Youth Audience Research Articles

News Media Brand Equity in a New Media Environment

Abstract Digitalisation has profoundly altered how media are distributed and audiences consume media information, reshaping the media environment and introducing new competitors to media brands. This new media environment deludes media brand associations, contributing to an environment where audiences care less about content sources or brands of media. The younger audience, Generation Z, is an even more platform-on-demand and experience-driven audience. They favour social media and global media and care less about national media brands. Media consumption trends among youthful audiences have become crucial as the sector recognises this audience as a significant portion of the market today and signalling media consumption trends after coming generations. This study examines the impact of news media attributes and perceived uniqueness on news media brand equity in the new media environment. The study emphasises media brand distinctiveness and its effect on news media brand equity. The decision tree method is applied to predict the most significant news media attributes contributing to news media brand equity and the perceived uniqueness of the news media brand. Research results demonstrate the influence of content-consumption-related brand attributes and uniqueness on media brand equity.

Томск читающий. Рецензия на учебное пособие «Проблема читателя в Томске и Томской губернии в конце XIX - начале XX в.» (под ред. Т.Л. Воробьевой. Томск: Издательский Дом Томского государственного университета, 2020. 226 с.)

Preparation of a training manual “A reader’s problem in Tomsk and Tomsk province at the end of XIX - beginning of XX century” by a group of Tomsk researchers is seen as not only relevant and natural but also as a long-awaited phenomenon in the sphere of modern liberal education. Book culture and reading practices in the context of a certain epoch represent interest to specialists not only from theoretical but also from practical and metodological point of view. The purpose of the manual stated by the authors is to “identify the main trends regarding building reading practices at the end of XIX - beginning of XX centuries and determine their value in book culture at the turn of the century” is being implemened based on the unique archival materials from the collections of the Tomsk State University Scientific Library, the Tomsk Local Lore Museum, the Tomsk Regional Archive. Diversity, richness and originality of the factual material coupled with research sensivity and thoroughness make it possible to trace the dynamics of reading practices becoming and developing in Tomsk and Tomsk province and to evaluate their impact on both regional literary process and social and spiritual changes taking place in society as a whole. Study of a reader in the context of the famous N. A. Rubakin’ triad “society - author -work” enables to understand the complex interaction mechanism of literary process, publishing strategies and reading practices existing in inextricable link and in many aspects defining the life of society in its spiritual dimension. The training manual aimed at youth audiences is written in clear language, filled with vivid images of people - readers and book lovers as well as with archaeographic factors introduced by the authors in scientific circulation. Publication has a clear-cut structure set by the logic of promoting a book - from the centre of a province to a rural reader, from the state publishing policy to the forms of readers’ amateur activities. For the convenience of readers, sections are prefaced with annotation, include questions and tasks for self-study as well as the list of additional literature on the topic of study. Such an approach updates research issues, introduces them in the context of vital pedagogical objectives and designates prospects of developing a conscious and qualified reader. And this is the central task, which - in our opinion - the authors of the training manual are well aware of. We believe that this noble task has been perfectly implemented in the book: uniqueness and diversity of the material, depth of its comprehenson, methodical thoroughness make the presented work a modern and timely educational publication and reveal rich traditions in preservation and continuation of high literary culture. That is precisely why the training manual is useful not only for publishers and philologists but also for future specialists with the broad range of expertise who together with professional knowledge in the high school acquire skills of meaningful and productive work with a book.

ОСОБЕННОСТИ ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЯ ПСИХОЛОГИЧЕСКИХ МЕТОДОВ ДЛЯ ПОВЫШЕНИЯ ЭФФЕКТИВНОСТИ РЕКЛАМЫ (РАЗРАБОТКА ПРОЕКТОВ ДЛЯ СТУДЕНТОВ ВУЗОВ)

The investigation of the application of psychological methods to improve the effectiveness of advertising is one of the urgent problems of our time, since any advertiser is concerned about the issue of high returns from placed advertising. With a huge number of methods and techniques for influencing the consumer, the advertiser needs to choose those that will be effective for a specific audience of consumers. A theoretical analysis of the methods of psychological impact of advertising on the consumer has been carried out, and the main techniques that can improve the effectiveness of advertising have also been analyzed. The most effective methods of influence of advertising on a specific group of consumers are identified: youth. The results of the investigation, which involved 94 people in two age groups: 18 - 30 y.o.; older than 30 y.o. The largest group was represented by respondents from 18 to 30 years old. The survey made it possible to identify the most relevant psychological methods for improving the effectiveness of advertising for young people, as well as the most convenient spaces for advertisements targeted at a specific consumer group. The article also presents a variant of the most optimal advertising for a youth audience, developed by third-year students of the thermal power department of the Samara State Technical University. In this shoe advertisement, students used the main effective methods of influencing on young people. The basis for creating of advertisements students put the key method of influencing on young people: imitation. The article concludes that when designing the advertisement, it is necessary to take into account the general principles, methods of creating an advertising product and also the age characteristics of consumers who are targeted by certain advertising.

Value orientations of vkontakte users with different strategies for meanings transferring

The paper presents the results of a study of strategies for transferring the meanings and the value orientations of young people in social networks. The Internet is so firmly rooted in our everyday life that we can no longer imagine our life without it. It is penetrating into an increasing number of human life spheres, becoming the environment in which communication, educational and work processes, leisure and shopping take place. Its hard not to notice that the youth audience is especially interested in the virtual environment. The Internet and, in particular, social networks are becoming the environment that influences the formation and development of society, the dissemination of ideas, news, trends. On the Internet, one can observe both the amazing consolidation of users who are able to create a news agenda, and the disunity of many contradictory judgments, meanings and forms of their presentation. The purpose of this study is to identify the strategies for the translation of meanings that Internet users resort to when commenting on posts on social networks, and to study the value orientations of young people using various strategies for the translation of meanings. The study includes the authors questionnaire, the method of diagnosing M. Rokichs value orientations, methods of mathematical statistics (H-Kruskal-Wallis criterion, 22-criterion). Terminal and instrumental values characteristic of the 6 strategies of meanings transferring have been determined; the strategies most often used by users with abstract and concrete terminal values are revealed. The research helps to understand how the transferring of meanings takes place in a network and according to which characteristics of the value sphere users with different strategies for the meanings transferring differ.

Eléctrico, auténtico y precario: el sonido y los nuevos públicos en los espectáculos de rock de los ochenta montevideanos

During the 1980s, in Montevideo, Uruguay, music and cultural critics constantly lambasted the sound quality at live rock shows. This recurring issue was due to three main factors: the economic challenge of acquiring electronic equipment, the deficiency of sound amplification systems, and the acoustic inadequacy of most venues dedicated to rock shows. In the following paper, we analyze the above criticisms and reflect on the relationship between journalists and musicians, as they debated sound amplification and the alleged crisis of rock music. We also look at the difficulties they faced in characterizing the new youth audiences that had emerged after the democratic transition. The crisis of rock music was sparked by the impossibility of incorporating rock into — and having it be heard within the constraints of — the broader tradition of Uruguayan music. Moreover, characterizing youth audiences proved complicated because of pre-existing notions of audiences as massive and homogenous, typical of the large-scale canto popular concerts during the dictatorship. Following a thorough survey of press coverage between 1984 and 1987, we analyze the statements of journalists and musicians, doing so from the point of view of cultural and acoustic studies. More specifically, we look at the statements made by members of the band Los Tontos, who described their strategies for overcoming economic hurdles and their perception of the period’s new music audiences.&nbsp

Women Objectification in Carl's Jr TV Advertisements

The purpose of this paper is to explore the Indonesian youth audiences’ reaction to objectification in Carl’s Jr American TV ads. In the ads, white women become the focus of the ads and represent the product as a way to promote Carl’s Jr. The study aims at examining the representation of women in the ads from the audiences’ eyes and the audiences’ reaction to the objectification. Moreover, Frederickson & Robert's Objectification theory serves as the theoretical framework upon which women objectification is examined within the feminism and cultural contexts. The result of this study reveals that the audiences think the white women in the ads are being sexualized and objectified as the product that is being promoted. Furthermore, the audiences also think the women’s existences are reduced as a commodity to lure in male customers and increase the products’ sales. Some of the audiences think there is nothing wrong with the ads, some are neutral with it, while the rest wants the ads to be stopped.Keywords: Women objectification, audience reception.

Youth as an Object of Online Extremist Propaganda: The Case of the IS

A youth audience is the most vulnerable part of society as an object of influence of radical ideas. The authors argue that the most efficient tool of involving young people of different origin and confessional affiliation into the extremist activity on the present stage is social networks. Despite the fact that the practice of using communication networks in the Internet space by terrorist organizations have existed before, it was the information policy of the ISIS (and later IS) that was characterized by the greatest effectiveness, due to the creation of an integrated media structure, which consisted of numerous foundations and agencies (Al Furqan, Aynad, Itisaam, Al-Hayat, etc.), allowing them to spread their extremist religious and ideological doctrine on a global scale. The use of the widest range of high-quality media products in Internet media and social networks has expanded the organizations area of influence by attracting supporters not only from the Middle East region, but also from European countries and the Russian Federation. The case-study of the mechanisms for attracting European youth through social networks, such as Twitter, Facebook, etc., to extremist activities under the auspices of the IS is held. In conclusion, the prospects for the influence of IS propaganda in social networks after the defeat of a terrorist organization in 2018 are assessed. As a methodological basis of the research, aspect and activity approaches, as well as analytical, statistical methods and the method of content analysis are used.

How Russian Youth Consume Information: Case Study of the Political Science Students of the Financial University

This article is devoted to analyzing the results of a study conducted by the Educational and Scientific Laboratory of Internet Projects and Studies of the Department of Political Science and Mass Communications of the Financial University among university students. The work aimed to identify the characteristics and structure of youth information consumption in the digital space during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors analyzed the intensity and frequency of use of various types of information sources, identified the dominant sources of socio-political information, determining the level of trust in them, identified factors that affect the perception of message content. The article also analyzes the attitude of the respondents to the issue of Internet regulation by the state, defines and structures the subjective assessments of the opposition of the Internet space concerning existing government institutions. The paper concludes that the structure of the information consumption of the respondents shows a steady shift in the emphasis on information and communication activity of young people to digital platforms, sources, and channels. The youth audience spends a significant part of their active time in the digital space, which in its volume is comparable or even in many cases exceeds the amount of time spent in the traditional offline space. The consequence of this is the formation of digital information overload, stimulating the development and consolidation of the effect of clip consciousness. In general, based on the results of the work, the authors conclude that there is a stable structure of youth information consumption that has pronounced differences from the traditional structure of information consumption of older generations. Moreover, the processes of information consumption in the digital space are mostly irrational, and they are mainly based on digital habits that form the models of digital information consumption of modern students.

Review essay: Between the Material and the Ephemeral

Review essay: Between the Material and the Ephemeral

ФОНД ИМ. В.И. ВЕРНАДСКОГО - ПРОСВЕЩАЕМ, РАЗВИВАЕМ, ДЕЙСТВУЕМ

The article discusses the best educational practices of the V.I. Vernadsky Non-governmental Ecological Foundation (the V.I. Vernadsky Foundation), based on Vernadsky’s doctrine of the noosphere. The V.I. Vernadsky Foundation has been working on the environmental education of Russian citizens for more than a quarter of a century. Since the previous decade, the issue of the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations (the SDGs) has been an integral part of most of the V.I. Vernadsky Foundation’s programs and projects. The article presents possible ways of creating incentives for contributing to the development of ecological culture across the population of our country. The necessity of greening the consciousness of the population has been proven, which implies an unconditional understanding of the need to introduce environmental ideas into all spheres of life. The main factors of the adolescents’ interest in ecology and the major directions of attracting a youth audience to environmental activities and building an eco-oriented lifestyle model have been determined.

Conscious Consumption Ideology and Brand Values Perception

In modern terms, a new view of consumption is being formed, its impact on human health and the natural environment surrounding it, the commitment to the principles of a healthy lifestyle and a conscious attitude to the surrounding world is growing. As a reflection of these ideas, the trend for conscious, ethical consumption is actively developing. In response to the rapid development of digital communications of consumers and the formation of new demand parameters, there are changes in the market positioning of brands of companies around the world, so it is important to understand the vectors of these changes and the intensity of their impact. It is necessary to assess the real relevance of these issues, in particular, for the Russian markets. including representatives of various, especially youth, consumer audience. The purpose of this study is to obtain evidence of the use of the ideology of conscious consumption in the promotion of leading domestic and foreign brands represented on the Russian market on the example of clothing brands, as well as to test the perception of this ideology among young consumers. The applied methodology for analyzing the marketing content of leading foreign and Russian brands on the Internet showed a slight use of social and ethical parameters in marketing, and the survey of representatives of the youth audience of consumers of premium brands on the examples of clothing brands demonstrated that the parameters of conscious consumption are important for the surveyed youth audience, but differently affect their perception of the brand value.

Streaming Science #1: An Introduction to Using Mobile Technologies for Engagement with Your Target Audience

This first publication in the Streaming Science EDIS series is focused on how to use mobile hardware and software for engagement with your target audience. This article and series emphasize the creation of communication and educational content via mobile technologies, can be useful for communicators and educators in a variety of settings, and can guide the development of digital engagement experiences for youth and adult audiences. Written by Peyton Beattie and Jamie Loizzo; 3 pp.https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/wc397

Development of the dance-rock opera genre in the creative content of ‘Mykhailo Vodianoi’ Academic Theatre of Musical Comedy, Odesa

Background. Staging of rock opera began in Ukraine simultaneously in theaters of drama, opera and musical comedy in the mid-80s. The first drama and ballet performances were based on the works of Russian authors. From 1986 to 1993 Kharkiv Theater of Musical Comedy made stage production of rock operas based on the works of Alexander Zhurbin, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Alexey Rybnikov leaders of its repertoire policy. Since the 2000s, Odessa Theater of Musical Comedy has staged a dance-rock opera as a new modification of stage play with rock opera. The relevance of the article. Stage performances of dance-rock operas have not yet been sufficiently studied in Ukraine. Such Ukrainian musicologists as Olga Verkhovenko, Iryna Palkina, Halyna Filkevych fragmentarily have studied genre features and performance forms of dance-rock operas. In addition, some periodicals have covered these productions in their critical reviews. Methods. The work is based on a typological method, which made it possible to classify performances as a rock opera genre. The biographical method has also been applied to determine the artistic influences on the choreographer Heorhii Kovtun. The comparative method made it possible to separate the dancerock opera from other productions related to the genre of rock opera, as well as from apologetic performances that exploit already invented forms. When analyzing the performances, some elements of the reconstruction method were used. Results of the study. Odessa Musical Comedy Theater presented four performances in the genre of dance-rock opera, three of which were staged by Heorhii Kovtun. The first (and most successful) production with a new performance approach was the play “Romeo and Juliet” based on Shakespeare’s tragedy with music and libretto by Yevhen Lapeiko (Odessa). A new type of leading performers (selected at casting) appeared in the play. The type of rock opera artist represented by Kyryl Turychenko is characterized by freedom from musical comedy clichés. A pop singer with appropriate acting, athletic and dance training, he could sing when falling, climbing a two-story stage tower, or during a dynamic dance. Scenography by Stanislav Zaitsev showed a tendency towards brevity, constructiveness and simultaneous development of action in three stage dimensions. Other productions of Heorhii Kovtun – “The Canterville Ghost” and “Silicon Silly Woman.net” based on the works of Russian authors D. Rubin, A. Ivanov, O. Pantykin and K. Rubinsky developed rock opera principles invented by the choreographer rather than deepened them. The director of “The Canterville Ghost” did not quite clearly indicate the vector of the main idea. This led to the breakup of stage action into spectacular theatrical attractions with pyrotechnics and impressive stage design transformations. In fact, it is still not clear what the director was trying to recreate – a melodrama, a comedy with elements of satire or Guignol. The play “Tristan and Isolde” based on the works of the Ukrainian composer Alexander Nezhigai and playwright Serhii Piskuriov was staged by the theater director Vladimir Savinov. His ignorance of musical theater specifics contributed to the vocally and musically weak performance. Most of the action in the stage production was organized by the choreography of Anatolii Bedichev. Contrary to expectations, V. Savinov’s performance was also significantly inferior to Н. Kovtun’s performances in relation to libretto adaptation, stage design and tempo-rhythm of the performance. All rock-dance opera performances were aimed at teenage and youth audiences. Conclusions. Unlike rock operas of the previous decades, the production proposed by choreographer H. Kovtun is characterized by a synthesis of modern choreography, spectacular show, performance universalism and dynamс crowd scenes. As a choreographer, he did not pay much attention to the actors’ work on the characters. Vocally the singers gravitated towards the pop style (using microphones). Unlike earlier productions of rock operas in Ukrainian theater (with phonograms or symphonic jazz instrumentation of the theater orchestra), the troupe of Odessa Musical Comedy Theater performed rock operas with combined accompaniment (studio phonogram, theater orchestra, rock band). Further study of the multiple issues identified in the article requires a deep analysis of the repertoire, types of rock opera in the theater of musical comedy in Ukraine and the distinctive vocal and acting performance features.

Manifestation of interest of the Russian youth for politicized content on the Internet: towards the holistic analytical model

This article is written in the theoretical-methodological genre. The key goal lies in the revision and systematization of versatile analytical hypotheses proposed by social and human science in order to explain the interest of Russian youth in politicized information content on the Internet. It is noted that the current analytical practice faces a fundamental contradiction between the prevalence of reflections of the scholars on the significant role of the Internet in development of the political moods and attitudes of the Russian youth audience and the absence  the well-established scientific representation on the reasons why there is a need to search  for political information namely on the Internet. This article aims to clarify this contradiction. Theoretical-methodological analysis is conducted on the disparate ideas used by social and human science to explain and interpret the heighted interest of Russian youth in the online politicized content. Procedurally, the work leans on the analysis of relevant current scientific literature for the period from 2015 to 2020 dedicated to examination of the patterns of Internet behavior and political culture of modern Russian youth. The conclusion is made that there are several versions that explain the heightened interest of Russian youth in politicized information on the Internet, which logically correspond with each other, but are usually not being generalized. Having summarized these versions into a single analytical model, the authors indicate the key reason for the heightened interest of Russian youth in political information on the Internet is the low level of trust in the traditional media, which forces them to seek the alternative sources of information on topics of concern online.

Readiness of Russian students to form individual pension savings

Pension provision issues are among the most urgent problems in both the world and domestic socio-economic policy, as evidenced by frequent changes in pension legislation. Thus, the Russian pension system has undergone serious changes four times over the past two decades, however, by the standards of developed countries, the pension amount continues to be unsatisfactory. In order to attract long-term financial resources to the national economy and improve the quality of life of future pensioners, the authorities are increasingly demonstrating their interest in pushing the population to participation in the system of non-state pension provision. The article presents the results of a sociological study «Savings strategies of Financial University students», which was aimed at identifying the attitudes of Russian students regarding the formation of individual pension savings in non-state pension funds (NPFs). According to the results obtained, students, in general, are already thinking about their future retirement. However, in order to form savings for future old age, students need a sufficient amount of both current income and income in the long term. The most preferred tools for this are foreign currency, securities and cash rubles; the least interest is caused by services of NPFs and insurance companies, which is due to the ideas of insufficient profitability, as well as the riskiness of the activities of these organizations. To attract a youth audience, NPFs need not only to have a reputation as reliable, transparent and customer-oriented organizations, but also to build good communication with potential investors in order to explain the principles and mechanism of their work.

LIKES, SARCASM AND POLITICS: YOUTH RESPONSES TO A PLATFORM-INITIATED MEDIA LITERACY CAMPAIGN ON SOCIAL MEDIA

When it comes to youth and media literacy, the focus of both research and practice has been on the integration of media literacy instruction into young people’s various educational experiences, rather than studying, implementing and evaluating such initiatives in situ, on social media—which is known to be youths’ central news source. Furthermore, existing studies focus on older platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and we lack a nuanced understanding of these dynamics on the platforms most popular with youth today. The present study aims to fill this gap, by analyzing how users responded to a media literacy education campaign on the popular youth-oriented social media app TikTok, with a focus on the lessons that we might draw in terms of targeted media literacy education initiatives for youth. Our large-scale qualitative content analysis—which included 11,449 public comments posted on 5 educational TikTok videos about media literacy—facilitated a naturalistic study of young people’s attitudes towards such initiatives. We found that reactions to the campaign were mixed, and highly political in nature. While many users appreciated the media literacy campaign and TikTok’s role in implementing it, there was also resistance to the campaign, due to factors related to video content, dissemination approach, and the very identity of TikTok as a platform. Across the board, comments were highly political, illustrating the politicized nature of media literacy education today. These reactions serve as rich feedback that can usefully inform future media literacy campaigns on social media, and especially those targeting youth audiences.

HIGHER EDUCATION BRANDING

Background. The increasing intensity of competition in the international market for higher education services leads to an increase in the importance of brands of higher education institutions (HEIs) and the branding of national higher education in general. The aim of this study is to determine the target setting and the main objectives of the country’s higher education branding in the international market of educational services. Materials and methods. Methods of comparative and critical analysis, analytical processing of the collected data, graphical display of trends and interrelations, synthesis, etc. are used to achieve the purpose and accomplish the assigned tasks. Results. Analysis of the dynamics of appeals to the Google-system with queries to search for such words and phrases as: "Brand"; "Higher education"; "Uni­versity" showed that after a sharp decline in the number of brand and branding queries in March 2020, the trend of increasing attention to this concept among Internet users began to grow again. At the same time, in the last months of 2021, there is a trend towards a decline in requests for higher education and universities. The risk of such a situation for the deve­lopment of existing universities lies in the fact that the latter is happening against the back­ground of the periodic introduction of quarantine restrictions and the loss of the opportunity to establish constant offline communications with students and youth audience. On the basis of a critical analysis, comparison and systematization of the existing definitions of the concepts of "branding of higher education" and "brand of higher edu­cation", it is proposed to understand the process of "branding of higher education" as a process aimed at implementing the strategy for the development of higher education, strengthening the identity of the higher education system of the country in the international market of educational services, support competitiveness of the higher education sector by establishing effective communications with all stakeholder groups both within the country and abroad. It has been substantiated that the "brand of a higher education institution" should be understood as a specific model of ideas and value characteristics about the HEI and its educational services in the minds of stakeholders. It is emphasized that the process of the higher education branding should be aimed at forming the value of the brand. This requires the following tasks, the implementation of which: 1) will create a strong competitive brand of higher education in the country, which will help solve educational problems and meet the needs of the labor market, especially within the country; 2) provide preconditions for further geographical diversification in the provision of educational services of the country’s HEIs; 3) will increase the volume of foreign and domestic investment in the educational and scientific space of the country. Along with this, the factors that should be paid attention to in the process of higher education branding and which were formed under the influence of Globalization 4.0 and the manifestation of the consequences of the COVID crisis were identified. Considering the level of development of the higher education system in the country, the choice of one of the following branding strategies for higher education is envisaged: internal orientation; internal-external orientation; external-internal orientation. It is established that Ukraine must now implement a strategy of internal-external orientation of higher education branding. It was noted that it would be better to track the results of higher education branding through special assessment and monitoring of changes in the Global Tertiary Education Brand Index and by region. Conclusion. The problem of the higher education branding, as evidenced by the results of the study, is far from simple and requires the setting of specific tasks, the completion of which should contribute to the achievement of the goal of maximizing the value of the country’s higher education brand. In the process of higher education branding and specific HEIs branding the interests of various groups of stakeholders as well as changes that taking place in the international market of educational services (including due to Globalization 4.0 and the effects of the pandemic) should be taken into account. The results of the study can be further used to develop and substantiate metho­dological approaches to determining the Global Tertiary Education Brand Index and the corresponding country indices, by which it will be possible to track imbalances and competitive advantages in the development of higher education in the regions of the country. Keywords: branding, brand management, higher education, brand of higher education institution, risks, strategies of higher education branding, digitalization, the market of educational services.

The image of an ideal politician in the minds of Russian youth

The image of a political leader through the eyes of modern youth is considered. The image of a politician is a reflection in the mass consciousness of an emotionally colored idea of politicians. A survey of young people aged 15 to 29 years who live permanently in Moscow was conducted. In order to create a portrait of an ideal political leader, respondents were offered several lists of qualities and characteristics that, in the opinion of young people, a modern politician should possess. It was determined the five main qualities of the “ideal politician”: charisma, publicity, openness of personal life, views, availability of professional education, the ability to empathize, loyal attitude to subcultures and minorities. The study of the image of the ideal political leader allows building a dialogue with the youth audience and getting the material necessary for the formation of a positive image of a real politician.

Development of graduate programs in organizations and the role of the University in this process

The article studies the issue of the development of graduate programs in modern organizations, as well as the role of higher education institutions in this process. The subject of the research is various programs of work with young professionals in companies. The aim of the study is to study the degree of development of such programs and to determine the role of educational institutions in their implementation. The author carries out a qualitative study of existing programs for the development of young specialists in companies. The article uses the methods of observation, scientific classification, scientific generalization, comparative and system analysis. The author analyses the main approaches and formats of interaction between companies and young professionals. The research topic is especially relevant during the period of shortage of young specialists due to the demographic pit in Russia. The research can be used by specialists in personnel management in companies, experts in working with young specialists in order to increase the brand awareness of the company among the youth audience. The article contains practical examples of the implementation of internship programs of various formats, as well as the stages of the implementation of such programs that can be applied in modern organizations.

Developing Pandemic Comics for Youth Audiences.

In spring 2020 our team received funding from the Rapid Response Research program of the National Science Foundation to develop comics that would help youth understand the COVID-19 pandemic. Our project built on a decade of expertise creating comics about the biology of viruses. In collaboration with virologists and artists, we developed three comic stories about COVID-19 during the pandemic and posted them on-line during the last half of 2020. The fictional narratives address fundamental issues in biology, virology, and network science, in order to help readers understand the complexities of living through a viral pandemic. The stories focus on three themes: the biology and social context of the COVID-19 virus; the relationship of wild animals, particularly bats, to the pandemic; and the impact of the pandemic on Tribal communities. We describe the challenges of comic development during the pandemic and the feedback from youth on whether the comics were appealing, interesting, and understandable. The stories were posted on worldofviruses.unl.edu and are published by the University of Nebraska Press as the book, C'RONA Pandemic Comics, with essays for youth about the virus and the pandemic.