REPRESENTATION OF AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL MONUMENT IN THE MEDIA WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF AN INSTITUTIONALIZED ACCOUNT

The article considers the popularization of archaeological phenomena in the context of their presence in the media space. It is demonstrated that “public archeology” is presented in detail in the framework of foreign and domestic studies, and key works in this area are cited. Using the example of a specifi c archaeological site of Arkaim (a historical site of the Middle Bronze Age located in the Chelyabinsk region), the formation of a media image through an institutionalized account on social networks is considered. For this purpose, the publications of the Arkaim Historical and Archaeological Museum- Reserve for 2023, including 537 posts, were analyzed using the content analysis method. These materials are considered in the context of their form (type of content) and content (what is reported in the posts). In addition, metrics refl ecting the activity of the audience within the community have been collected, and an overview of the most and least popular community posts within the specifi ed period is demonstrated. The obtained results are consistent with the data of a sociological survey conducted during fi ve expeditions to Arkaim in 2023 with the support of the Russian Science Foundation and the Chelyabinsk Region, in which 443 respondents took part. The fi ndings of the study demonstrate that the positioning of Arkaim within the framework of three dominants - a place for tourist recreation far from civilization (nature), a place with historical and archaeological artifacts (education), and a place for creative, ethnographic and other events (culture) - does not refl ect the interests of a signifi cant proportion of the actors of the place. The audience’s interest in mystical and spiritual practices, recorded during the survey, is not refl ected in the content of the offi cial community of the Arkaim Museum, which may lead to losses of a potential audience open to new experiences (for example, attending lectures and excursions), but who did not fi nd anything corresponding to their main area of interest.