Social Determination Factor In The Implementation Of State Information Policy Tasks

Abstract

The article examines some problems in the management of social processes, social adaptation and determination in solving a number of urgent tasks of the current state information policy of Russia. The main attention is paid to the analysis of the existing dependence of the Russian information society on foreign information resources and technologies, which qualitatively affect the state of information interests and information security of an individual, social groups and society as a whole. The author emphasizes the complexity and, at the same time, the need to update the management of the processes of social determination in the aspect of the proposed article. The emphasis is on the need to expand the segment of domestic digital resources, not only due to the qualitative improvement of content, but also quantitative superiority. The question of personality transformation is touched upon, the process goes into the sphere of technogenicity. The variety of platforms and resources ultimately leads to confusion, misunderstanding of who can be trusted, and in most cases the content is either very recreational in nature or does not meet basic quality requirements. This is why legislative regulation of the segment is necessary, especially in the area of ​​content control. Also, the motivation of creators is equally important in this field. Digitalization is not only an important element in increasing the efficiency of the modern economy, but also a promising tool for public administration.

Keywords: Information security, information technologies, social determination, society, state information policy

Introduction

The dynamically growing saturation of the most diverse information products of a person and society, both in the national and in the global information space, now from understanding the phenomenon and domination of the global information society sets the task of controllability of the emerging processes in this regard, focusing the problems and prospects of the impact of information conventions on the social determination of subjects. The active consumption of information products, both positive, neutral and negative, in their inexhaustible mass presupposes not only the formation of appropriate behavior, worldview and even social palliatives in the form of avoiding reality and preference for informational surreal ways and means of self-expression and existence, but also the growth of individual and collective dependence on informational diktat, determined by the levels of marginal and transcendental digestibility of these products. The scientific and technological revolution, which at one time gave an effective impetus to the emergence of the information society, in modern conditions qualitatively and efficiently updates the operated information systems, resources and technologies, introducing into everyday life as a natural postulate, their indispensable use and improvement. And this applies not only to communication forms of search, consumption, distribution and exchange of information products; not only the use of effective technology in workers, administrative, military, etc. processes, but also in the formation of the newest socio-economic era associated with the digital economy. It is obvious that any state, including Russia, is obliged not only to reckon with the information phenomenon of the current and future time in its development, but also to build an appropriate state information policy, equally adapting this state to the conditions and requirements of its proper functioning in the format of a global information community, but also to look for reliable forms, methods and means of protection against ever-increasing information challenges, risks, dangers and threats that are also inherent in the information age.

Therefore, the following analysis of some tasks of the state information policy of Russia, directly related to ensuring the information interests and information security of the country, is relevant, especially important in the phase of the so-called new "cold" war, with clearly expressed political, economic, spiritual and social confrontations between Russia and, before all, countries of the so-called Western democracy.

Problem Statement

The topic as a whole is quite well developed, especially within the framework of applied research of content: Kozlova (2020); Amerini et al. (2021); Effah (2021). Also, the legal aspect of the problem field is being actively investigated - Cabaj et al. (2021); Oehmer and Pedrazzi (2020). And information policy concepts are also under scrutiny by researchers: Freitag et al., 2020.

Research Questions

One of the strategic documents on the formation of the state information policy of Russia, which most clearly defined its strategic goals and objectives, is still approved back in October 1998 at a meeting of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy and Communications and then at a meeting of the Permanent Chamber on State Information Policy of the Political Consultative Council under the President of the Russian Federation - “Concept of the State Information Policy of the Russian Federation” (Concept, 1998). It is noteworthy that since then, no other goal-setting official document on this issue has been found, although for more than twenty years both the world community and our country have made qualitative progress in improving the information space. The deficiency in this regard is more than compensated for by various scientific, expert and fictional materials, which, with all their probable and real usefulness, cannot become an objective substitute for a normative document that defines modern problems, trends and prospects for the functioning of Russia in the conditions of the modern extremely dynamic information age.

Thus, in our analysis, we will proceed from the above Concept, as an effective de facto and de jure state strategy in the information direction.

Purpose of the Study

So, the long-term goal-setting guidelines are clear and unchanging - building a democratic information society and the country's entry into the world information community (Concept, 1998). At the same time, such attitudes should cover not only national interests, but also the determination of society towards these interests. It is the problems that arise in this combination of state and public interests that are the purpose of this article.

Research Methods

Among the main research methods, system analysis and content analysis are used, which made it possible not only to identify problematic issues in the sphere, but also to substantiate the process trends and key areas of activity. Thus, the system analysis made it possible to identify the problem of the formation of the information political environment and the dependence of this field on the operational equipment of foreign production. Content analysis made it possible to assess the content of the main resources of the Runet. Thanks to the methods used, the key conclusion of this study was made: at present, Russia is highly dependent on a foreign manufacturer of relevant information systems, resources and technologies. Similar Russian-made components either have not yet been created or are in the process of being introduced.

Findings

It is obvious that the post-industrial era, characterized by information and communication domination, also caused a new social stratification, different from the previous industrial era, which qualitatively complicated the understanding of social processes and their management. It is not so much rich and successful subjects in traditional spheres of life (politics, business, art, etc.) that become elite, but those who are “advanced” in the information space, possessing modern IT technologies, who are able to profit from cryptocurrencies, and form recognizability not by specific social significant deeds and actions, and on the proposed content on the global network, often of dubious quality and focus. The ever-growing need for information products outside the nature of their qualitative saturation contributes to the same increase in psychophysical dependence on their consumption. The efficiency of the information market is easily traced precisely by the production of such products, which are first quantitatively and aggressively imposed in the form of appropriate projects - from music shows and television series to jokes on Youtube and suicidal sites), then turns into a conveyor of analogs, finally, turning into a psychologically developed stable taste, namely to such products, and this determines the economic benefits of such a product. At the same time, the success of an individual is now often determined not by his mind, talent, active work, but by the “likes” displayed, that is, approval for quasi-creative primitivism, absolutely unrelated to the economic, political, spiritual values ​​and landmarks of the state. In fact, we see, declared by many experts, the transformation of an intellectual personality into a technogenic personality, expressing subordination and adherence to the so-called technogenic culture, which directly affects the parameters of both its social adaptation and social determination (Markov & Krasnova, 2021).

The digitalization of our daily life affects not only the economy, but also the tools of state administration, and the political consciousness of the population (Semenov, 2017), and political practices, in particular, the emergence of such a phenomenon as, for example, parties-services (Semenov, 2020).

Naturally, this qualitative feature of the functioning of social subjects in the modern information space, which applies not only to Russia, but also to all other participants in the current model of world civilization, should be taken into account in the implemented state information policy.

Thus, one of the urgent tasks in the implementation of the state information policy of Russia is the effective formation and use of national information resources (IR) and ensuring wide, free access to them. This task is fully correlated with the following basic principle stated in the above Concept, namely: the principle of priority of a domestic manufacturer - under equal conditions, priority is given to a competitive domestic manufacturer of information and communication means, products and services.

In our opinion, it is the solution of this problem that will have a qualitative impact on the nature of domestic social determination. At present, Russia is highly dependent on a foreign manufacturer of relevant information systems, resources and technologies. Similar Russian-made components either have not yet been created or are in the process of being introduced. Thus, the provision of the same highly efficient operating systems in the Russian format has remained both an unsolved task and an unresolved problem for decades. Almost all users - both individuals and legal entities - operate similar foreign systems, mainly Windows, and these should include government agencies, structures and authorities. And the combination of personal communicators with wide functionality (for example, smartphones) in combination with “dual-use” software makes it possible to organize surveillance of almost any user, setting the routes of his movement. These mechanisms have been used for a long time in Western forensics and have a fairly well-developed legislative regulation (Cabaj et al., 2021). But do not forget that the standard itself can be an instrument of social, political, and economic impact on society (Kiernan & Mueller, 2021). In economic activity, Russia and its subjects of economic and financial activity are completely subordinate to the Swift system, which, from a technical point of view, is an international corporate network to which participants (banks and other users) are connected and which is controlled by system resources (regional processors and operational centers) (SWIFT: how it works). In the conditions of the current reality, characterized by stable and increasing confrontation towards Russia, forced to operate in a sanctions regime, which, apparently, is a long-term factor in its relations with international actors, as a means of pressure on its domestic and foreign policy, it is very clear that this dependence on foreign IT systems of various kinds will continue to grow. Threats are already being heard, as a variant of political and economic blackmail, about disconnecting Russia from the Swift system, which will undoubtedly create significant difficulties in its economic activities. If we return to operating systems, then it should be borne in mind that with modern scientific and technological progress, data using any operating system can integrate elements of collection, modification, distortion and mutation of user information, which is a matter of deep concern not only in the area of ​​information security of the relevant entity - from individual and corporate to nationwide - but also in the area of ​​national security in general, given the same workload of foreign operating systems of government bodies.

A similar situation appears with IT communicators and social networks. Currently, the overwhelming majority of Russian users of any level are actively working with the most powerful foreign giants in this regard, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, Viber, Telegram, etc., where only the last of the named refers to the Russian owner. These communicators satisfy almost all information and communication needs and preferences of the Russian audience. Domestic communicators, primarily VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, constitute a certain competition here. However, the technical capabilities of these communicators are inferior in the variety of services offered above (for example, What’s App, which provides an optimal set of chats, audio, video, telephone communications from Facebook, has become almost an independent IT platform). The most attractive thing in social networks is facelessness, which allows you to create content of any content, including vulgar, primitive, asocial, criminal, vulgar, immoral, etc. It should be noted that the motivation of content creators can fluctuate within a fairly wide range, and cause the phenomenon of hierarchical regression (Gazit, 2021). The problem is exacerbated by the emergence of technologies that allow users with minimal technological knowledge to generate and distribute dangerous, antisocial, or even criminal content - such as the emergence of new methods of self-learning software that can create high-quality fake images and videos, for example, such software as Deepfakes (Amerini et al., 2021). Moreover, to manage social streams in the Internet space, "bot factories" are actively used today, both in manual mode (like the use of military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Ukrainian IPS centers) and in an automated mode - in the form of automated computer online identities (Oehmer & Pedrazzi, 2020), the practice of using which in the domestic Internet space is not sufficiently legislatively regulated today. There is also a refraction of social determination, which is expressed in a clear narrowing of the critical and intellectual comprehension of the information received, the inability to distinguish between reliable and falsified information, as well as to create socially significant content, the emergence of a pronounced orientation towards low-grade, ugly and primitive semantic constructions as a natural understanding and manifestation of one's social mission. It should not be hidden that it is the destructive content in social networks, which forms the corresponding asocial models, attitudes and motivation for the behavior and moral decay of the Russian audience, that is often invisibly specially imposed and encouraged as a unique but effective technology of information confrontation in modern conditions of increasing conflict of interests between Russia and The West. However, one should not ignore the problem of spontaneous social communication in social networks - as studies show (Lorentzen, 2021), a significant part of the discussion of key issues for society, for example, in relation to COVID-19 (Thelwall & Thelwall, 2020), proceeds outside the constructive channel.

It should also be noted that the problem of communicator platforms affects not only ordinary users, but also politicians. The editorial policy of large media forces politicians and public figures to pay more and more attention to social networks to promote alternative or non-mainstream projects (Freitag et al., 2021). Which makes social and political life vulnerable to control by platform owners. Studies show that even in such advanced (in terms of regulatory sophistication) countries as the United States or Canada (Wilkinson, 2020), the influence of social networks, search operators and Internet service providers is constantly growing. For Russia, due to the greater independence of foreign corporations, this problem is much more acute.

Based on the foregoing, it should be stated that solving the problem of forming and using national information resources is extremely relevant for a country that seeks to restore and expand its role in modern geopolitics, and it is equally important to ensure proper protection of the Russian individual and society as a whole in the information space from the content that forms asocial thinking.

The originality of the state and development of any modern state largely depends on the information and communication paradigm, which this state takes into account in the problems of public administration, including the actualization of determinants at the current and future stages of its functioning. This is especially important to take into account when the state and, accordingly, its society enters a difficult phase of its evolution. Crisis situations and challenges trigger the mechanisms of socio-cultural adaptation, which are expressed in the mobilization of society, in the rise of public activity aimed at resolving the necessary social tasks that determine the processes of rule-making and adaptation of state mechanisms.

Such determinants need a properly designed and implemented state information policy, including the provision of the necessary high-quality support for the information systems, resources and technologies available to the state in service. In other words, optimal technologically independent information support. This is precisely the fundamental need for the effective formation and use of national information resources (IR) and ensuring broad, free access to them. The solution to this problem should be based on the transparency of its understanding by all elements and participants. We believe that the most important link in this is a decisive intensification of the creation of competitive domestic information products, primarily in the IT format. We see how today foreign Internet giants unceremoniously remove from the Russian segment any content that they consider unacceptable or reprehensible, without going into explanations, including often this content carries a spiritual, patriotic and cognitive mission designed to contribute to the mental imperatives of Russian society. at the same time, without touching really negative content (the same Twitter, even under pressure from the Russian authorities, does not delete information about child pornography, training in suicidal actions, etc.). It is not possible to oppose anything to this, except for the prohibition of activities in the Russian information space. We do not have our own efficient and popular resources. The same China easily removed from itself those foreign communicators that, in the opinion of local authorities, carried a threat to the social, moral and spiritual development of their nation, quickly replacing them in the formed information niche with their own developments. Technological lag behind the world's leading manufacturers of IT resources. In Russia, the most famous analogue in this regard is the Yota project, which is significantly inferior to foreign counterparts, and in terms of communication, the above-mentioned Telegram, which can be attributed with a big stretch in defending national interests.

It should be noted that digitalization is not only an important element in improving the efficiency of the modern economy, but also a promising tool for public administration (Aharony & Yavetz, 2021). At the same time, it is important to note that the world experience of using a variety of non-unified platforms also creates significant problems that hinder development. Russia is too big a country, and problems of this kind are not so noticeable. However, the ecosystems of state structures in developing countries have a significantly smaller volume and provide an analysis of the practice of multiplatform social and communication infrastructure that is quite interesting for Russia. As researchers from the Ganna Business School note, multiplatformity creates problems with the exchange of information and its transfer between platforms, generates manual intervention with delays and errors, and also reduces work efficiency due to multiple entries in different formats of identification systems for each user (Effah, 2021).

Of course, something is budging. For example, three domestic IT giants - Yandex, Mail.ru and Rambler - will develop social projects on the Internet. The idea to create conditions for promoting socially significant content was announced at the Russian Internet Forum, which took place on September 21, 2020. sessions on social responsibility of business on the Internet told how they helped Russians to survive the pandemic: for example, Yandex developed a self-isolation index and gave its partners funds for advertising, Mail.ru created charity platforms to help those who moved to large cities for treatment, and Rambler introduced on his website, columns of psychologists and advertised projects aimed at helping doctors. The Institute for the Development of the Internet came up with a proposal to create a mechanism on its basis to support social projects on the part of Internet platforms (Kozlova, 2020).

It is obvious that the above example is most likely a particular detail that does not change the general state of affairs. For example, in Russia, a domestic Elbrus processor has been created, but its cost is estimated at 400000 rubles, and the components are manufactured in Taiwan, which casts great doubt on its successful implementation in the country. That is, there is no domestic producer of its high-quality information resources from the time this task was expressed in the Concept of State Information Policy until today. And this despite the fact that many Russian experts, including the military, directly declare the transformation of conflicts between the leading geopolitical players who are moving technologically into the virtual field, and the same information wars today are aimed at cultivating opposition, immoral, asocial, deviant, etc. etc. the behavior of the individual and the expressed social groups forming by such individuals, precisely within the society itself, that is, the decomposition of this society by internal conflict with the assistance of the corresponding IT-content and programs. This is not just some kind of ambivalent threat, but a real threat to the national security of the state. Taking into account the social stratification of Russian society, the effectiveness of this transformation cannot be overlooked, all the more so not to take prompt and effective measures, including the formation and use of national information resources.

It should also be noted that digitalization itself does not solve another problem - the ability of an individual to work with information. For Western researchers, a fairly typical topic is the comparison of developed countries and Africa (Brown et al., 2021), but for Russia, albeit on a much smaller scale, the problem of delimiting the center-periphery is typical, which is aggravated by the state of Russian education.

In this regard, it is important to understand the factor of social determination, as a problem of informational impact on society, increasingly actively determining motivational moods and actions. The saturation of information garbage is already extreme. The saturation of antisocial content with a pronounced anti-Russian bias is an order of magnitude lower, but it is actively replenishing.

It seems relevant in solving the analyzed problem of the state information policy, the manifestation of active state will (not declarative, but real), including aimed at: training and effective use of graduates of technical universities who have the necessary knowledge in the IT field with sufficient funding of scientific and technical facilities, high pay labor, other means of motivation to overcome the backlog in the production of domestic information systems, resources and technologies (as an example, we can use the Silicon Valley project in the USA); the formation of high-quality national content (not only on the Internet, but also in the media) with the widest range of cultural, spiritual, patriotic, moral content, objectively capable of withstanding low-quality and destructive information; propaganda in the media sphere of Russian values ​​and achievements with the involvement of authoritative actors; suppression and blocking of malicious information by legal and technological means.

Conclusion

Extrapolating from the above, it is necessary to assert the actualization of the problems of the implementation of the state information policy in the dynamically developing global information community, which manifests itself, among other things, in the uneven possession of national high-quality means and the possibilities of ensuring their national interests in the media space. Highly developed states in this regard are capable of creating global information systems and resources, thereby ensuring their advantages and dictating the "rules of the game" to the rest of the participants in the global information space and deepening their technological dependence and backwardness, including imperatively influencing their political, economic and social determinants, while carrying out the corresponding information and communication expansions and information confrontations, first of all, with geopolitical competitors, including Russia. All this affects society, its social determination as a whole, refracts its worldview, cognition of reality, forms certain motivations for self-expression and behavior, often with pronounced asocial forms. Only an organized state information policy, including as its primary tasks, the effective formation and use of national information resources and the provision of wide, free access to them, can change for the better the current technological state of IT dependence, streamline the social code and social determination of society, and finally form if not optimality, then the rationality and efficiency of the management of social processes in the current conditions of the information age.

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28 December 2021

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Krasnova, G., Markov, A., Podstavko, E., & Semenov, V. (2021). Social Determination Factor In The Implementation Of State Information Policy Tasks. In D. Y. Krapchunov, S. A. Malenko, V. O. Shipulin, E. F. Zhukova, A. G. Nekita, & O. A. Fikhtner (Eds.), Perishable And Eternal: Mythologies and Social Technologies of Digital Civilization, vol 120. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 560-569). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2021.12.03.75