Media Consumption by Russian Youth as a Factor of Political Socialization: Request for Media Literacy Education.

Media consumption by young people has traditionally been receiving much attention within Russian science. However, scholars rarely analyze various aspects of political dimension of media practices widely spread among young people. In this regard, the purpose of the study was to analyze the influence exerted by media consumption on the nature of modern youth political socialization. The article presents a brief overview of the latest research on media practices of modern Russian youth, highlights the features and trends of media consumption by the “digital” generation, i.e. personalization of consumed content, priority of online forms of information dissemination, “situationality” and ritualization of news consumption, a high level of technical literacy, an increase in the scale of digital escapism, multi-screen communication, etc. The main attention is paid to the importance of media consumption by young people during their political socialization. Distinctive properties of media and cyber socialization are highlighted, and their role in shaping the attitude of young people to events occurring within the country and abroad is shown. Specific practical recommendations are formulated on the possibilities of correcting media practices and transforming media consumption by young people in order to form more balanced and objective assessments of political reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]