International conflicts in the context of digital reality: media-geographical approach

The article presents the results of media-geographical studies of mental landscapes of countries of the world, demonstrating dynamics of changes in Internet audiences' requests in relation to international conflicts. The research methodology included several methods: mediametric analysis, rank analysis, content analysis, and analysis of documents from open sources. The empirical base was formed by the statistics of the Google search engine, the analysis of which was carried out in the spatio-temporal coordinate system with an emphasis on the dynamics of media behavior and media consumption of Internet audiences in different time periods. Analysis of the range of requests related to the topic of international conflicts in the Google Trends search engine showed that the greatest activity in searching for general information on international conflicts and ways of their regulation is shown by Internet users of African countries participating in regional conflicts of different levels and nature. The most pronounced interest in the topic of international conflicts is shown in the countries of Africa (to the south of the Sahara), equatorial Latin America, in the equatorial countries between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The study also revealed that the global Internet audience is increasingly less interested in issues of cooperation and collaboration between countries. One of the conclusions of the study: the growing interest of Internet audiences in different regions and territories in the topic of international conflicts correlates with the crisis of international cooperation. The results confirmed the effectiveness of using media geographic tools for analyzing the global mental landscape: the research methodology developed within the framework of the media geographic approach makes it possible to identify conflict zones that can become sources of new conflicts and crises, and to develop strategies and methods for their prevention.