In political management practice, the formation of the image of a politician begins with the development

of a preliminary program of action, which is determined by elections. To create such a program, the contingent

is carefully studied or (as it is commonly called in political science literature) the “target audience” of a political

image. This process occurs using various sociological and socio-psychological technologies for analyzing

representations, opinions and other manifestations of mass consciousness, conducting expert surveys,

observation focus groups, etc. Using these methods, the so-called “ideal image” of a given audience is

calculated.

The specific directions of knowledge are studied by the corresponding varieties of political image. The

political image, on the one hand, has much in common with the objects of political cognition, on the other, it

corresponds to the principles of a systematic classification of political knowledge.