2018 Issue №3

In this article, we analyse the concept of ‘local community’, its distinctive features, and its role and place in socio-geographical studies. We stress the connection between local communities and the area where community members reside and go through everyday routines. Processes characteristic of local communities include territory socialization, residents’ self-identification, selfregulation, and taking over administrative functions. In the case of the Perm region, we study the features of localities at a regional level, namely, the formation of vernacular areas. We conclude that neighbourhood, which requires consolidation to improve the living environment, is manifested today in new forms including owners’ associations.

Nowadays, within Russian scholarship, there is not so much research on the role of regional mass media in conducting public diplomacy. In this context, the article aims at analyzing results of experts’ survey taken in May 2018. Among other things, experts gave their opinions on the levels and forms of communication between mass media of Saratov region and their foreign partners, the way regional and municipal media outlets use the Internet technologies, social networks, and messengers, possible projects to promote information interaction of the region and media from abroad. An inference is made that mass media pay inadequate attention to “foreign” aspects of their activity, which, in its turn, necessitates organizing and holding additional events aimed at galvanizing life into expert and professional debates in this field, expanding relevant agenda and discourse.