Modern young people more and more often spend their time on social media, which they use for place for friendly chat, or place to spend leisure time, or place for buying things, or space for professional growth, or one of many other reasons. In the process of interaction, youth use various communication practices in social networks, the main of which have been given in the article.

Main functions of social media, specifics and classification of user communities, their influence on communicative behavior of users have been described. Instruments of transferring social information on social media: emoji and stickers, photos and pictures (memes included), together with preferences of usage of this instrument by users have been analyzed. It has been proved, that peculiarities of lexis typical for virtual communication along with non-verbal means (such as memes) transform the language of users.

The phenomenon of fake (an account hiding the real essence of a user), as well as reasons for creation of fake accounts and their functionality, have been considered. Degree and form of showing aggression in virtual communication have been analyzed. Specifics of content in dependence from typology of social communities, where users are interacting (groups by interest, groups with entertaining content, news communities, official companies groups, e-commerce pages, groups of citizens of a specific city (or workers of a specific place), help groups, blog communities) has been studied. Common regularities of both creation and usage of content in internet communities have been noted.

The information space affects social processes and forms a new system of values, ideas about a person as a person, its self-expression and achievement of success in various areas of life. Image becomes an expression of new requirements of public consciousness. Based on the data of a sociological study, it has been identified and analyzed in the article: what value guidelines and qualities make up the image of the most authoritative representatives of modern Russian society, what is the gender composition of these representatives, as well as professional areas and qualities that help women gain a high level of trust and create a positive image in the modern information society.

The factors, contributing to the formation of a negative image, have been considered, 329 interviews in 8 federal districts have been conducted. In the course of the interview, the respondents indicated the representatives of the society who, in their opinion, had the most positive image and high level of trust, as  well as the opposite example of a negative image, causing a low rating. Asymmetry in the criteria for evaluating the image of women and men by society, as well as gender imbalance among representatives with high public authority have been revealed.

The boundaries of the permissible presence of women at the top of society, determined by the society itself, have been denoted. Professional areas in which women are better able to form a  positive image in the conditions of the modern information society have been noticed. It has been identified, that charity is a valuable component of a positive image of a woman in all professional fields. Traditional gender values continue to be an important component of the image. A high level of presence in the information space can contribute to image building and have negative consequences.

The state of Russian magistracy in the transition to a digital economy has been studied. Some aspects of Russia’s accession to the Bologna process have been affected – problems of transition associated with a lack of understanding of the essence of transformations by the main stakeholders have been noted. The issues of socialization of students of the «digital» generation have been analyzed, the most characteristic of them – the desire for constant change, intolerance of the same type of problems, good knowledge of information technology. It has been noticed, that Russian magistracy is faced with the need to adapt to the needs of the digital economy, as well as the «generational» characteristics of representatives of generation Z.

The results of an empirical sociological study “Birth of a Russian magistracy”, carried out as part of the project of the Higher School of Economics Institute of Education, have been presented. The purpose of this study is to analyze the state of modern Russian magistracy and define key processes in which the main Acknowlegements. The article reflects the results of the research in the framework of the project “Birth of the Russian master’s degree”, implemented by the HSE Institute of education, the winner of the Vladimir Potanin Scholarship program of The V. Potanin Charitable Foundation. © The Author(s), 2019. This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). stakeholders (students, teachers and employers) are involved. The results of a survey of teachers of magistracy (713) in Russian regions, as well as undergraduates (1 140), have been reflected in the article. As the main results, information on the use of modern educational technologies in the preparation of Russian undergraduates has been given – a conclusion has been made about the small distribution of on-line education and network programs in universities.

The research data characterizing the degree of digital competencies of Russian graduate students have been adduced: information search and processing, use of IT technologies, information security, ability to work with «big» data. It has been noted, that these skills are well developed among modern students, but the participation of universities in their development is low. It has been concluded, that Russian magistracy is characterized by a «transitional» period in solving the problems of the digital economy.

A holistic expert method of social diagnostics of information security of the Russian society, which in its methodological and regulatory framework is based on the concept of national security, as the ability of state and public institutions to resist threats to the interests of the individual, society and the state has been presented. The essence of digital society as an object of protection from adverse effects at the technological level (computer, software and hardware base of digital communications), as well as at the level of content distributed in the information and communication network “Internet” has been stated. The subjects of virtual communication in terms of their capabilities and practice of protection from adverse information impact have been described. The characteristic of various situations of social interaction, which may be threatened by unauthorized access to personal information – in financial, economic and official relations, – has been given.

A separate analysis has been made of the status of officials-subjects of the implementation of state powers in the authorities, which may be particularly vulnerable in the weak regulation © The Author(s), 2019. This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). of malicious dissemination of false information in the information and communication network “Internet”. Special attention has been paid to the substantiation of the possibilities of early detection of information threats to the functioning of basic social institutions – social trust and stability of social relations, solidarity, civilizational identity, interfaith peace and tolerance in a complex society.

The author’s methodology has been presented in the article as a sociological research technology that includes the interpretation and operationalization of groups of information threats enshrined in the state concept of national security, the correct application of expert procedures to assess security against these threats, as well as the subsequent mathematical-statistical and logical interpretation of the data obtained. The proposals for the use of methods of social diagnostics of information security in the practice of social management in the process of transformation of modern society on the basis of digital technologies have been explained.

The study of social perceptions of Armenia as a tourist destination using digital statistics from Yandex, reviews on tourist sites in conjunction with other sociological methods, such as “content analysis” of newspapers and artworks and questionnaire survey has been carried out. The relevance of sociological research, taking into account digital sources of information, since the Internet is currently the main provider of data on tourist countries, has been substantiated.

Tourism in modern Armenia is one of the economic sectors developing at the most intensive pace, and the country is looking for opportunities for further development of this industry, which ensures the practical significance of research related to the image of Armenia and the Armenian people in the eyes of tourists, both real and potential, just planning a trip to this country. The concept of social representations in the concept of Serge Moscovici has been considered. The methodological features of the content analysis method and its limitations have been described. The results of content analysis of Internet sources, as well as publications and cinematic sources on the topic of social representations about Armenia have been presented. The study has revealed stereotypical judgments of tourists who visited and did not visit Armenia. Also of interest is the fact that the main factors influencing the formation of a positive view of Armenia as an object of tourism are tourist awareness of the sights and culture of Armenia and experience of visiting the country. For comparative data analysis, the sample was divided into the following categories of respondents: who visited and did not visit Armenia as tourists, gender, age (two equally filled groups in each category).