Popular journalists and bloggers in the Russian media space: Trust and social perceptions of the audience

Under the contemporary mediatization, the role of media figures in information processes has increased. Popular journalists and bloggers perform the functions of presenting and interpreting socially significant content, thus, competing for the attention and trust of the audience. The study of this role of media figures is of particular relevance, since the Russian media landscape, especially its online segment, is an open space in which actors promote different information agendas. The empirical study was conducted in Russia's Central and Northwestern Federal Districts in April-June 2023. According to its results, the leading positions in the public trust ranking are taken by journalists and bloggers whose speeches are characterized by the state-patriotic orientation, but part of the audience seems to trust liberal content. The use of multidimensional classification procedures allowed the authors to identify some stable typological groups in the structure of the audience, differing in the set of trusted media figures, but groups that trust state-patriotic journalists and bloggers prevail. There are significant social- demographic differences in the level of trust: journalists and bloggers with liberal orientations are supported mainly by young people, while journalists and bloggers with state-patriotic orientations - by representatives of the middle and older age groups. There is an increase in trust in liberal media as the financial situation of respondents improves. The authors also identified variables that increase the likelihood of trusting media figures: respondents' ideological values; attitudes towards the Russian political system; the state support for democratic norms; perception of current social-economic issues. Social representations that correlate with trust in media figures reflect gaps in the "picture of the world" of certain social segments, which requires informed management decisions to consolidate society under the global challenges.