International students in Russian universities: mass media role in attitude peculiarities formation to them and problems of adaptation

Abstract

Nowadays, one of the educational strategies is to strengthen international cooperation and attract international students to study in Russian universities. Migration issues currently remain relevant, and of a sensitive debatable nature, and for newsmakers, they are attractive. The study aims to investigate and analyze the presence of a stereotypical image of a migrant student, its content, nature, and orientation in the mass media. As a research method, a questionnaire survey was used to effectively investigate an international student's image studying at a Russian university with residents created by the mass media. The article examines the prevalence and features of stereotypes’ transmission about migrant students, the features of the formation of a migrant’s image in the media, identify the main problems of adaptation, difficulties faced by migrant students. The study's novelty and originality lie in the fact that the importance of the media environment for the management of international students' migration processes is determined for the first time. It is revealed that the most challenging issues for migrant students are: issues related to everyday life, employment, language acquisition, cultural customs, and unusual climatic conditions for them. It is revealed that information about migrant students in the media is not so standard. It is shown that there is more damaging information about migrants on the central channels than on the regional channels. The data obtained in this work can be used in ethnic psychology, social psychology, pedagogy, and age psychology.