THE INFLUENCE OF RUSSIAN-LANGUAGE MASS MEDIA IN LATVIA ON PUBLIC OPINION RESULTS

This article covers the issue of influence of mass media on formation of public opinion regarding foreign policy. The article gives the definitions of notions “others”, “political elites”, “public opinion”, “public opinion sounding”, “communication mechanism” and attempts to describe the role of influence of mass media on the results of public opinion. The author overviews the Russian and translated foreign literature addressed the study of this problem and outlines scientific areas where the study of public opinion is carried out. The article emphasizes the communication mechanisms of interaction of political elites and the society. The author considers the operation characteristics of communication mechanism of the Russian-language mass media in Latvia the main goal of which is the formation of the Latvian people opinion on the issues of foreign policy regarding Russia. The influence of the Russian-language mass media in Latvia is considered as a specific mechanism of public opinion formation created by the political elites and functioning through mass media. The author mentions the names of principal printed mass media and the names of the owners of                        publishing houses printing the Russian-language mass media. It is noted that the essential factor for formation of the opinion on foreign policy for the Russian-language population in Latvia is that how the Russian-language print press of Latvia covers the international events. The author tells about the status of the Russian-language mass media in Latvia before and after the crisis, notes the prior to the crisis possibility of the population to get the information on the foreign policy issues from different sources. The article overviews the status of the Russian-language mass media after the crisis of 2008 which effects the cut of variety of published assessments of the international events. The author considers the peculiarities of the Russian-language mass media in Latvia, and in particular, their belonging to the publishing houses led by Russian business elites, and highlights the peculiarities of the state of affairs of publishing houses which have been publishing the Russian-language newspapers and magazines for many years. The article pays special attention to the fact how mass media help to form the public opinion of the Russian-language population of Latvia, the main consumer of the Russian-language information on the state of affairs in Russia and the relations between Latvia and Russia.