№ 4 - 2000
Pishcheva T.N.
A Politician’s Public Image: Perception Barriers

Empirical observations set forth, and analytical considerations developed in the article involve materials of a research that was carried out in past March and combine (1) comparative analysis of the images of a number of Russian political figures in mass consciousness and (2) expert appraisal of their video-tape-recorded appearances in public. Appealing to these materials the author makes an attempt to spot probable perception barriers in so far as the perception of G. Zyuganov and G. Yavlinsky is concerned. It is pointed out in the article that the image of each of the two leaders includes a set of characteristics that have negative effect on the perception of both by mass consciousness. And, for that matter, it is not so much isolated characteristics of a politician that have decisive effect, as their combinations, since all components of an image are interconnected and may either intensify or neutralize one another.