TATAR AND ISLAMIC MEDIA AS A MEANS OF PRESERVING LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN THE NATIONAL REGIONS OF THE VOLGA
The article is devoted to an overview of the general Tatar and Islamic mass media in the nationalregions of the Volga region, such as Udmurtia, Chuvashia, Mordovia, Mari El. The genre variety ofnewspaper publications and their thematic focus are considered. In addition, the importance of the Tatar and Islamic media in preserving the culture of the people is indicated. Particular attention is paid to the problems faced by print media in the Tatar language at the present time: reduced circulation, the inability of some of them to achieve audience engagement, and the displacement of traditional forms of media by Internet communications.Based on the analysis, it was concluded that the studied newspapers lag behind the level of large publications, but many of them do their best to meet the requirements of modern life. With a decrease in circulation, they master new sites that are popular among young people. Social networks can significantly expand the audience of publications; in some cases, record engagement rates are observed. All-Tatar and Muslim newspapers and other media are the only means that unites all Tatars of the “non-Muslim” republics. Newspapers are in close cooperation with national organizations and muftiats, actively covering their activities and the life of Muslims in general. At the same time, not all publications take advantage of the digital environment, remaining in the narrow field of print media. Even with financial support, the audience of such newspapers is much smaller, therefore, they do not fully fulfill their functions of preserving the language and culture.