Russia’s National Projects As An Image Problem Of Management

Abstract

The authors investigated the content of the most influential Russian socio-political federal media of various political orientations (having more than 100 thousand readers), VK groups, Twitter messages on national projects and constantly updated digital information channels (government sites, social networks accounts and instant messengers).

Analysis of media, social media and contemporary digital platforms demonstrates a monotony in providing information on national projects to the population, the predominant use of government representatives as newsmakers, repeated information guides from government press releases in regional media, and, as a result, minimal public interest in the topic of national projects, and low involvement of target audiences in discourse.

The efforts of the authorities in terms of promoting national projects were also investigated: the choice of TASS as the driving force for creating the image of national projects among the population, the creation of new media resources and the use of existing media (social networks and regional media)) for promotion. Meanwhile, all government projects are distinguished by unidirectional communication and do not involve the addressee in the creation or discussion of content.

To answer the question about the successes and problems of information promotion of national projects, the authors turned both to robotic tools for assessing discourse and to the analysis of personal expert assessments of professionals in the media sphere. The study as a whole revealed the coincidence of expert assessments and the results of media measurements: both in terms of problematic image zones of national projects and the non-equivalence of national projects in terms of public image.

The following recommendations were made: approaching the information support of national projects to the regional socio-political agenda, involving the population of a specific territory in the implementation of a national project by creating initiative groups and holding actions, maximum access to information in digital formats of the progress of projects and the development of funds, refining the target audiences of each project and working with the promotion of specific national projects to narrow target audiences, branding and image certification of the results of national projects.

The authors suggest not only an increase in the number of people involved and the conversion of the discourse of national projects into an increase in confidence in the authorities but also, first of all, an increase in the economic effect of their implementation.