Emotions as Key to Russian GenZs’ Consumption of Political News

BACKGROUND: Media consumption by the digital generation in Russia should not only be of interest to media researchers or managers. The fact that young people’s interaction with various information sources and the media is noticeably different from the daily practice of older generations and has crea...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Salikhova, Elena A., Vyugina, Daria M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Russian Psychological Society 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9833611/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36699710
http://dx.doi.org/10.11621/pir.2022.0203
_version_ 1784868281470943232
author Salikhova, Elena A.
Vyugina, Daria M.
author_facet Salikhova, Elena A.
Vyugina, Daria M.
author_sort Salikhova, Elena A.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Media consumption by the digital generation in Russia should not only be of interest to media researchers or managers. The fact that young people’s interaction with various information sources and the media is noticeably different from the daily practice of older generations and has created new trends and habits, must be taken into account by the teaching community, parents, and political forces. This issue is of particular interest to politicians, because it points to the need for them to transform their information policy. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to find out how media formats that appeal to emotions of young people influence their media consumption. DESIGN: During the first stage, we surveyed respondents in three cities with populations of over one million; the surveys allowed us to identify key sources of information and the motivation for various kinds of digital content consumption by youth. During the second stage, 20 in-depth interviews provided a deeper understanding of where the teenagers got their political news and what influenced their consumption. RESULTS: The authors of this paper have concluded that the digital generation does not consume political news purposefully. They rarely turn to socio-political publications and do not watch shows on federal TV channels. In fact, members of this generation mostly deny having any interest in this topic or awareness of it. However, through various entertaining, primarily humorous, content, which is the most popular among young people, a clear political agenda, albeit subjective, is being formed in their information space. CONCLUSION: Our work refutes the common misconception of researchers, representatives of the state system, and journalists that the digital generation is not interested in politics. Rather, their pursuit of emotional experiences, primarily positive ones, has become their main incentive for consuming political news.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9833611
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Russian Psychological Society
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-98336112023-01-24 Emotions as Key to Russian GenZs’ Consumption of Political News Salikhova, Elena A. Vyugina, Daria M. Psychol Russ Social Psychology BACKGROUND: Media consumption by the digital generation in Russia should not only be of interest to media researchers or managers. The fact that young people’s interaction with various information sources and the media is noticeably different from the daily practice of older generations and has created new trends and habits, must be taken into account by the teaching community, parents, and political forces. This issue is of particular interest to politicians, because it points to the need for them to transform their information policy. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to find out how media formats that appeal to emotions of young people influence their media consumption. DESIGN: During the first stage, we surveyed respondents in three cities with populations of over one million; the surveys allowed us to identify key sources of information and the motivation for various kinds of digital content consumption by youth. During the second stage, 20 in-depth interviews provided a deeper understanding of where the teenagers got their political news and what influenced their consumption. RESULTS: The authors of this paper have concluded that the digital generation does not consume political news purposefully. They rarely turn to socio-political publications and do not watch shows on federal TV channels. In fact, members of this generation mostly deny having any interest in this topic or awareness of it. However, through various entertaining, primarily humorous, content, which is the most popular among young people, a clear political agenda, albeit subjective, is being formed in their information space. CONCLUSION: Our work refutes the common misconception of researchers, representatives of the state system, and journalists that the digital generation is not interested in politics. Rather, their pursuit of emotional experiences, primarily positive ones, has become their main incentive for consuming political news. Russian Psychological Society 2022-06-15 /pmc/articles/PMC9833611/ /pubmed/36699710 http://dx.doi.org/10.11621/pir.2022.0203 Text en Copyright © Lomonosov Moscow State University, 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/The journal content is licensed with CC BY-NC “Attribution-NonCommercial” Creative Commons license.
spellingShingle Social Psychology
Salikhova, Elena A.
Vyugina, Daria M.
Emotions as Key to Russian GenZs’ Consumption of Political News
title Emotions as Key to Russian GenZs’ Consumption of Political News
title_full Emotions as Key to Russian GenZs’ Consumption of Political News
title_fullStr Emotions as Key to Russian GenZs’ Consumption of Political News
title_full_unstemmed Emotions as Key to Russian GenZs’ Consumption of Political News
title_short Emotions as Key to Russian GenZs’ Consumption of Political News
title_sort emotions as key to russian genzs’ consumption of political news
topic Social Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9833611/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36699710
http://dx.doi.org/10.11621/pir.2022.0203
work_keys_str_mv AT salikhovaelenaa emotionsaskeytorussiangenzsconsumptionofpoliticalnews
AT vyuginadariam emotionsaskeytorussiangenzsconsumptionofpoliticalnews