Impact of Media on Shaping Ethno-Cultural Stereotypes in British and Russian Young People

The digitization of communication and the mediatization of society transform the forms and types of relationships of parties of the communication process. Social media as a new media environment has a great potential for managing opinions, media consumer's impressions and the formation of certain attitudes and stereotypes. The question arises of formulating distinct criteria for assessing the degree to which media affects certain social groups and society as a whole, as well as the consequences of such an impact. The article analyzes the impact of technical and technological and information-symbolic communication aspects on the shaping ethno-cultural stereotypes. To identify sources of formation and breaking down ethno-cultural stereotypes in 2017-2018, a research was conducted based on the questionnaire online survey method in two stages on the territory of two countries (Russia and the United Kingdom). At the first stage, students from Russia and Great Britain were surveyed (N=454). At the second stage, young people from Russia aged 18-24 were surveyed (N=1200). As a result, the main positive and negative features were identified by representatives of two cultures in each other's perception. The sources of the formation of ethno-cultural auto- and heterostereotypes, as well as the tools for their breaking down, were identified.