered hy different communication channels mid sources, many comments, disputed by the public, discussed by everyone) 7,0%

The information was obtained directly from the witnesses 4,0%

Status of the source, its independence 4,7%

Expert opinion 4,0%

Confirmation by officials or comes from the official sourcc 2,3%

Honesty, truthfulness 1,4%

The professionalism of a journalist 0,9%

Timeliness, promptness 0,4%

This source is the first to cover the information (primary7 source) 0,3%

Relying only on yourself, on your knowledge 0,2%

Information cannot be verified 1,1%

Other 3,9%

15.6

nol raro, bul iiol often

How often fate news is published oil the websites of regi stored media? How often late news is pub] ¡shed in social networks, blogs?

Figure 1. In your opinion, how often fake (false) news about events occurs in the country, is published on websites of registered media and in social networks, blogs? (% of the total number of respondents)

responses and the percentage of those who chose the corresponding answers to the similar questions. However, given that more than half of the respondents failed to answer the questions, the percentage shares for informative features are not sufficient to be defined as statistically significant. The variety of answers in combination with the large share of those failing to answer can be interpreted as indicative of intuitive selection of reliable information, without applying distribution statistics.

Another observation that follows the survey outcomes is that in the opinion of respondents the false news is frequently spread not only in social networks but also through the websites of officially registered media (Fig. 1).

In general, the significance of almost all informative features indicating the reliability was confirmed as they were mentioned by the respondents in their answers. (Table 2).

The analysis of Table 2 shows that, in the opinion of the respondents, 4 out of 8 reliability features (items 1, 3, 5, 8) have a high and comparable significance of 10-16% for the sophisticated (questionnaire developers) and inexperienced (ordinary audience) population.

As well, a comparison of the answers in Table 1 and Fig. 2 shows the match of 4 wordings of responses (items 1, 3, 5, 6).

Hence, the features in items 1, 3, 5, 6 are considered as the priority in identifying the

Table 2

Confirmation of informative features of reliability during a sociological survey

n Fciituir Confirmed/ Not Confirmed +/- Wording answers of respondents Percent of respondents who о m fini нч1 the feature Note

1 Reference to un adequate and unbiased source + arguments, facts and references in the material 12.8 % fable 1

information must come from officials 1,1% Figure 2

confirmation by officials, the official source 2,3% Table 1

2 Reference In the primary source of information + If this source was the first to communicate the information (primary source) 0,3% Figure % Table I

llie information was obtained directly from the participants of the events 4% fable 1

3 An indication of the name of the credible author + trust in the journalist. his/her credibility 9,5% ligure 2

the professionalism of the journalist 0,9% [ able I

4 Rati ng/rcputat ion of Ihe media + status of the source, its independence 4,0% Table 1

5 Coverage of the same event by various web resources (cross-cheeking. discourse with other publications) + compare with other sources, cross-cheek the information 5% Figure 2

Compare with other sources 7,2% fable 1

6 Availability and authenticity of photos and videos confirming the eon tent of the publication; + dated field report (video) 3,6% Figure 2

7 fhe relevance of the test's title lieadin^ to its content - ■ ■ *

8 Mention of verifiable facts + arguments, facts and references in the material 12>S% Figure 2

arguments and facts 13,1% Table I

reliability. The comparatively equal distribution of the answers over these items without the emergence of a distinctively leading feature indicates that all of these features jointly contribute to media influence.

The results of the survey related to 'unbias' features are quite controversial. Figures 3-6 contain respondents' answers to the questions related to 'unbias'. Respondents (Fig.3) note that, in general, electronic media communicate the events in the country accurately, but at the same time, they confirm many features of bias in the

Kazakhstani media (Fig. 5-6). 63.4% of respondents stated that it is possible to get an unbiased picture of the events taking place in the country based only on the information from Kazakhstani Internet resources. Almost a third of respondents (28.7%) partially or entirely disagree with this opinion. 7.9% of all survey participants failed to answer the question.

Also, the survey participants were asked to express their agreement/disagreement with a number of judgments related to the activities of Kazakhstani news websites (Fig. 4).

Not sure I

Arguments. facts, availability of references 1 Trust in thejoumalist, hi* impartiality ' Compare with other sources, cross-check the...'

Live broadcast (video) with date 1 Difficult to distinguish ■ Rel iab I e an d I ru e in form ati on ■ If it will on TV and iu newspapers 1 I n forma ti on m utfl com e from offic ial к < Expert response ■ Using on comments 1 I. лек of trust i n journal ists 1 If it will be broadcasted by stale TV channels only Only time will Loll Issues of grassroots Trust in all information broadcasted If this source llrsi eovcred ihe in forma lion (primary1..

Objectivity By feci Knowing the tnitii Ti mcl mess

Criticism of local authorities for poor performa nee Gelling in formation from bloggers working on the sp Interest m the snbject Openness Results of the investigation Via discussion Willi friends and neighbors Everyone decides for himself Nol to engage in propaganda Accessibility

They can imprison the journalist for the irulh Social networks are ihe first lo cover the event He должна вызывать агрессию и раздражение Importance of the event From own experience

\2Л0% 9,50% ™ 5.00% - 3.60% ■ 2,90% i 2.00% 1.30% 1.10% 0.90% 070% 0.60% 0.50% 0.50% 0,30% 0,30% 0,30% 0,30* о 0,30% 0,30%

0,30е О 0.20% 0.20% 0.20° о 0.20° о 0,20% 0.20% 0,10% 0,10% 0,10% 0,10% 0,10% 0J0% 0.10% 0,00%

59.10%

Figure 2. How can you distinguish good journalism based on the facts from rumors and lies? * Open question (% of the total number of respondents)

47t6

15,8

I

21A

7.3 7:9

Not sure

Definitely possible Rather possible than Rather impossible Definitely impossible than possible impossible

Figure 3. Do you think that using information only from Kazakhstan's Internet sources one can or cannot make an objective picture of the events taking place in Kazakhstan? (% from the total number of respondents)

As shown in Fig.5, almost half of the respondents, believe that the unbias of the Internet media is disrupted.

The reasons of such disruption may vary depending on a particular situation: professional ambitions ("to be

the first ones to cover the event"), economic incentives ("the desire to attract more readers") (Fig. 6).

The data analysis showed that most of the residents of Zhambyl (93%), Kyzylorda (75%), and Almaty (74.4%) agree with the statement that "news

62J

Й3.7

46.6

47.2

21Л

■ 15,6

II

They are concerned They sacrifice the They sacrifice ihe The mcdiu will rather The media will inform about attracting of a accuracy of coverage of accuracy of coverage of support Ihe ideology the public

larger audience events lo attract readers events to be lirst to

cover the event

■ Rallier agree ■ Ralhcr disagree BNol sure

Figure 4. Based on your experience of using Kazakhstan news websites, do you agree or disagree with the following statements? (% of the total number of respondents)

Angling the evenIs, activities in a particular sphere that is benelïcial for a certain circle of persons

52-7

25.3

intrusion of a certain opinion upon the readers

,14.4

20 J

Dtslraelious of readers' attention from important/problematic issues in the country

4Û.8

33,7

ИА5

Forming a positive image of one or another subject

55,1

27,7

\72

Biased debacle (biaek PR) against any subject

43.4

34.7

2\3

■Yes "No "Notsure

Figure 5. In general, do you think that Kazakhstan information Internet sites are used as tools for achieving the following goals? (% of the total number of respondents)

Excess of information on ihe topics of not interest I

■ 23,80"! a

I liding of certain tacts and events И

■ 27.80%

1лск of information on the topics о Г interest ■

■ 27,60*4

Ijek of comprehensive information on the cvuhU, M

■ 26J 0%

Biased interpretation of facts Ш

■ 20.80° О

Unreliability о I'information Ш

■ 19a

I jo w effi eie ncv of obta in i ug i n format ion ■

No shortcomings 0.200g

Information of the same type 0.10° о

No content ОЛО^

Not sure 1

■ 9.90%

Figure 6. In your opinion, what are the most significant shortcomings of the activities of Kazakhstan Internet sources? (% of the total number of respondents)

Table 3

Answer in your own words. In your opinion, what could be the consequences of communicating biased information in the news? (based on the results of processing responses to an open question)

Answers % Share

Not sure 5L9%

Loss of trust 12.1%

Rallies and protests 8,0%

Chaos and panic

Bias perception of the information by people 5,0%

Unpredictable and sad 4/7%

Kntailing scandals 2,0%

Wrong attitude to the situation 1,6%

Negative attitude to the sourcc of noise 1,5%

Spread of rumours and lies 1,4%

Distortion and concealment of facts and events 1,3%

Nothing will happen 1,3%

Unsubscribe from the site 0,8%

Court, criminal liability 0/7%

Misreading 0,5%

Avoiding false reports 0,5%

The source remains unpunished 0,4%

The source shutdown 0,4%

Discard from the Internet-sources 0,3%

People will look for additional information 03%

Excess of information on the same topic 0,2%

Population will beeoine distrustful and indifferent to everything 0,2%

Threats and harassment 0,2%

Everyone dccidcs whom to trust themselves 0,2%

Rumors refusal 0,2%

Using of alias names 0J%

Penalties and punishments 0,1%

People will start to trust social networks 0,1%

Bias 0,1%

Describe ordinary people problems 0,1%

Presence of comments 0,1%

New elections 0,1%

Media arc afraid to criticize the authority 0,1%

Late information 0.1%

Ignoring of sensitive issues, unemployment 0J%

Media should for the public consciousness 0,1%

The loss of patriotism 0,1%

Media and TV should educate people 0,1%

Disappointment of youth 0,1%

No one will follow news 0,0%

Reputation a 1 losses (critical issues for authorities and business) 0,0%

People are trustful, they will believe everything that media will publish 0,0%

websites are concerned with attracting a larger audience", more often these respondents are Kazakh-speaking (65.3%) aged 15-34 years. Kazakh-speaking residents of Atyrau, Mangistau,

Zhambyl, and South of Kazakhstan often agree with the statement that websites sacrifice the accuracy of communicating the events to attract readers and pursue to be the first to highlight the event.

Table 4

Mentioning of unbias features by the respondents

и Features Сил firmed/ Not Confirmed +/- Wording answers of respondents Percent of respondents who confirmed the feature

1 expressed personal opinion of the author in the publication - - -

2 use of manipulating tcchniqucs in the text + Excess of information on topics of no interest 28,8%

Hiding certain facts and events 27:8%

Lack of comprehensive information on events and phenomena 26,1%

3 features of authors7 engagement + Biased facts interpretation 20,8%

Media will most likely support ideology 49,3%

Lack of comprehensive information on events and phenomena 26,1%

Next, respondents were asked about the issues of the work of Kazakhstani Internet sources that do not meet the demands of the audience (Fig. 6). As the data analysis shows, among the main shortcomings of the domestic Internet media, the population noted the following features of bias: an excess of information on topics that were not of interest (28.8%), concealment of some facts and events (27.8%) and lack of information on topics of interest 27.6%), the lack of comprehensive information on certain events (26.1%). Every fifth respondent drew attention to the fact that there is a biased interpretation of the facts and inaccurate information in the news from the Internet sources. 9.9% of respondents failed to answer this question.

Additional analysis of the data in Fig.6 shows that the Kazakh-speaking Internet audience suffers from a lack of information on the topics of interest, the lack of comprehensive information on events in the country. The respondents who speak both Kazakh and Russian complain about redundant information. Also, respondents with higher education paid attention to the lack of comprehensive information. The other socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents do not affect their choice of the answers.

The analysis of the data by regions is also worth mention. According to the results of the survey, three regions demonstrate a high level of prejudice

believing that the news websites are biased and engaged - more than 70% of respondents, compared to the average of 43-55% over the country - these are Zhambyl, Kyzylorda and Mangistau regions.

Also, opposite to the above, there are regions where people chose "no" when responding to the question about the likelihood of media engagement, they are Atyrau, Kostanay and Pavlodar.

The answers to the open question regarding the consequences of communicating biased information show that respondents mostly predict negative-emotional reactions. However, above all, it should be noted that every second respondent (51.9%) failed to answer the question (Table 3).

The top-listed effects such as loss of trust, rallies and protests, chaos and panic, unpredictable and sad, entailing scandals - are the predictions of direct negative-emotional and protest manifestations/ consequences of biased communication. In addition to information about the consequences themselves, these responses also are indicative of the public moods which are mostly pessimistic.

At the same time, the share of rational and emotionally neutral answers ('a biased perception of information by people', 'wrong attitudes to the situation', 'negative attitude to the source of noise', 'distortion and concealment of facts and events', 'nothing will happen') is minimal.

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Summarizing the above, the informative features for bias criterion were confirmed and mentioned by the respondents (Table 4).

The analysis of data (Table 4) shows that, in the opinion of the respondents, 2 out of 3 proposed features are the attributes of unbias (items 2 and 3), and both have a high and comparable significance of ~ 20-50%. Additional analysis of the data did not reveal notable differences in the demographic and economic characteristics. The analysis of the data in the context of the place of residence of the respondents showed that residents of Zhambyl, Kyzylorda, Mangystau and Aktyubinsk regions are dissatisfied with the media and provided content in terms of unbias: ~ 70% of the population of these regions negatively assess the activity of the media in this context.

Out of the informative features identified at the beginning of the study and gathered into one category - manipulative techniques, direct confirmation was received for manipulating with the place and time (the answer "sacrifice the accuracy of events communicating in order to be the first who present the event" - 47.2%, Fig. 4); indirectly respondents confirmed sensationalism (the answers are "media are more concerned to attract a larger audience" - 62.7%, "sacrifice accuracy to attract readers" - 46.6%, Fig. 4), and politicisation (responses "rallies, protests" - 8.0%, "chaos and panic" - 6.7%, Table 3).

Thus, data analysis allows us to conclude that the informative features of unbias 2 and 3 are of priority compared to the others.

Conclusions

1. We established that every third Kazakhstani aged 15 and up falls under the influence of electronic media and is well aware of this, understanding the purposes of influence.

2. A large share of people (52-60%) chooses the answer "Not sure". One-third of respondents in practice largely use and can easily identify 4 features out of the whole range; the rest use and identify a smaller number. This indicates that half of the population of Kazakhstan lacks or has poor skills of critical perception of information in electronic media, the confident identification of reliable and unbiased information. We may explain this by the fact that currently the majority of the population obtain information through the official media.

3. We formed a list of features of "reliability" and "unbias" of information in the electronic media. The

priority informative features of reliability are as follows:

- the reference in the text to a competent source;

- an indication of the name of the credible author;

- coverage of the same events by various web resources (cross-checking, discourse with other publications);

- the availability and authenticity of photos and videos confirming the content of media text.

When assessing unbias, priority features are the absence of manipulative techniques and the absence of features indicating the author's engagement. Since the survey did not reveal dominantly significant features for the population of Kazakhstan, we can conclude that when analysing the content of electronic media, it is advisable to take all these features into account.

4. The lack of understanding and common practice in identifying features of reliability and unbias provides grounds for manipulating public beliefs.

5. The survey showed that people's perception of reliability and bias of Kazakhstani media is dependent on the gender, age, ethnicity, and most of all on the geographic region of residence.

References

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