Annotation

Due to the new geopolitical and informational realities that can change the main geopolitical potential of a state — the national mentality, culture, and moral state of the people — the growing role and significance of the media as one of the tools for managing information necessitates that the state organize effective interaction with the media in order to properly inform the population, positively mobilize citizens to support the state’s domestic and foreign policy, overcome manipulations of public consciousness, develop institutions of public control, etc. In this context, the problem of defining the legal nature of the media as the basis for forming their legal structure becomes more relevant. At the same time, the media as a social institution can be viewed through the lens of a set of means (channels) for transmitting information, types of activities, professions, products, and works, united in the subject area and goal‑setting into a comprehensive body of legal support for the media, within which the media act as a form of information dissemination and an object of legal regulation. The theoretical and methodological substantiation of the concept and legal nature of the media will make it possible to create the conditions for the subsequent development of their overall legal framework.