"Khokhly", "Pindos", "Chukhons" and other "busurmans" in the Runet and the Russian press Andrey Mochenov, Sergey Nikulin28 June 19:36 MCK

Instead of a preface

The Internet, unlike the media, is an environment in general that is much less regulated by legislation, external and internal censorship, and the term “journalistic ethics” is hardly applicable to it. On the other hand, the Internet is an open environment, and not only and not so much journalists and newsmakers, but people of completely different professions and social status publish their opuses and opinions here. From this point of view, research on the reflection of certain terms on the Internet even more adequately reflects the stereotypes inherent in various social groups and society as a whole (at least that part of it that is commonly called the “Internet community”) than the mass media.
On the other hand, the mass media largely impose these stereotypes, thus acting as a propaganda tool. By comparing the coverage of various topics in the media and the Internet, one can observe an effect that is called “media scissors” - i.e. the gap in the information priorities of the media and the population (in this case, not the entire population, but the Internet community).

Table. Indexes of mention of some “name-calling” - invective, disparaging and euphemistic designations of national and racial groups in the Russian press and Runet.

Diagram 1. Correlation of indexes of mention of some invective, disparaging and euphemistic designations of national and racial groups in Runet and in the press (top ten).

The diagram shows the ratio of the indices of mention of terms in the Runet and to the indices of mention in the Russian press. Thus, the diagram shows how many times more often these terms are mentioned on the Internet than in the press.

Diagram 2. Indices of mention in the Russian press and on the RuNet of terms denoting the manifestation or absence of certain forms of xenophobia on national grounds.

Media statistics: Group 808. Press data obtained from the collections of the National Electronic Library. Data for Runet was obtained using the Yandex search engine using advanced search functions and query language.

Comment: - on a comparative analysis of the representation in the information environment (mass media, Internet-Runet) of stereotypical derogatory names for representatives of different ethnocultural groups.
As researchers, we are primarily interested in two aspects of the analysis:
1) Synchronous representation (press indexes and ratings of statements) of ethnonyms on the Internet and in the media.
2) Discrepancies in the representation of ethnonyms on the Internet and in the media.

As one would expect, the entire group of ethnonyms, upon closer examination, falls into clusters, each of which has its own dynamics.

Changes in the structure of the identified ethnonyms can be explained by reasons that are rooted in stereotypes of mass consciousness, on the one hand, and in a targeted (?) information “attack”, on the other. What is a targeted attack tool? - Of course, the media that have maximum coverage of both the territory and the social composition of Russia. They are the ones who penetrate into every home, carrying in the depths of their texts typical ideas about ourselves and those around us.

Is this “alignment” of the representation of different ethno-cultural groups in the media accidental, or is it the result of some kind of “coordinated information policy” that brings to the masses ideas of social interaction and relations with other ethnic groups? For now, we will leave this question unanswered, because... This study does not pretend to provide such deep interpretations (but not the reader himself). Let us only note that they often talk about those who have a strong influence on us. Using a well-known psychological strategy: if you want to weaken your “sworn comrade,” laugh at him. And it is precisely the derogatory form of such naming of representatives of other nationalities that is a specific relegation, ridicule, the purpose of which we talked about a little higher. But that's not all. They laugh at those whom they actually recognize as strong, but do not want to recognize . That is, this behavior is an expression of a certain “cognitive dissonance” (the term of the famous psychologist L. Festinger), when reality does not want to be accepted as it is. And this is already indicative.

The imposition of the image of a strong Russian nation from the “pages” of the media really does not fit in with the dirt on the streets, the poverty of the provinces and independent governance in the territories of our great Motherland. Here is the reality - we have ceased to be strong, the ones we felt like for many years after the 2nd World War. The Cold War era developed stable mechanisms of information confrontation, behind which there were real actions. Now there are no cases left, only imitation. And this is very disappointing. Especially from the position of those who continue to consider (is it for real? Is it feigned?) that the Russian people are the greatest people. And the point here is not only and not so much about patriotism; as the movie character Kalterbrunner said from the Russian film masterpiece “Seventeen Moments of Spring” (a free retelling, but close to the text): true patriotism lies not in singing anthems, praising illusory national virtues and imaginary victories, but in objective assessment and action┘

We see a different situation in the Runet space. Here we can see the shifts and shifts of the “nasty strangers” that interest us. And this is understandable - anyone who has access to the network and who knows how to use it can say. And this is a slightly different audience. She doesn't respond as strongly to propaganda and information buffets. Moreover, we can consider the reactions of the Internet information space (represented by its users, of course) as feedback, as an information response to information influence. In addition, the Internet community has its own channels for receiving and distributing information, and it is interested in much more prosaic things, behind which real needs are hidden (disadvantaged or vice versa).

Much can be seen from the table itself and I don’t want to comment on it for too long - here everyone can find interesting material for comparisons and their own conclusions. This is how, and not otherwise, we will help our thinking grow, become more mature and adequate to the realities of today. Good luck, Russians┘

Candidate of Philosophy, employee of the Laboratory of Social and Economic Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, A.A.Vakhin

"Khokhols", "Pindos", "Chukhons" and other "busurmans" in Runet and the Russian press