Information support for Belarussian territories affected by the accident at Chernobyl nuclear power plant

The relevance of the study of issues of Belarusian territories affected by the Chernobyl disaster is due to the need to get rid of the Chernobyl syndrome in affected areas. Public awareness of various aspects of safe living is crucial in this process. The purpose for the research is to identify the main mechanisms and forms of information support for territories affected by the Chernobyl disaster. The research novelty lies in the development of a system of conceptual and empirical indicators of sociological study of the process of information support provision. These developments can also be used in other studies related to public awareness. The main research methods are: comparison, generalization, synthesis, etc. This article presents the results of sociological research in 2014-2016 on the issues of informing the population about the rules of safe living in territories affected by the Chernobyl disaster. The focus of attention is the analysis of public opinion of residents living in contaminated areas on a wide range of issues: the level of awareness of the consequences of the Accident, the area of radioactive contamination in the territory, the rules of safe living, the respondents’ assessment of the quality, availability and usefulness of information related to the consequences of Accident, and information needs of residents in contaminated areas. Studies have shown that residents in contaminated areas do not have a very high level of awareness of the area of radioactive contamination, which includes the territory of residence, but there is a positive stable trend, which is that the real radiation situation in 2016 began to be assessed as “safer” than in previous years. It has been revealed that the respondents in registered marriage (or who were in it earlier, i.e. divorced) demonstrate a higher level of awareness in terms of understanding the need to comply with precaution measures when living in contaminated areas. The research results should be taken into account when developing state programs and measures aimed at improving the safety of people in Belarus living in radioactively contaminated areas.