The Role Of Media In Maintaining Political Support In Authoritarian Regimes

In contemporary authoritarian states, media can be seen as the significant part of political process. With the technological development, media has got its unique roles and functions which make it possible to inform citizens about agendas as well as force the formation of political views and opinions inside the society. Being the meaningful recourse of spreading the news, media has become the powerful tool of political propaganda and manipulation in contemporary authoritarian states. The paper investigates the role of media in political process in 11 states with authoritarian regime: China, Ethiopia, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Russia, Tajikistan, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. Analyzing modern researches on the topic of media and political support, the work highlights the main characteristics inherent in the media in authoritarian regimes as well as describes the main tools for controlling the political positions of the population. The practical part of the work uses WVS data to conduct a quantitative study on the dependence of support for political parties, the government, parliament and elections on the consumption of various types of media (television, radio, newspapers, the Internet and social networks), as well as the individual characteristics of respondents (age, gender, level of education, social class, employment, level of wealth).