Socially significant information and issues of the Kazakhstanis’ trust in the media

This article presents the results of the sociological survey of the Kazakhstan society on the issues of the information society and mass communication, which was a part of the programtargeted-funded project of the Science Committee of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan “Development of information technologies and systems for the sustainable personal development as a foundation for the development of digital Kazakhstan”. The study aimed at identifying preferences of various social categories in the choice of news and socially significant topics in the media space, and at assessing the influence of news of different thematic focus on the personal sustainable development (psychological/emotional, social and intellectual stability). The comprehensive analysis of the media as a channel of social influence has become more urgent under the pandemic, which is reflected in the wide use of the term ‘infodemic’ to assess information processes since the first half of 2020. The article considers the information agenda when choosing and assessing the importance of news content in the Kazakhstan media. Based on the postulate about significant differences in the information agenda of different social groups, the authors focus on the main factors of trust in information channels. The empirical data showed a correlation between the social significance of news information and the level of social trust in media. The study is based on the theoretical model combining two complementary factors: on the one hand, the influence of the media as possessing if not a monopoly (P. Bourdieu) then significant preferences in affecting public opinion and value orientations of various groups; on the other hand, the media dependence as determined by supply and demand. Based on various theories of the information agenda setting, the authors confirmed the need to take into account the social-demographic characteristics when forming the media content - when it is necessary to convey some specific information to different social groups.