COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF A REGIONAL LEADER’S IMAGE (BASED ON THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE MATERIALS OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE NIZHNY NOVGOROD REGION)

Abstract

The author studies the image of a regional leader in the communicative field of the Internet space. The objectives of the study are to establish thematic intentions in the symbolic content of the leader image, to display the ways of their implementation, as well as to identify the features of communication with other representatives of authorities and society. Based on the theory of the information society, the author analyzes the content of news messages posted on the official website of the Government of the Nizhny Novgorod Region for the period from November 27, 2021, to June 9, 2022, containing a mention of the head of the region. The study uses a set of applied methods, including quantitative content-analysis, network data analysis and linguistic analysis. The results of the study are visualized in the form of tag clouds and a thematic graph. The results show that the idea of goal achievement is the key one presented in the image of a political leader. The main topics of the image content were the interaction between authorities of various levels, economic development and construction, crisis management in the region, launching new projects and breakthrough decisions, and lastly close interaction between Russian regions and the center.