Nurturing Patriotic Feelings: Peculiarities of Digital Youth Attitude to Political Narratives in Social Media

The ongoing transformation of the audience's media consumption which is clearly seen in the Gen Z's media practices, has sharpened the widespreading patriotic information issue in the context of geopolitical tension. The state, society, family, school, and university are interested in the dissemination of positive content that forms a stable civic consciousness. On the one hand, the demand of young people for in-depth information of historical and patriotic orientation, an on the other hand, the young audience specifically perceives such content. The article presents the result of focused group interviews on the perception of patriotic content by the young audience of VK social network and messenger Telegram. The focus groups discussed the content of posts touching on Russian politics in the context of historical, sociocultural and ideological values of Russian society, i.e. metanarrative narrative. The metanarrative verified is "Russia is a strong country that defends its sovereignty. Its strength is based on a strong leader, stable ruble, law, order and security". Focused group interviews were conducted in Moscow among college and university students aged 17 to 21. Focus groups in general demonstrate stable patriotic attitudes of Gen Z representatives, but reveal a negative reaction to straightforward propaganda methods of information presentation.