Information needs of the population and evaluation of mass media: regional research experience

Under current conditions, the formulation and accounting of audience behavior regarding the media industry’s activities and the content it produces are gaining greater importance. The study is aimed at identifying the key requests of the regional society to the mass media and their characteristics. The following tasks have been solved in the process of implementing this goal: a number of requests to mass media from the residents of the Vologda Oblast have been defined; the dynamics of expectations has been considered; the socio-demographic characteristics of people have been identified. The scientific novelty of the study consists in integrated and analytical conclusions characterizing the structure and dynamics of public requests to mass media, based on the analysis of indicators grouped according to the logic of work. The following methods have been used: analysis, generalization, abstraction, and sociological survey. The study has revealed the expectations of citizens from the mass media: larger volume of information (and this applies not only to the federal, but also to the regional and local agenda of the mass media), objectivity, and censorship. The specified requests are long-term. It has been established that the identified information needs are directly dependent on such parameters as age, income level and education level of people. Herewith, the situation is ambiguous in the territorial context. The respondent’s gender has practically no impact on evaluations of mass media. The prospect of research lies in the advanced studying of the structure of the regional society’s information needs and the request for censorship. The conclusions presented in the article can be interesting for the representatives of mass media, the public, as well as for the regional authorities.