The Image of Russia and Russians: Features of Perception Youth of Russia and Zambia

Abstract

The importance of the study of Africans' perception of Russia is determined by the weak knowledge of the image of the state in African countries in the context of modern dynamics of international relations as well as by the need to determine the determinants of the formation of ideas about the country and gaps in the image-creating information policy. The results of the study of the peculiarities of perception of the image of Russia by Zambian and Russian youth are described. Two groups of participants took part in the study: 150 Zambian citizens and 100 Russians. Using specialized variants of the semantic differential, they evaluated the concepts "Russia", "Zambia", "America" and "Great Britain", as well as "Russian", "Zambian", "American" and "British". The data were subjected to statistical procedures of factor analysis and comparison of group values. It is revealed that the external and internal image of Russia differ in the idea of "authority": Africans endow "Russia" with higher values according to this criterion. The image of a "Russian" is characterized by high values of "heroism" and low values of "optimism" according to the assessment of both groups. The differences in the image assessment of the compared states are explained by the peculiarities of the information broadcast by the mass media.