The image of Siberians in the media of Tomsk and Seversk (television and radio broadcasts)

The article studies the problem of formation of the image of a Siberian in the television and radio space of Tomsk and Seversk. 2,247 TV and radio broadcasts of the Tomsk and Seversk mass media were analyzed. The content analysis was chosen as the main method of the research. There is described not only the "media portrait" of a Siberian, but also the image of Siberia in general. The score is that the image of Siberians in the local data flow is not as obvious as the image of Siberia is. Besides, these images are quite poorly connected with each other. The media image of an object is based on various characteristics, including stereotypes about it. Thus, the images of Siberians and Siberia were analyzed with due account taken of autostereotypes (stereotypes about an in-group) picked out from the texts. However, in general these "portraits" included non-stereotypical characteristics of the examined objects, too. One more result obtained from the research is connected with autostereotypes about Siberians and Siberia. Not many autostereotypes were found in the news discourse, and this factor affected their media images: in the Tomsk and Seversk mass media they are indistinct and hardly identified. Besides, these images are built on "dead" stereotypes (by analogy with dead metaphors, which are commonly used in speech). For example, cliches and sentences of the same type indicate these stereotypes. Another aspect of the work is text search of markers of the opposition "own - alien". This aspect of the research is connected with a statement that the image of an in-group is built with due account taken of the principle of opposition "us" and "them". In other words, the sense of belonging to any group arises from comparison of "one's own" and "another's". There are practically no linguistic indicators of the opposition "own - alien" in the texts with characteristics of Siberians. This tendency shows that the image of Siberians became unclear, and it shows partly that Siberia inhabitants lost their uniqueness and originality in the mirror of the local mass media. It is supposed that this factor has a negative influence on the formation of the sociocultural identity of inhabitants of the region. In other words, the general idea about the in-group, with which Siberians can identify themselves, and about the out-group, with which Siberians can compare themselves, is lost. Thus, the clear image of an inhabitant of Siberia does not appear in the local data flow. This tendency has a negative character as this image has an impact on the sociocultural identity of Siberians.

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