CC BY
18
DOI: 10.24234/wisdom.v20i4.547 Yuliya BEKH, Lesya PANCHENKO, Olha BONDARENKO, Yevheniia YEMELIANENKO, Iryna SHAPOVALOVA
SOCIO-PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS OF MASS MEDIA AS A FACTOR IN THE FORMATION OF PUBLIC OPINION
Abstract
Computer and telecommunication technologies have led to the development of modern mass media and have made significant competition with the print edition (newspapers, magazines, and books), the dominance of telecracy, etc. The media have gone a significant path of development from a channel of information and entertainment to a political institution, significantly increasing their capabilities as an instrument of influencing public consciousness. The study's main purpose is to conduct a socio-philoso-phical analysis of mass media as a factor in the formation of public consciousness. In this article, the process of cognition of mass media and socio-philosophical analysis of its impact on society were used: general scientific methods; logical methods of theoretical analysis; technical analysis, clarification.
Keywords: philosophy, socio-philosophical analysis, mass media, public opinion.
Introduction
Each era gives rise to new means of communication that reflect the characteristics of its cultural, historical, scientific and technological development and most effectively meet the needs and interests of people. An important component of the communication environment of the modern information society is mass media. With the advent of electronic media, some of the functions of oral and print communication are replaced by new ones, which are implemented using interactive media, primarily the Internet. Modern mass media provide the process of information and communication exchange between all subsystems of society associated with production, everyday life of people and culture. As an intermediary link between learning and communication, the media plays a decisive role in the formation of individual and social consciousness. Under this influence, there is the formation, selection
and transfer of knowledge, ideals, values, beliefs and practical attitudes, the adoption of certain decisions and the actualization of volitional efforts to implement them. At the same time, modern mass media, accelerating socio-cultural dynamics, determine the transformation of the value foundations of individual and social life, neutralize the traditionally existing differences in worldview, change the way people perceive the world, thinking and behaviour.
The study of social consciousness occupies a special place in the subject of socio-philoso-phical analysis. Although the comprehension of the essence of consciousness necessarily belonged to the sphere of "eternal" philosophical problems in the XX-XXI centuries. Consciousness became the subject of research in various scientific disciplines - philosophy, philosophical anthropology, psychology, sociology, political science, pedagogy, etc. (Silberman, 1980; Gor-bunov, 2018; Holovanova, 2017)
The complexity of the structure of social consciousness, its relationship with social psychology and social ideology and the interdisciplinary nature of its analysis led to the use of a set of methodological principles: systemic and pheno-menological approaches, methods of structural-functional, hermeneutic, comparative and content analysis.
The civilizational development of mankind from the prehistoric era to the informational stage of society is accompanied by the spread of communicative ties. This process is being accelerated by the expansion of the technical capabilities of the media as a communication tool. The historical changes of socio-cultural paradigms of social development, technical progress determine the emergence of new types of media. The transition from simple mass media forms of information transfer in new media (with the involvement of Internet technologies - multimedia) leads to a change in their influence on worldview guidelines and consciousness. In the social space, there is an axiological and quantitative change in the information content of mass media.
Theoretical Research Methods
In this article in the process of cognition of mass media and socio-philosophical analysis of its impact on society were used: general scientific methods (formal-logical, systemic, structural-functional, concrete-historical); logical methods of theoretical analysis (analysis, synthesis, generalization, comparison, abstraction, analogy, modelling, etc.); technical analysis, clarification.
Research Results and Discussions
At the end of the twentieth century, with the advent of the computer era, "new" media appear. The latest technologies (stationary computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, e-book, futuristic glasses designed for viewing holograms, for immersion in virtual reality, etc.) provide the audi-
ence with various technical possibilities for receiving mass media content. Internet TV, Internet radio, blogs, websites, electronic versions of traditional magazines and newspapers, content for e-books, electronic encyclopedias, dictionaries, reference books, social networks. An information revolution is taking place, which affects the ability of humanity to receive and transmit information over a distance.
If we pay attention to the form of the technical means through which the consumer receives the content, then we can note the fact of acceptance of new forms by a certain part of the audience and the fact that another part of the audience refuses to switch to the use of new forms. Today we have a "dispute" between a traditional paper book and an electronic one. Nevertheless, this "dispute" concerns only the form and method of making the book. The unity of these two information carriers lies in the recipient's work with any of the forms - the reading process. For some users of this information medium, aestheti-cism is important (design elements of a book publication, tactile sensations in turning pages, and even chemoreception in the form of smell (smell). This allows some readers to get aesthetic pleasure from a printed book publication); for others - a cheap tool and a quick way to get information is an e-book.
Reading is the knowledge of the depth of thought of human civilization, embedded in one of the most valuable cultural monuments -books. Those who cannot fantasize while reading a book, building their own world of heroes based on the author's text, will limit themselves to watching someone else's fantasy - a film. By the way, these worlds may be different. Consumption of the finished product, including the world of heroes fantasized by someone (that is, the film), gives only the feeling of presence and not a participation in the process that arises when reading a book. Although the world of cinema is also recognized as art, one should not forget about the concept of "art of the book" (Marconi & Siegman, 2017). According to the design of
the printed publication, it is the result of the work of specialists of different profiles: publishers, editors (literary, artistic, and technical), photographers, artists, designers and printers. The book owes its existence to everyone who worked on its design, on the embodiment of its content in a concrete form. The concept of "art of the book" is one of the key factors of the socio-cultural value of the book (Petrunko, 2010; Sokolov, 2019).
Conducting a socio-philosophical analysis, one can see that printed educational books for children (textbooks, teaching aids, workshops) occupy a prominent place in the educational process along with the latest interactive technologies. So far, there is no overwhelming need to abandon printed educational books for children. So, printed books, regardless of the audience's age, are of great importance for the development of personal spiritual culture, expanding the perception of the environment and understanding the trends and phenomena that occur in society. The construction of national information space and the formation of a socio-cultural environment provide for various media development. Along with modern interactive mass media, the printed book occupies an important place in the information support of society's cultural and educational needs. An important place in this process is played by high-quality book publishing, the promotion of book products on the market and the popularization of the reading process among children and young people. The information revolution has a significant impact on social processes. In particular, the transfer of information has no restrictions and boundaries, leading to an active intercultural, interstate exchange of information. This process, in turn, affects the consolidation of state entities - the unification of national states into unions, for example, the European Union.
Theorists of the global information society had diverse expectations for the development of humanity.
The main contradiction (and, accordingly, the driving force behind the development) of a new
society, based on network structures, is the contradiction between the globalization of the world and the identity (originality) of a particular community. "The networked society is global, and there are global communication networks, and cognitive processes in consciousness have common basic features, despite a number of cultural differences" (Ketonen, 2013; Lilleker, 2014).
According to the author of the study, the consequences of this development are changes in the acquired knowledge and skills; changing the perception of the surrounding world, the perception of oneself in this world; changes in the consciousness of both individuals and society as a whole. These circumstances of the development of a new type of society - information society - leads to an increase in the number of people with special qualifications in society. The way of thinking of people in accordance with new realities changes. There is a change in intra-social relations, the formation of individuals of a new generation, individualization prevails over collectivization, interpersonal relations acquire new features of alienation and isolation, communication through social networks alienates a person from society, a change in trade and consumer relations takes place - the lightning-fast development of Internet commerce (Tdaieva, 2013).
The new generation prefers shopping in online stores, as a result - the development of Internet advertising. That is, there is a specificity of the influence of the newest media on society and on public consciousness, which is the subject of a socio-philosophical study.
The democratization of society, the growth of information activity, and consumption have brought to life a new definition of information technology to manage public consciousness. Such means include electoral technologies, advertising technologies, neuro-linguistic programming, political and other technologies in the social sphere (Choudhary, 2020).
For the most part, advertising and political
information are delivered to the consumer "free of charge", its production and delivery are paid by customers interested in creating demand for certain products and ideas. The consumer pays later when he buys advertised goods or promotes the implementation of advertised ideas. Since manipulation technologies purposefully and successfully affect a significant part of information consumers, monopoly ownership of information generators in democratic societies completely replaces the old undemocratic methods of management (Ferrara, Cresci, & Luceri, 2020).
The problem arises of the owners and the media, managing as managers of public opinion. Information communication is carried out by someone and for someone, something. Everything that happens in the framework of information communication is somehow connected with individuals' achievement of certain goals.
An even more dangerous area for the implementation of mass media mechanisms is political censorship. Censorship exists in any state. But political censorship, as a manifestation of ideological discrimination, is an attribute of a totalitarian state since it protects the preservation of ideological unity. Therefore, when we talk about totalitarianism, in this context, we can state the presence of not only class, national and racial discrimination, but also ideological discrimination, the manifestation of which is the prohibition of opposition opinions and the imposition of its own ideas by the regime. Furthermore, since all public spheres are ideologized in a totalitarian state, censorship must be total as a mechanism for ensuring ideological monism (Ciampaglia, 2018).
An essential role in forming the consciousness necessary for totalitarianism is played by such mechanisms of influence as: means of political socialization, political propaganda, ideological indoctrination. Moreover, since these mechanisms are used to impose the dominant ideology, then according to the information that reaches the population, any data containing signs of other ideologies is withdrawn.
Socio-philosophical analysis shows that as a result of the spread of the latest electronic mass media, a significant expansion of the functions of traditional, modern mass media can be characterized as a global system that affects public consciousness, penetrating the system of values, changing their philosophy, imposing a new style of individual behaviour in society. The specificity of the influence of the newest media on public relations and public consciousness is the possibility of dialogical communication with the audience; the opportunity for the audience to participate in the online creation and discussion of the content of the latest mass media (interactivity), establishing a new level of social communication with the help of the latest mass media (social networks). The consequence of this process is the development of civil society with an increase in the openness of the activities of power structures.
From a socio-philosophical point of view, Internet resources are more efficient and relatively cheap way of covering information with its inherent advantages (prompt coverage of information, rapid pace of its replacement), compared to traditional media of mass media distribution -such as television, radio, print media - media. But the uncontrolled basis for the creation and exchange of information opens the way for abuse in the context of his moral assessments and the unprofessionalism of it presentation to the audience.
Social networks contribute to the anonymity of users and the spread of false data - a plurality of images (creating several profiles), pseudo-gender (free choice of data when registering a profile), the secrecy of the real name, city and country of residence (Urazova, 2010; Averina, 2014). More precisely, manipulating the minds of media-literate users increases the likelihood of manipulation in the process of interpersonal communication. This, in turn, can cause an overload of the individual's consciousness and negative consequences for his psyche. In the process of working or spending free time at the computer
to get entertainment, a person may feel a slow flow or a complete stop of time. It can be noted that there is also a positive effect from the use of virtual space by a person since it requires personal space, where he can remain alone with himself with his own views and desires. Household benefits in the form of separate housing are not always available to a person at a high cost. Recently, people often use virtual space for the purpose of expanding living space.
One of the specific forms of influence on public consciousness from a socio-philosophical point of view is changing the vocabulary of network communication. Brief messages without elementary rules of etiquette (greeting, farewell), a specific Internet language also goes into oral communication - a real part of society. That is, there is a change in verbal communication. Also, the limitation of the process of communication in social networks with short statements and graphic images leads to misunderstanding between interlocutors, who can attach and perceive different meanings in messages. This leads to the accumulation of aggressiveness, which can be transferred from the virtual plane of communication to the real one.
From a socio-philosophical point of view, modern mass media content is changing rapidly. There is a change in the quantitative, qualitative and axiological aspects of the information support of society. One can state the presence of widespread manipulation and influence on the formation of his ideological attitudes. Increased global conflict potential is often based on the process of media manipulation of public consciousness. The mass media explosion is accompanied by an increase in the number of media outlets and a variety of ways to convey information to the target audience. The incitement of conflicts of various localization (interethnic, in-terfaith, international) occurs through the use of various manipulative media technologies. The issue of the media as a factor in the formation of public consciousness remains relevant in connection with the possibility of waging information
wars, the transition of the media from the level of communicative means to the level of power, the use of the media in order to form public opinion on certain aspects of public life.
At the end of the 1960s, the problems of media ecology attracted the attention of philosophers and sociologists in the United States and Western Europe. Mass media content affects the spiritual state of society. A completely new spiritual situation is emerging, in which the emergence of audio-video means opened up opportunities for not only quantitative but also the qualitative transformation of culture. In such conditions, a person loses individual autonomy (Bell, 1967; Brugger, 2003; Calhoun, 2011).
The professionalism of presenting information through the media makes them a factor in social and cultural changes in society, creates a model of behaviour and life for their followers. So, the ecology of the media is an ecosystem that affects media users through the impact on public consciousness.
Thanks to social and cultural activities, humanity forms a moral climate in society. Society is engaged in the production, storage, broadcast, development and all aspects of human culture (artistic, historical, political, environmental, spiritual and moral). One of the characteristics of a person's living space is the spiritual and moral atmosphere. The living space of a person in the information society is under the constant influence of the mass media. The media ecology defends and develops the principles of making a high-quality information mass product that would not have a destructive effect on consumers. State structures, the public, producers of information content must understand their responsibility to the consumer audience and in every possible way adhere to healthy media ecology.
Society should pay special attention to the formation of the consciousness of the children's audience. It is necessary to restrict the free access of children to the choice of video products and print media. It is important to realize the respon-
sibility of parents to control the "consumption" of the information product by children, as well as to pay special attention to the time of using media technologies (Zhang, 2008; Bayanova, Vodenko, Sizova, Chistyakov, Prokopiev, & Vasbieva, 2019). The current state of media ecology gives grounds to assert that scientists in information societies pay much attention to this topic. With the help of the mass media, the devaluation and objectification of the spiritual side of human nature occur, which leads to stereotyping of the perception of reality by their audience. To improve the state of media ecology, it is necessary to develop new regulatory legal acts and more thoroughly and more efficiently comply with the existing regulatory and legal framework. There is a need for state and public control over measures for the protection of media ecology.
A person in a modern society faces the challenge of daily processing a large amount of information and determining the level of its quality. Awareness, quality of education, and literacy of consumption and information creation should be constantly raised. The media space is developing, in constant motion and undergoing changes. Some media are losing their audience, and others are gaining new readers, viewers, listeners. A person, as a consumer of a mass media product, must have skills in using the media, outside of which it is highly problematic to form media literacy, and is defined as a set of possibilities applied to media messaging and knowledge (Wright, Citrin, & Wand, 2012; Ivanov, Volo-sheniuk, & Dziuba, 2012; Uddin & Hamiduzza-man, 2009).
The qualitative level of linguistic culture presupposes a high degree of mutual understandding between communicators. There is a relationship between the quality of language communication and conflict. The saturation of false information in the content of modern mass media, as noted above, gives grounds to talk about the process of manipulating the public consciousness of the audience. Forcing negativism among consumers of information leads to an increase in the degree of
conflict in the communication process. It is known that the highest forms of communicative action are dialogue and discourse, which are designed to restore mutual understanding in society, broken in the process of communication. The purpose of the discourse of philosophical and religious dialogue is a consensus between the subjects of communication, which contributes to the formation of social harmony in society. Therefore, discourse and philosophical and religious dialogue is a counterbalance to linguistic manipulations, a condition for the formation and development of civil society.
The media in market conditions are forced to be financially independent enterprises. Therefore, one of the income items is the offer of advertising space and airtime for commercial and political advertising. For marketing professionals, influencing human consciousness is a method of promoting goods and services. Reducing the importance of awareness, the deliberate understatement of the level of social-ethical norms leads to the fact that a person, at times, also turns into a commodity - from trafficking in his own body (prostitution, the spread of cases of trafficking in his own internal organs) to forced slavery. This trend is especially evident in politically and economically unstable countries with an underdeveloped level of social relations and a low population's educational level. Modern methods of the latest technologies in the sphere of influencing the subconscious of the consumer, and therefore manipulating his consciousness, are widely used in the field of marketing and advertising (as a component of marketing). Let us consider the problem of the manipulative component of mass media advertising and its impact on public consciousness. The relevance of this issue lies in the fact that the proportion of advertising is increasing in the volume of media content, in particular, television, radio, printed periodicals (newspapers and magazines), Internet publications, Internet sites and other media. With the renewal of technologies for the production of an advertising product, advertising not only informs the consu-
mer of the product is the primary function of the advertising but also has a manipulative effect on the mass media audience, and therefore on public consciousness. It is necessary to draw the attention of manufacturers of an advertising product for the media and the society itself to the problematic issues of the manipulative component of mass media advertising and the possible consequences for society as a whole from its use in advertising communication.
Conclusion
Public consciousness in all its forms (political, legal, moral, aesthetic and religious) is the object of the influence of the mass media. The media is a factor of influence, formation and creation of public consciousness due to the supply of constructive and destructive content. An essential element in the formation of public consciousness with positive meanings is the combination of universal values and national (mental) character-ristics of public consciousness. The establishment of freedoms, the formation and progressive development of society depend on the stability and formation of public consciousness. So, the peculiarities of the influence of the newest media on public consciousness in the context of the development of information technologies are primarily in the fact that it is aimed at social stereotypes and morality. This can be a real threat of destruction of society, its traditions, moral and legal norms. Note that the absence of a holistic picture of the world, morality and moral principles is the primary condition for the impression of a conscientious weapon. It turns out to be the most influential on the consciousness of children and adolescents.
The process of obtaining and assimilating certain views and beliefs, especially spiritual content, occurs in the process of intellectual and spiritual development. The book has a lasting effect on the process of forming a system of knowledge, beliefs, faith, traditions. Modern forms of mass media do not have a sustainable effect on
the formation of religious beliefs, but they contribute to the preservation of traditions and rituals, allow spiritual leaders to communicate with the faithful. So, the book is fundamentally different from the array of other mass media forms.
The constructive form of influence on public consciousness occurs due to such functions as informational; communicative; educational; search (search for the necessary information); communication; building a new reality (cyberspace) virtualization of society; creating a network state; the possibility of forming a civil society, etc. This makes it possible to construct positive changes in the development of interstate relations, the state, society, intragroup and interpersonal relations.
A destructive form of influence on public consciousness arises due to manipulative influence, the formation of negativity and aggression, the influence of globalized mass culture on national cultures and an increase in the number of advertising on the air, including political advertising during election campaigns. Such factors also include cybercrime, information load on the psyche of a person and society, the imposition of a certain way of life - the construction of reality (stereotypical perception of reality), mental disorders of individuals and groups; development of media relevance of the audience; reducing the importance of social connections and relationships; suggestive influence on the public; negative impact on the consciousness of the children's audience; the presence of negative content for a different age audience (for example, pornography, videos about bullying, killing people, animals, etc.) during the war; the manipulative influence of the media, causes destructive consequences for society. Depending on the type of media, the forms of influence can be divided into text, audio, visual and synthetic, which incentiv-ises the development of various forms of media literacy.
Summing up, we note that the increase in the number of people with special qualifications in society due to the rapid development of infor-
mation technologies and the specific influence of the latest media on the individual and public consciousness determines a change in the way of thinking of people under new realities and in-trasocial relations. Thanks to this circumstance, interpersonal relations acquire the features of alienation and isolation, communication through social networks alienates a person from society, individualization prevails over collectivization.
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