9. Case study

Survey was carried out for one month (from March 1, 2012 to March 31, 2012) by Center for Independent Social Studies “Zerkalo” (http://www.zerkalo.tj) – which has a focus on social surveys. Specialists of this center asked people on the streets of Moscow four hours a day (from 9 AM to 11 AM and from 5 PM to 7 PM on weekdays and from 6 PM to 10 PM at on weekends to reach more respondents). Totally, it was four groups of two people in each. Survey took place in different places of Moscow, were the targeting audience could be reached: nearby the universities, shopping centers, cultural places (theaters, cinemas clubs and restaurants) and public places (squares, parks, boulevards and yards). On average, each group interviewed 12 people a day. In order to find a better contact with more number of respondents, in each group it was one men and one woman. It should be mentioned that in most cases people were willing to respond to questions that can be a positive factor of the received information objectivity.

2. Theories Of Political Communication

   1. Structural Functionalism

By the end of 40's - early 50's there is an allocation of "political communication" as a separate branch of political science. Allocation of political communication studies in an independent stream at the intersection of the social sciences have been caused by several reasons. Firstly, after World War II mass communications technologies were more widespread due to the invention of television. Secondly, as a result of the formation of new democracies and the escalation of the "cold war", technologies of propaganda and political communications had an opportunity to further practical use. Thirdly, a huge impact on the political communication concept have had a cybernetic approach of Norbert Wiener (1948) and functionalism of Talcott Parsons (1968) and Robert Merton (1951).

Norbert Wiener, who said that "understanding of society is possible only through the study of signals and related tools of communication" (Wiener, 1948; p. 54), made a huge contribution to the development of social sciences. One of the major achievements of cybernetics was the discovery of the feedback phenomenon, which was designed to perform an essential function of system stabilization. Political (or any other) system will function effectively as long as the feedback provides accurate information. If the feedback is distorted, a political system is unable to adequately respond to environmental change. Pocheptsov gives rather vivid example of a system failure feedback from the Soviet period of history: "The Soviet Union came to its collapse, when the control system receives fake data as feedback, such as, for example, the universal approval of Leonid Brezhnev works or decisions of the Soviet Union Congress"(Pocheptsov, 2001; p. 231).

The achievements of the cybernetic concept as well as a systematic approach of Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1969), influenced greatly to the emergence of sociological theory of functionalism by Talcott Parsons (1968) and Robert Merton (1951), who developed the concept that society is a system consisting of four subsystems (economic, political, social and spiritual). In their concept of social communication - this is one of the most important system functions, due to the fact that, through this function bond is provided between the various public institutions, and individuals become a society (Parsons, 1968; Merton, 1951).

The American political scientist David Easton (1965), on the basis of the achievements of functionalism, has created a general model of political system. According to Easton, the political system is a "complex of interactions through which authoritative allocation of resources in society is achieved and implemented" (Easton, 1965; p. 32). The main purpose of the political system is an effective response to the impulses of the environment. Its main components are the nature, economy, society and culture (Easton, 1965; p. 7). Easton model has become the maximum simplification of the political life and made it possible to realize the principle of functional equivalence in practice of political studies. It makes enable to make comparative analysis between different political systems (Dogan, Pelassy, 1990; p.4).

Another American political scientist Karl Wolfgang Deutsch (1966) has gone deeply in “cybernetisation” of political communications. He is considered to be the founder of the general theory of political communication. He regarded the political system exclusively through the prism of the production and exchange of information, since the political management is based on available information, experience, management and prognosis of future development. (Deutsch, 1966; p. 35). Deutsch refuted the widespread notion that the power or violence - is the essence of politics. In addition to force, the authority may have another basis sources such as money, organization, tradition, etc. However, he attached particular importance to political information. (Deutsch, 1966; p. 41).

According to Deutsch, the essence of policy is determined by a complex of issues related to political control. Deutsch compares political government with the process of driving. As a navigator of the ship charts a course based on the information about the past distance, location and position, just as government leaders manage their organizations in accordance with existing policy information. Thus, the functioning of the entire political system depends on the quality and consistency of the political information flow and the value of the political leaders can be compared with qualities of the political manager (Deutsch, 1966; p. 73). Deutsch was the first who indicated the most important feature of diachronic political communication that occurs during the transmission of political information from generation to generation. Shaping the social memory, political communication keeps diachronic ethnic and national identity, political culture and traditions of the society. Thus, the political system of society finds stability and gains some inertia. The synchronic political communication is realized through communication between contemporaries in order to solve current social problems, coordination of various social groups to ensure the political life of society at the present time (Deutsch, 1953; p. 32).

American political scientists Gabriel A. Almond and James S. Coleman (Almond, Coleman, 1960) went on to study the concept of the political system in line with functionalism and were the first who presented political communication as a function of the political system. According to Almond and Coleman, in any political system, there are the following functions of:

"Input" – political socialization and involvement; articulation of interests; aggregation of interests; political communication;

"Output" - development of norms - laws; applying of the norms; control over the norms maintenance (Almond, Coleman, 1960; p.67). Functions of "input" are carried out mainly by non-governmental agencies, the functions of "output" - the prerogative of the government.

Political communication generally takes place in the "input" and in the "output" of the political system. In the preface to the collective monograph Almond and Coleman point out: "All the political system functions ...are implemented through political communication" (Almond, Coleman, 1960; p.45). However, the theorists of structural functionalism found it necessary to distinguish political communication in a particular function. The fact is that the function of political communication provides political system with input information in the form of requirements and support. Political parties and lobby groups produced similar procedures, however seeking to impose their will on the society, they all do not take into account and do not reflect the interests of the unorganized groups. Therefore, the role of independent media, often called the "fourth estate" in the democratic systems (Schultz, 1998; p. 49), is not solely limited to the expression of the interests of different social groups. According to Almond and Coleman, "autonomous communication system" regulates other regulators "and thus preserves the rights and freedoms of democratic policy" (Almond, Coleman, 1960; p.47). Apparently, one of the founding fathers of American democracy, Thomas Jefferson, said something like this on this occasion: "If I had to choose between government without newspapers and newspapers without government, I would prefer the latter" (Peterson, 1984; p. 1231).

It is namely the successful functioning of political communication that can help to identify the other political functions and to ensure transparency of the political process.

Functionalism became the methodological basis for a number of studies in the field of political communications in developing countries. In this regard, the study of political communication had contributed to “modernization theory”, and a number of theoretical generalizations developed in the framework of this research are of great theoretical and practical importance in our day.

Low development of political communication, according to the representatives of functionalism, is one of the reasons for the low adaptability of the political system that leads to a loss of popular support and political instability (Almond, Coleman, 1960; Deutsch, 1953). However, independence of media channels is of great importance in addition to its development. The level of political communication in society can be measured in several ways. From the point of view of structural functionalism, the criteria of political communication may include political homogeneity of information transmitted through the channels of communication, mobility, transfer of political information, the amount of transmitted information and political direction of the transfer of political information (Pye, 1967).