Nabrusko V. Formation of Public Opinion in Conditions of Political Authority Legitimacy (Mass-Communicative Dimension)

This thesis generalizes theoretical views on the problem of category components of the notion of public opinion and offers a methodological model of analyzing the processes of its formation in conditions of society modernization and legitimization of new political and governing institutions. In the course of the analysis, the author ventures to theoretically reconstruct peculiarities of the communication space of politics under the dominating influence by mass media on public conscience as the resource of legitimization. Political decision-making is asserted to precede its legalization, i.e. legal frameworks lag behind the legitimacy process. Subsequently, there may occur a conflict between the state authority and the rest of society. Therefore, it is vitally important to synchronize legitimacy and legalization processes. It is only an autonomous and politically immune information medium that can be an indicator of the legitimacy of governmental institutions and a guarantor of independence on shady lobbyist groups or other informal entities. On the basis of the research, the author offers the following practical recommendation: since radio, television, and periodicals are but separate channels of influence on public conscience and opinion, in order to establish the efficacy and correlations within the "authority - mass media - society", "authority - mass media", and "press - society" patterns it is expedient to analyze the effect of informational impact modifications in the area of public conscience, which could thereupon be intensively employed by specific mass media.