The Role of Russian Youth's Media Activism in Mediatization of Politics

Abstract

Mediatization of politics has a variety of theoretical and conceptual grounds, and is considered by researchers as both one-way and two-way communication between the state and the society. Foreign media researchers view mediatization of politics as a path to an open government and democratization of the state, and emphasize the need to develop civic engagement in the media environment. In national studies, mediatization of politics is still dominated by perception of media as mediator commissioned by the government to influence participants of the political dialogue. The article makes an attempt to consider the mediatization of politics as a consequence of Russian youths media activism. Today's young people are increasingly showing their interest in participating in political processes. They are particularly interested in the formation of civil society, human rights and freedoms, and justice within the framework of common European values. Media activism of Russian youth and their influence on the development of media policy was particularly pronounced in 2019, which can be seen in three cases: the Golunov case, the Voice-Children case, and the case of the construction of the Church in Yekaterinburg. The authors make a comparative analysis of publication activity based on these information events in the official media and in Instagram, which enables them to infer that the role of media activity of Russian youth in the process of mediatization of politics is increasing.