“Otherness” in Traditional Russian Media in the Modern Social Context

The oppositions “we - they (the others)”, “my – alien” constitute any society and set up the basic framework for its functioning. According to Hegel, Husserl, any “something” needs “other” in order to determine their identity. Currently, scientific category “other” can be  interpreted from the standpoint of the phenomenological, hermeneutical, poststructuralist leading directions. The problem of detection the “other” is actual both in theoretical terms (e.g., to diagnose the state of a particular society at a particular time of its development), and in practical terms (e.g., for a just solution of social conflicts). Despite the fact that a society aims to maintain its cultural and moral core, the list of social groups perceived as “other” is not a constant. Changes in the socio-economic context cause the changes in the nomenclature of  “others” and in intensity of  attitudes to them. The purpose of our research is to characterize the media category of  “others”  in its dynamics in modern Russian society. The empirical object includes texts of traditional media (television and newspapers) of the capital region. Particular emphasis is placed on the period of preparation for the state elections due to higher attention to issues of social identity in communicative space. Media, on the one hand, reflect the actual societal assessments and opinions, on the other hand, introduced into society certain social stereotypes that support the interests of specific social actors. As a result of a content analysis and discourse analysis a number of conclusions was made regarding the typology of the “other”, the transformation of the image of the “other”, the public reaction to the “other” and his media image, the linguistic representation of the “other” in the contemporary geopolitical context.