The Institute for Internet Development can receive the status of an operator of subsidies for the production of content for young people and its placement on the Web. Support is promised to socially significant, not political content.
The Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh) proposed to endow the Internet Development Institute (IRI) with the status of a focal point responsible for organizing the production of socially significant content for youth, follows from a letter from the government apparatus in response to the agency's proposal. The existence of such an initiative to RBC was confirmed by a source in Iran and an interlocutor close to the presidential administration. RBC sent a request to the press service of Rosmolodezh. The agency has nominated the institute for the role of coordinator, IRI general director Anton Klyuchkin confirmed to RBC, but the decision, he said, will be made by the government.
The instruction to determine a non-profit organization, on the basis of which a coordination center will be created for the creation of content aimed at the spiritual and moral education of young people, and its distribution on the Internet, was given to the government by President Vladimir Putin on October 14 following a meeting of the Presidential Council on the implementation of state policy in the field of family protection and children. The government must officially make a decision before December 1.
How much money will be spent on content for young people
It is assumed that in the case of granting the IRI the status of a focal point responsible for the production of Internet content, Rosmolodezh will provide the organization with a targeted subsidy, an interlocutor close to the presidential administration tells RBC. In turn, the IRI will have to develop a methodology and ensure on a competitive basis the allocation of subsidies to content producers, he specifies.
For the creation and distribution of content on the Internet aimed at strengthening the civic identity and spiritual and moral values of youth, the state plans to allocate 2.4 billion rubles in three years. This amount is included in the draft federal budget for 2020 and the planning period of 2021 and 2022. The recipient of 800 million rubles. Rosmolodezh is annually.
As noted by a RBC source close to the Kremlin, the system of distribution of funds will be similar to that which exists, for example, in the Presidential Grants Fund or the Cinema Fund - it is planned to create a supervisory board, an expert council responsible for accepting applications, reviewing them and allocating funds. In principle, the system should be transparent, and representatives of the Internet industry took part in the selection of projects, says the interlocutor of RBC.
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Subsidies will be distributed on the basis of an open tender, the conditions will be public, Anton Klyuchkin told RBC. “The procedure for selecting projects will be as transparent as possible, public pitching of projects is not excluded. At the same time, it will be possible to speak about the final configuration of the selection system only after the IRI is officially appointed as the executor,”he said.
Legal entities registered in Russia, including individual entrepreneurs, will be able to apply for subsidies, the IRI general director specified.
Traditionally, content is measured using reach, engagement and other measures of audience reaction, Klyuchkin says. “But it is possible that additional requirements for the effectiveness of projects will be developed,” he added.
What content is needed for young people
Young people primarily consume content on the Internet, while the state has hardly worked in this zone. We need to start somewhere,”explains a source close to the presidential administration.
The content will be targeted at people under the age of 35.
Vladimir Putin has repeatedly spoken about content for young people on the Internet. In August last year, at a meeting with participants in the Mashuk educational forum in Pyatigorsk, the president said that there is a lack of positive content on social networks. In response to the story of the co-author of the student project “Cartoon Studio named after Alexander Shiryaev "Israil Tamaev that the studio's projects are mainly distributed on the Internet, the head of state said:" It is especially great that you work in networks. Because, as I understand it, you have the most positive attitude. And the positive in the networks needs 100%, which is so often lacking”.
In early October, it became known that Putin approved the launch of a project to spread good news on the Internet "Happiness".
State subsidies will be allocated for the production of exclusively socially significant content; there is no talk of political content, says a source close to the Kremlin. “It can be anything - video, audio, web series, podcasts, projects in social networks, games, educational programs.
The topic can also be different - from national projects to the celebration of the 75th anniversary of Victory next year. But the decision will be made by the supervisory board, - he lists. “The main thing is for the state to be able to talk to young people on topical issues in a language they understand.”
The priority will be projects that are created for Russian Internet resources, but in general there is an understanding that placement should be possible on any sites where there is a Russian audience and which are in the Russian legal field, says Klyuchkin.
The producers themselves will post the content, we are talking about all social networks - Instagram, VKontakte, Facebook, TikTok, Odnoklassniki, YouTube video hosting.
Why are the bets on the Internet
The Internet is a more popular medium among young audiences than television, according to data from research firm Mediascope.
The meter discloses only general information about the Internet preferences of all Russians over 12 years old, without specifying information on specific age groups. But from the data available to Mediascope clients, it follows that the most popular Internet platform among Russians aged 12-18 in September 2019 was the social network VKontakte - its daily audience in this age group on mobile devices and desktops exceeded 6 million people. A similar indicator of the video service YouTube - over 4.6 million Russians aged 12-18, Google - 4 million, Instagram - 3.7 million, WhatsApp - 3.3 million people.
In September 2019, according to Mediascope measurements, the daily audience of the most popular TV channel STS among 12-18 year olds was 624 thousand people. A similar figure for TNT among 12-18-year-olds is 444.5 thousand, for Channel One - 367.3 thousand residents of absolutely all settlements.
In order to talk with the “audience of tomorrow”, you need to start today with those who are 12-14 years old, says Denis Terekhov, managing partner of the Social Networks agency. “The modern generation is not just digital - it perceives information differently, which is neither good nor bad - this is a given. To communicate with them, you need to go to platforms they understand - not just Instagram, but stories (the format of short videos that are deleted after a day - RBC), TikTok and Likee,”the source said. At the same time, there is still no clear-cut successful mechanism for getting into these platforms. He recalled that working with these sites differs from traditional promotion formats using advertising posts, increasing popularity with "bots" or artificially driving traffic.
If you build communications with a very young audience, then you need to focus on the mobile environment, says Kirill Tanaev, director of the Institute of Contemporary Media. The mobile phone is the main gadget for schoolchildren; today they practically do not use desktops, the expert explains. According to him, if schoolchildren today go online from a computer or laptop, then, as a rule, not from their own, but from their parents.
First of all, young people are in demand for social networks, instant messengers, gaming and educational resources, Tanaev continues. But when communicating with a young audience, you need to be as tactful and cautious as possible: a mobile phone is perceived as a personal space, and propaganda in a mobile environment can lead to the opposite effect, the expert warns.
But for communication with young people, according to Tanaev, it would be wrong to completely abandon TV: “Large federal channels are losing a very young audience, but television networks and niche channels are able and efficiently working with it. Their content is now available in all environments and is in demand by this audience."
According to Gleb Sakhrai, CEO of PRT Edelman Affiliate, the media landscape is changing dramatically and rapidly. “In literally ten years, the same blogging platforms have changed radically and the growth leaders managed to change several times: there was LiveJournal, then YouTube appeared, then VKontakte and Facebook, instant messengers appeared, Instagram grew rapidly, now TikTok is growing rapidly,” Sakhrai lists. “At the same time, young people always focus on the forefront of growth, and it is logical to assume that this race with a constant change of leaders will not end.” According to him, content producers should be financed on an annual basis, that is, flexibly - depending on the development of trends and media channels.
Authors: Natalia Galimova, Sergey Sobolev
With participation: Irina Parfentieva