Information policy of local authority in Internet as a factor of societal regulation: sociological analysis

Influence of information on the social management is constantly increasing. Information policy in Russian local self-government system is a given of maintaining significant social relationships in municipality and a factor of the development of civil society. The interactive information policy contributes to the preservation of sensed-presence effect of local community in the public area, and to the setting new goals of the municipal development. Research problem is the lack of actual sociological facts about the abilities and limitations of organization and implementation of local information policy that are adequate to the needs of the local community. The goal of the sociological research is to define and evaluate content and functional characteristics of the local authoritys work on keeping feedback with local community in the space of Internet. The methodological basis of the sociological research is the system approach under which local self-government analyzed as the open system in which interaction between social agents is supported through information. Discourse analysis as a method of qualitative empirical research has made it possible to identify the specifics of information representation bylocal governments on the Internet in the process of creating and maintaining an information and communication structure of social interaction. On the basis of the data obtained, insufficient information openness, interactivity and usability of the Internet sites of local governments were established, which complicates the development of intergroup ties and relations. The author focuses on the declarative realization of information policy in the sites that focuses on the one-sided vector of information and the dominance of the subject of management. The functionality of the Internet-sites is limited to the execution of ideological and legal functions while the local authorities do not pay the attention to the forming identity of local community members and their involvement in local government. These facts hinder societal regulation in the municipality that shows in unstable interaction in the process of state-public relations.