The Influence of New Means of Political Communication on the Formation of a Country's Image

The image of a country has a significant impact on citizens, on their political and economic identity. The media, being an active participant in the communication process, has a large degree of influence on the image as it is formed in the minds of citizens. It is not only the media however that facilitates the formation of political views among citizens. The role of the recipient has also changed with the development of the Internet. It switched from the role of a passive participant to an active interpreter and generator of information messages. This research is aimed at studying the formation of a range of images that may internally conflict with each other. Such structures as political socialization, identity, cultural and historical connection between generations create interpretive opportunities and markers through which respondents can make their choice in regard to the information consumed. At the same time, a conflict arises between the transmitted message and the final interpretation, which emerges in the minds of citizens. The aim of this article is to theoretically substantiate the role of the communicative factor in the formation of the country's image in the minds of citizens. The article discusses the theory of perception in the context of research by E.B. Shestopal, who identified the structure of the country's image and proposed a factorial model of perception. The image of the country consists of: a spatial image, an image of a people, an image of power, and an image of a leader. The factorial model of perception consists of: objective, subjective, temporal, spatial, and communicative factors. New forms of communication create new opportunities for instant transmission of political information to citizens. All the while those channels of communication can create ranges of fictional images that will reflect the points of view of political leaders, experts, opinion leaders, chief editors, journalists, and other subjects. In addition to the variety of images, fictional “images” are formed, which means that a part of an image is replaced or completely changed. For the most part, society can be categorized into: consumers of content created and transmitted using traditional communication channels such as television, radio, newspapers, and Internet users who consume content transmitted by digital equivalents of traditional media. In this regard, the role of the recipient of the message has also changed. Citizens are no longer passive recipients of information. Instead they have become participants of the political process, which was made possible by the change in methods of communication. One of the features of new media is the ability of the Internet to generate many-to-many communication when interpersonal communication involves the one-to-one model, and mass communication the one-to-many type.

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