Principles of socio-psychological technologies’ development to support stigmatized minorities in the field of media communication
Abstract
The goal of the article is to highlight psychological principles in the development of sociopsychological technologies to support stigmatized minorities in the field of media communication. To clarify the peculiarities of the perception of stigma and reflect this phenomenon in the process of media communication, two separate surveys are conducted, one among the general population, and the other, among LGBT and HIV activists, concerning the peculiarities of stigmatized minorities experiencing their own stigma. Thus, respondents among the general population predominantly believe that people with HIV deserve equality in rights and attitudes. But some of those respondents who occupy lower professional positions are more biased towards HIV-positive people. As for the LGBT community, the respondents show opposite assessments, the statements that LGBT people should hide it and not tell anyone about it are highly valued, and the statements about the isolation of the LGBT community are quite high. Among stigmatized minorities representatives, 71% were cyberbullying victims (from isolated cases to constant harassment). The most frequent victims of cyberbullying are men, and among activists – HIV activists. Most often, activists face such manifestations of cyberbullying as insults in comments to news and on Twitter, threats on Facebook, intimidation on forums. The qualitative stage of the study is aimed at outlining the principles to construct the sociо-psychological support technologies of stigmatized minorities. Particularly, two focus group sessions are held with each group of respondents: LGBT military, HIV activists, respondents without signs of stigmatization. Thus, there are defined socio-psychological principles to construct a comprehensive technology for the formation of tolerant and safe media space (taking into account the needs and psychological characteristics of media participants). There are highlighted the psychological principles for the development of technologies aimed directly at the support of stigmatized minorities’ representatives, at the formation of effective behavioral models to resist the stigmatization
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