The 'Other' Culture Formation in Russia: The View through the Informational Society Theory and Actual Process of External Migration

摘要

The article describes the peculiar characteristics of an "information" society and analyzes theoretical approaches to its study. Media dominance, media products' manipulative effects of human mind are presented as fundamental factors of the information society. The powerful influence of media on public consciousness in Russia is shown on the example of public attitude towards migrants, becoming the cultural image of the Other - i.e. a human being of different ethnicity and religion - and opportunities for integration of migrants into Russian society. In the modern-day Russian society the image of the Other is being changed by media permanently for the last decades in conjunction to the existing economical and sociocultural problems. The article reviews the artificial media myths and public barriers obstructing the dialogue between indigenous population and migrants.