Public Presentation of Academic Science: Social Engagement, Corporate and Private Interests (Case of the Institute of Sociology RAS)

This paper examines public presentation of sociological science in the sphere of mass communications as the important part of the popularization process. The research is focused on corporate and private interests of a scientific organization in the process of popularization. The phenomenon of popularization including practices of public presentation of academic science is insufficiently explored. Most of the papers about popularization or popular science are written by foreign scholars. This subject is discussed to a lesser extent in Russia. Italian sociologist M. Bucchi described the process of popularization in details based on theoretical perspective of British sociologist B. Trench. Interactions of scientists and non-experts can be considered within the three models: deficits, contextual and participation model. Each model has different methods to regulate the process of popularization. The researcher applied method of semi-structured interview for studying of practices of public presentation of sociological science. The informants were research workers of the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Science. Active behavior in Mass Media served as a criterion for forming of sample. This part is devoted the research of private interests. Corporate interests or administration interests are studied by content analysis of normative documents of the Institute of Sociology RAS and documents of Scientific Funds. The aim of the analysis is to find a statement about public activity. Corporate policy is presented by content analysis of Mass Media with different type of ideology: “Rossiyskaya gazeta”, “Nezavisimaya gazeta”, “Vedomosti”. In the result, considering the problems of modern popularization, the author is planning to answer the questions: what does the model of scientific communication dominant in the field of sociology and how does corporate policy influence public presentation of sociological science in the sphere of mass communications?