MEDIA BEHAVIOR OF NETWORK SOCIETIES IN LIQUID MODERNITY

Abstract

Background/Objects: The relevance of the article is predetermined by qualitative shifts in the information environment of society when social and technological changes in its functioning had a decisive impact on the conditions of interaction between the media environment and the social reality that gave rise to it. The behavior of the individual and social groups is realized in the information fields as "naturally" as in reality and becomes media behavior. People unite in network societies through which they sort things out among themselves, often in an aggressive form. The study of hyperlocal media communities allows identifying the stages of formation of communicative phobias and aggressions that to a certain extent characterize the media nature of liquid modernity. Method: The meaning of the raised issue predetermined the appeal to works on the theory of mass media by Russian and foreign scholars in the fields of journalism, philosophy, political science, and sociology. Thus, the basis for the theoretical analysis of the issue was created, and the use of laddering – a method for studying tests of mass communications – made it possible to analyze the results of the activity of hyperlocal communities. Findings: The article reveals the organic unity of action and its result inherent in media, where the action is the conversion of the "text of time into media form", and the result is the media presence of the "text of time" in social reality. This is the essence of the process of mediatization. In this regard, the stages of aggression formation in the media environment were identified, regardless of the semantic content of messages and the reasons for the implementation of destructive communication practices. Improvements: The materials of the article are of practical value for mass media theorists, sociologists, and social psychologists.