The Presentation of Family and Demographic Policy in the Media: Results of the All-Russian Study
Authors:   Institute for Demographic Research of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Rostovskaya Tamara , Vasilieva Ekaterina ,   Volgograd State University
Published: February 2022

Introduction. In the Russian Federation, the relevance of research on the demographic indicators and the effectiveness of public administration in their regulation. Demographic problems include a set of tasks that need to be solved to ensure the growth of fertility and life expectancy, reduce mortality, and regulate migration. This study discusses a part of demographic policy, namely the instruments of the state family and demographic policy aimed at “saving the people of Russia and developing human potential”, which, in accordance with the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation, are the priority of the country’s national interest. The purpose of this work is to identify the context of communication between the government and society in the process of covering the demographic situation and public administration in the field of family and demographic policy by the Russian media. Methods and Materials. The research methodology is based on theories that reveal the relationship between political management and political communication (S. Ball-Rokeach and M. DeFleur, G. Lasswell, J. Habermas, G. Esping Andersen, S. Volodenkov, M. Grachev, A. Solovyov, etc.). The research method is content analysis of regional Russian media, the sample consists of 9011 articles. Analysis. In the process of content analysis, the following tools of public administration were evaluated: communication and the construction of a discourse on the implementation and results of family and demographic policy in the Russian media. Family and demographic policy are parts of social policy and can be quite effective (for example, the “One-child policy” of China), but the use of technologies to manipulate public opinion in the process of implementing family and demographic policy carries significant risks. Results. The content analysis revealed how family and demographic policy is covered in the media, which of the three communication purposes of the authorities and society (information, dialogue or manipulation) is the basic one. Content analysis allowed us to answer the question: are technologies of manipulation of public opinion used to increase the birth rate in the Russian Federation? It is revealed that these technologies are not used in the analyzed media, there is no persistent repetition of characteristic phrases. The data obtained in the process of content analysis made it possible to describe the communicative practices used in the studied media, to conclude whether the communicative practices correspond to the goals of political management in the field of family and demographic policy. Authors’ contribution. T. Rostovskaya built a theoretical scheme for the study of the context of communication between the government and society, carried out a guide for collecting material by regions of the Russian Federation. E. Vasilieva developed a research methodology, processed the data obtained. The co-authors jointly analyzed the data and interpreted the results.