MEDIA IMAGE OF THE PRISONER AND THE PENITENTIARY SYSTEM IN THE MODERN RUSSIAN MEDIA

Abstract

The article is dealing with analysis of prison issues representation in the modern Russian media. During last decade, the social and political changes have been actualizing the discussions related to the Russian penitentiary system. However, this attention is primarily associated with high-profile “political cases”, beyond the scope of a close analysis, the question remains how systematically the problems of prison reality, the protection of prisoners’ rights are discussed in the media, what media image of the prisoner is constructed by the media and how it affects the adaptation after imprisonment. The researcher conducts a content analysis of media and citizen journalism materials for 2019 – 2020, which allow to determine the interest level of different types of media to the problems of prison reality, the degree of inclusion of this topic in the agenda-setting, as well as to assess the media image of the prisoner and the penitentiary system of Russia.