Media myths about Karelian borderland and reality: culturological aspect

The article implements the purpose of modern media myths verification in comparison with empirical data obtained during research expeditions in the territory of the boundary Karelia. In the study researches were undertaken in the northern and southern regions of the Republic to identify the unique specifics of the socio-cultural situation of the borderland. The research tasks of the problem of media myths truth about Karelia were solved by the complex methods of culturology, philosophy, sociology, psychology and philology. Application forms developed by scientists, standard and non-standard questionnaires, interviews and conversations were used as a scientific tool. The theoretical analysis of mythology sources revealed two actual factors influencing on the modern myth. The factor of remythologization was assessed as universal for history of culture, and the factor of misinformation of the modern media was assessed as a unique, characteristical for the modern information society. The aesthetic, axiological, economic, sociological, linguistic, ethnographic, psychological and philosophical aspects of the modern media myths formation were revealed during desk processing of empirical data. As a result, it became obvious that modern media myths, assumed as a true, are correlated with actual reality partly. It confirms the nature of mythology as a specific phenomenon of culture and a specific form of consciousness. Besides, the media myths associated with space, time, symbol, image, values were verified positively, and the myth associated with the people relationship (in this case between Russians and Finnish) was verified negatively as referring to the past, instead of present. The comparison of media myths about the northern and southern borderland of Karelia showed an ambiguous result, which indicates the inconsistency of the socio-cultural situation in different regions of the Republic. In turn, this result confirmed the idea of A. F. Losev that the myth is a reality which is expressed in the people behavior, their values and preferences at the present time and the current place, but not in the far past or future. Finally, the problem of search of myth-making source in the modern media has been specified as a prolongation and deepening of the research. The prolongation of the research is associated with the further scientific-expedition activity of the scientist team of the supporting Republic University within Karelian Arctic territory, eastern and southern regions of Karelia.