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Published in the Slovak Republic Media Education (Mediaobrazovanie) Has been issued since 2005 ISSN 1994-4160 E-ISSN 1994-4195 2019, 59(3): 454-460
DOI: 10.13187/me.2019.3.454 www.ejournal53.com
On Improving of Outreach Work in the Media Sphere to Counter the Ideology of Terrorism
S.A. Vorontsov a , *, A.Yu. Goloborodko b, A.V. Ponedelkov a, A.G. Shteinbukh c
a Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Russian Federation
b Rostov State University of Economics, Russian Federation c Southern Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Education, Russian Federation
Abstract
The study examines the challenges of improving media outreach to counter the ideology of terrorism regarding the opportunities of modern mass media education. The authors of the article note that the development of state mechanisms is currently carried out in the conditions of the lack of effective control over communications, draw attention to the problems of formation of media legitimacy and the importance of work on information and communication positioning of authorities in the modern information space. The authors analyze the ways to implement the requirements of the Federal Comprehensive Plan to counter the ideology of terrorism, highlight existing problems and propose possible solutions.
In the authors' opinion's, the following issues are essential: 1) to create a pool of speakers, both from "within" public authorities, and "independent" which can give expert support in the information environment, including the creation of advisory councils at federal executive authorities; 2) for the press services - to try following the unified principles of work with editiorial offices, and for editiorial offices - not to demand from the press services of the impracticable actions which are outlined by regulations. This problem can be solved at the level of coordination between the heads of authorities and mass media's editorial offices; 3) to begin, eventually, a possible dialogue with the audience in social media; 4) to provide a possibility for direct dialogue between the staff of law-enforcement departments and their press services with the representatives of the media on a regular basis; 5) speaking about mass media education which, as we know, concerns not only the professional media sphere, but also the general population practically of all age and professions which daily act as active consumers of media then, most likely, the development of media competence of audience, carried out in the course of mass media education can be one of the effective steps.
Keywords: state institutes, media, social networks, countering ideology of terrorism, media education.
1. Introduction
Stability of the state institutes directly depends on their efficiency and abilities of a social system to adapt to the changes that are under way (Matafonova, 2015). The development of state
* Corresponding author
E-mail addresses: raven_serg@mail.ru (S.A. Vorontsov), goloborodko2009@mail.ru (A.Yu. Goloborodko), ponedelkov@skags.ru (A.V.Ponedelkov), shteinbukh@gmail.com (A.G. Shteinbukh)
mechanisms is conducted today in the conditions characterized by the lack of effective control over communications, - new participants of communication take part in the formation of the information agenda and the existing "old" institutes are forced to defend their reputation in the conditions of the new media legitimacy not controlled by the national state.
The amount, relevance and degree of truthfulness of information play an important role in safety of the state and citizens, maintenance of legitimacy of the political power. The lack of respect from citizens for political leaders, doubt in their intellectual and professional qualities and human decency based on the lack of knowledge, generate the factors which are undermining the stability of the political power negatively affecting the safety of society in general (Vorontsov, 2013).
2. Materials and methods
The scientific works devoted to a perspective of professional and mass media education in the context of implementation of information and propaganda work in the media sphere on counteraction of ideology of terrorism are considered to be the main material of this research.
Research methods: content analysis, synthesis and classification, comparative and comparative methods.
3. Discussion
Various aspects of a problem of this research are discussed in a number of scientific publications. There is a considerable number of Russian and foreign researchers dealing with the problems of media culture and media education: Akgunduz, Akinoglu (Akgunduz, Akinoglu, 2016), S. Arévalo (Arévalo, 2018), A.V. Fedorov (Fedorov, 2014; 2015; 2019; Fedorov et al., 2018; Fedorov, Levitskaya, 2015), I.V. Chelysheva (Chelysheva, 2017), Sánchez-Moya (Sánchez-Moya, 2015), F. Yus (Yus, 2017) and others (Gálik, 2017; Petranová et al., 2017, etc.).
So, for example, S. Arévalo (Arévalo, 2018) examines the peculiarities of emotional self-presentation on Whats App; Sánchez-Moya (Sánchez-Moya, 2015) presents the analysis of the specific behaviors of social network users; F. Yus (Yus, 2017) analyses the context of modern WhatsApp communication.
The problem of interconnection of educational demands of modern generation and social networking is considered in the works of Akgunduz, Akinoglu, (Akgunduz, Akinoglu, 2016), A. Anders (Anders, 2018) and others.
The issue of social networking and its potential for modern education is highlighted in the research by E. Bal (Bal, 2017), Marfil-Carmona, Chacón (Marfil-Carmona, Chacon, 2017) considers the peculiar features of art education and development of students' media literacy.
The political discourse of the problem under consideration is also represented in a number of contemporary studies.Yu. A. Matafonova's examines the problem of political stability in the context of a federal system (Matafonova, 2015), S.A. Vorontsov highlights various aspects of state policy and management in the security sphere (Vorontsov, 2013). M.Y. Maslennikov's paper is of interest to this research as he describes the possibilities of media in law (Maslennikov, 2005). The special attention in the context of work is attached to the Comprehensive plan of counteraction of ideology of terrorism in the Russian Federation for 2013 - 2018 (The Comprehensive Plan ..., 2013). The works of S. Vorontsov, A.Yu. Goloborodko, A. Ponedelkov, A. Shteinbukh, O. Kravets (Vorontsov et al., 2018) present the measures for expansion of approaches for ensuring national security of Russia in the sphere of media.
According to the analysis of the above-mentioned research papers, efficiency of functioning of public authorities, especially Law Enforcement or Supervisory Departments in the conditions of new information and communication reality depends on the existence of social support of the population which is formed on the basis of the positive image of the power in which formation both traditional media and new media are directly involved (Maslennikov, 2005), the latter get the influence on the public consciousness comparable with traditional media. Thus, the formation of media legitimacy occurs in the conditions of traditional delivery of information to the consumer or entries into new network communication structures.
In which way the necessary information background which has to boost and increase trust of the society to the state institutes is formed? On the one hand, it is the work of public authorities in the form of direct contact with the representatives of civil society, i.e. within implementation of profile activity, and through the work of the press services and other divisions connected with the dissemination of information. On the other hand, it is independent work of media which interact through the press
services and/or own sources with departments. Generally speaking, it is the work on information and communication positioning of authorities in modern information space. Information background is created on the basis of the personal emotions broadcast through social networks from users and the directed information which is generated by media and the press services.
What does the work with information space consist in? It is not only the content, but also correction, realization of the propaganda aims. Today information space is most fully presented on the Internet. Electronic versions of traditional media, broadcasts of all types of television, social media and other mechanisms of delivery and exchange of information are extremely dynamic information flow subject to continuous changes and increase. The availability and popularity of the Internet allows not only to manipulate consciousness of the certain person or a group, but also to change, in certain cases, the main geopolitical capacity of the state - national mentality, culture, morale of people.
Paragraph 3.1.1. of a Federal Comprehensive Plan of Counteraction of Ideology of Terrorism demands from executive authorities of the territorial subjects of the Russian Federation which are carrying out powers in spheres of culture, the press and mass communications in interaction with territorial authorities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, FSB of Russia, FSIN of Russia, local governments to organize, with the involvement of leaders of public opinion, popular bloggers, the creation and distribution to media and Internet networks of information materials (printing, audiovisual and electronic) in the field of counteraction of ideology of terrorism (The Comprehensive Plan..., 2013). The First Deputy Chief of Presidential Administration S. Kiriyenko said almost the same (only without highlighting the level of territorial subjects of the federation), speaking at the closed section "The State and Society in the Digital Environment" of the Russian Internet forum in 2019: Authorities have to be present at social networks and to be ready to resist to "a wave of throws and fakes" (Kiriyenko, 2019). Moreover, S. Kiriyenko urged "to communicate directly with people in network", i.e. both the document of strategic planning and the first deputy head of presidential administration supervising the internal political block demonstrate that it is necessary to realize promotion tasks including a direct dialogue.
3. Results
Media promotion acts as conscious intervention and correction of what the target audience sees aiming at influence on motivation of decision-making. The tasks of promotion can be considered realized provided that the recipient of information considers his actions true, without awareness of the fact that his opinion is based on the data which have been intentionally corrected. It is the war with perception pushing the person to interpret reality on the basis of the changed perception. Today it is implemented by the means of the information operations accentuating what is necessary and eliminating what mass consciousness should not pay attention to from the information agenda. Many modern media texts actively use media manipulation with mass consciousness which is represented in modern background as "the system of techniques and methods of media impact on the audience for the purpose of imposing any ideas, opinions or deception" (Fedorov, 2014: 24).
In many respects the specified propaganda activities are similar to advertizing and marketing: to convince the target audience that certain goods, services or a way of life is the only true and correct, that is to force the greatest possible number of potential consumers to make a choice which is imposed. Anti-terrorist and anti-extremism promotion, if to consider it in terms of advertizing, holds specific position - for the bulk of the population it is prevention "in order not to worsen the situation", and for extremely small part of a target audience it is a possibility of the choice of something better.
Similar sharp segmentation of the audience is not a characteristic feature of classical advertizing or marketing. But, in the advertizing world for increase in efficiency of advertizing campaigns, there is a large number of tools of assessment of advertizing efficiency and measures for its increase. One of such mechanisms is the identification of optimum mechanisms of the report of the information directed to the consumer.
Operating in media space is impossible without understanding the structure of media consumption by target audience. Following A.V. Fedorov we will understand as target audience "a group of the people contacting to media texts, allocated by the media agency on the basis of any characteristics (age, social status, education, race, gender, nationality, etc.) for the purpose of the
maximum influence (for example, advertizing)" (Fedorov, 2014: 14). Really, if it is not known from which sources each category of recipients acquires information, it is not possible to speak about any efficiency of information and propaganda actions (Vorontsov et al., 2018).
So, first of all, we have to speak about the Internet. Another citation of S. Kiriyenko: "The Internet has turned into the space of struggle, sometimes wars are absolutely straightforward" (Kiriyenko 2019). In Russia nearly 91 million people use the Internet. The growth of the number both users and and devices demonstrates that the person plunges into a world wide web more and more. The behavior model of the person on the Internet depends not only on its gender and age characteristics or education level and income. It also depends on the mode of device - laptop or smart phone. But anyway in TOP-5 preferences include video and social networks/messengers. The consumption of video content is constantly growing, at some decrease in time of viewing of traditional linear air, the explosive growth of watching video on the Internet is observed. There are a lot of reasons for it, but one of them is the fact that people read less and less, and they can concentrate attention for the extensive reading and understanding less.
Daily 23 million people spend 45 minutes being absorbed in messengers (Achkasova, 2019) it is only in Russia. 20 million people correspond in WhatsApp, 10 million is the audience of Viber and 11 million - Telegrams. Is it a lot of or not? It is appropriate to remember that the main throws of fakes in recent years during terrorist attacks or other states of emergency went via messengers. The audience of channels in the Telegram is millions of active users who interact with news feed every minute. The gadget in hands is the natural attribute now as the pen in the hands of a school student or a police rod in the hands of a traffic police officer. What do they see on screens? They see video content, news and reposts from the contacts or the leaders of opinions. But what video content do they watch? Television content is made according to the laws of television. The most popular channels of young people up to 25 years old are TNT and STS. There is no news in a broadcasting schedule of these channels and this grid is formed at the federal level.
There is a logical question - can this statistics help the organization to interact between the power and society? With global coverage of the population, the audience of social media remains sufficiently segmented, so, to everyone it is necessary to look for the approaches. If we want "to reach" young workers from the remote place - we will go to VKontake and "Schoolmates" with the small text or the video. If our target audience - the graduates of capital higher education institutions who are employed - we use Facebook, Telegram, etc. But anyway, it is necessary to communicate with them.
In realization of state policy the pro-active information line concerning the agenda is necessary, that is every-minute participation in formation and correction of the information field.
The appeal to the potential of mass media education can become one of effective solutions of the presented problems too. It is known that "media education allows the person to acquire the techniques of using the media in communication; provides knowledge of how to analyze, critically comprehend and create media texts; to define sources of media texts, their political, social, commercial and/or cultural interests, their context; to interpret the media texts and values extended by the media; to select the relevant media for creation and distribution of own media texts and finding the audience interested in them; to have an opportunity of free access to media, both for perception, and for products" (Chelysheva, 2017: 154).
There is a variety of patterns of the interaction between mass media and authorities, in general terms, they have identical problems which negatively influence the formation of social support of public authorities. Key problems of the work of an overwhelming number of the press services of authorities are: passive following the information agenda; inability to develop the results of own achievements in the information environment; work in style of "justification"; in the frame of their work regional authorities prefer not to conduct effective and open work with the population, but rely on the decisions made at higher level; total failure of work on formation of a pool of departmental speakers.
It should be noted that nearly the only structure which is in the process of overcoming this problem is the Prosecutor General's Office forming (by means of the videostream "Air") the skills of work with the camera and audience for mid-level and senior managers both at federal and local levels. Surprisingly, the result is tangible - the research of the Russian Public Opinion Research Center conducted in 2018 on a subject "Law enforcement and judicial authorities (Press Release, 2018) showed the rating of defenders of the rights and freedoms that "the main institution in our country which people are potentially ready to address in the case of violation of the civil and
enterprise rights, is the prosecutor's office"; best of all the respondents are informed on the work of prosecutor's office. More than 64 % of Russians are aware about the activities of prosecutor's office and more than 48 % trust it (Press release, 2018).
Any discussion of news, regardless in social networks or in media, faces the absence of the appropriate, high-level experts and the lack of rotation of available ones. There are practically no new speakers, and the available ones either become "hackneyed" or lose understanding of the modern situation. Especially sharp this situation is reflected in the questions of commenting of activity of the so-called "power" block.
To speak about independent, active and effective presence of public authorities in social media is early, so far. At the country level there are certain regions and responsible employees who decide on commenting and attempt to maintain a dialogue with users. Current departmental regulatory base has mainly prohibitive character. Though there is a number of foreign examples of doing it differently.
As for mass media - journalists (editors or producers) who understand specific questions of activity of these or those authorities in the country can be scarce, at the same time the vast majority of them works in the status of special correspondents and are not connected with linear news. There is a lack of practice of the organization of meetings "without microphone" for the media representatives (not editors-in-chief, and those who directly broadcast live and work "in the field") and anti-extremist activists. Professional development in terms of increasing information awareness doesn't exist.
For this reason the purposeful work on introduction of potential of mass media education aimed at the development of media competence is necessary. The media competence of the personality is understood by A.V. Fedorov "as the set of motives, knowledge, abilities (motivational, contact, information, perceptual, interpretative/estimating, operational, active, creative), promotion of the choice, use, the critical analysis, assessment, creation and transfer of 26 media texts in different types, forms and genres, the analysis of difficult processes of functioning of media in society" (Fedorov, 2014: 26). The media competence becomes the important aspect in modern conditions, allowing the audience to analyze, carry out interpretation of media sources, to eliminate false and unreliable information, to use media for education and personal development of audience.
5. Conclusion
So, progressive development of state policy in the information sphere is inseparable from the development of other nation-wide institutions. At the same time the significant danger carries the expanding dualism in practice of actions of the state institutions: on the one hand, a bias to the centralized decision-making and formal copying of these decisions at all levels, on the other hand, - modernization of management is connected with a number of initiatives in the direction of decentralization and bigger independence and publicity, including the issue of maintaining a dialogue between the power and society (Sharkov et al., 2017). What should be changed to improve the situation? In our opinion, the following issues are essential:
1. To create a pool of speakers, both from "within" public authorities, and "independent" which can give expert support in the information environment, including the creation of advisory councils at federal executive authorities.
2. For the press services - to try following the unified principles of work with editiorial offices, and for editiorial offices - not to demand from the press services of the impracticable actions which are outlined by regulations. This problem can be solved at the level of coordination between the heads of authorities and mass media's editorial offices.
3. To begin, eventually, a possible dialogue with the audience in social media.
4. To provide a possibility for direct dialogue between the staff of law-enforcement departments and their press services with the representatives of the media on a regular basis.
5. Speaking about mass media education which, as we know, concerns not only the professional media sphere, but also the general population practically of all age and professions which daily act as active consumers of media then, most likely, the development of media competence of audience, carried out in the course of mass media education can be one of the effective steps.
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