Modern Russian youth as the target audience of destructive propaganda

This article is devoted to the sociological analysis of a wide range of problems related to the phenomenon of propaganda, carried out mainly in a destructive form, in order to influence modern Russian youth. The author agrees with the classics of socio-political thought that "propaganda permeates all aspects of human life - a mechanism for the large-scale dissemination of ideas" aimed at forming or changing perceptions of the surrounding reality among broad social groups. At the same time, he emphasizes that ideology is often the basis of propaganda, but if ideology is a coherent system of ideas and ideas, then propaganda is their active dissemination in various, sometimes quite aggressive forms, designed for a specific audience, which is most often served by young people. The article states that after the collapse of the USSR, in the conditions of an ideological vacuum, the concept of propaganda completely disappeared from the domestic public discourse, therefore, modern youth does not have adequate ideas about its content. In confirmation, the results of a sociological survey conducted among students of the Faculty of Sociology of Moscow State University are presented, which showed that misconceptions about the essence of this phenomenon prevail among students. The author draws a distinction between constructive and destructive propaganda, the characteristic features of which include the imposition of certain views, which in the future should lead to the goals pursued by the subjects of propaganda. These include incitement to discord, escalation of social conflicts, aggravation of social contradictions, formation of anti-humanistic beliefs, plunging people into the quagmire of social evil, confrontation with each other. The predominant object of destructive propaganda is a youth audience with an unformed or deconstructed value system that does not have critical thinking or special analytical skills, but is subject to emotional, mental and, especially, information overload. The most important subject of destructive propaganda against Russian youth has traditionally been the ideologists of the special services of foreign states and international organizations using so-called "agents of influence" or "foreign agents" (in modern terminology). The article examines in detail the mechanisms used by the subjects of destructive propaganda to form the views, values, and beliefs desired by them among modern Russian youth. The author concludes that the methods and models of destructive propaganda influence have undergone significant changes in the era of the formation of electronic and digital civilization. At the heart of "digital" propaganda are the characteristic features that distinguish this specific communication process, in which "new media" are increasingly being included, which are very popular with young people, especially students.