Mediasphere.

Mass Media
discourse
Olga Lavrentieva, 1st English group

1. Information society
a term for a society in which the

creation, distribution, and

manipulation of information has
become the most significant
economic and cultural activity.
The machine tools of the Information

Society are computers and

telecommunications.

It is characterized by
pervasiveinfluenceof IT on

home,work, and recreational

aspects of
theindividualsdailyroutine
stratificationinto new classes

those who are information-rich

and those who are informationpoor

loosening of thenationstate'shold on

the lives of individuals and the rise of

highly sophisticated criminals who can
stealidentitiesand
vastsumsofmoneythrough

2. Media culture

refers to the

currentWesterncapitalists
ociety that emerged and
developed from the 20th
century, under the
influence ofmass media.

Media culture and religion

Media culture, in its mass marketing, has been

compared to the role of religions in the past. It

has been considered as taking the place of the
old traditional religions. The waves of enthusiasm
and fervent exaltation for a given product, a
characteristicconsumeristphenomenon, has
been equipared to the "ecstasies of the
convulsions and miracles of the old religious
fetishism".

3. Mass Media
empowerment &
disempowerment
Empowerment:
Immediate Access to

More Level Playing

Field for Business

(social networks enable

businesses across the
Pervasive
world to amplify their
Connectivity To Othersmessage in a way never
thought possible only a
Globalized Voices
decade or two ago).

Information

Hashtags

Disempowerment

Political tirades (when it

comes to politics, religion, or
any other very personal area of
life, discussion gets contentious
almost immediately)
Hiding behind anonymity
(Although it is getting harder to
shield your identity these days,
anonymity has been a key piece
of the internet since its early
days. Its amazing to seehow
people behave when their true
identity is masked)

All talk, no action (venting on

social media doesnt fix a
thing; it just stirs the pot!)

Ignorance amplified (The ugly

underbelly of ignorance is
easy to ignore while youre
going about your everday life.
But on Twitter, for example,
its all over the place)

Infosmog

4. N-Gens & Mediacy

The Net Generation is the cohort of

young people born between 1982 and

1991 who have grown up in an
environment in which they are constantly
exposed to computer-based technology.
Aged 0-20, N-Geners are embracing

interactive media such as the Internet,

CD-ROM and video games.

 Television audiences are becoming smaller and

more discriminating. Today's young television

audiences are more than just uppity - one might go
so far to say that N-Geners are refusing to be
reduced to spectator status.
Where N-Geners do find power is on the Internet

because it depends upon a distributed, or shared,

delivery system rather than a hierarchal one. This
distributed, or shared, power is at the heart of the
culture of interaction.

Early Window theory

The idea that mass media allow children to

see the world before they have the skill to

successfully act in it.
Sociologist Neil Postman: Unlike infancy,

childhood is a social artifact, not a biological

category it is difficult to sustain and, in fact,
irrelevant, because ubiquitous connection to
the media robs youngsters of the charm,
malleability, innocence, and curiosity of
childhood.

5. Globalization, borderless
world& Global media
Globalization is a process

of interaction and
integration among the
people, companies, and
governments of different
nations, a process driven
byinternational
tradeandinvestmentan
d aided byinformation
technology.

 The growth of international media and new

media technologies has contributed greatly to

globalization, the reconfiguration of political,
social, and cultural institutions, and how we
understand our role and impact in a global
society.
Media globalization has been made possible by the

ongoing changes and developments in information

and communications technology. Cable, ISDN,
digitalization, direct broadcast satellites as well as
the Internet have created a situation where vast
amounts of information can be transferred around
the globe in a matter of seconds. The merging of the
personal computer and the television set in tandem
with the rolling out of digitalized television and radio
open up even wider possibilities for those who can
afford new media technologies.

Main features of media

globalization (Thompson,
1995)
The emergence of and continued

dominance of the global media industry by

a small number of transnational media
conglomerates.
The use by these media conglomerates of

new information and communications

technologies.
The increasingly deregulated environment

in which these media organizations operate.

6. Digitalization and
Global Media

Digitalization: Integrationofdigitaltechnologiesinto everyday

life by thedigitizationof everything that can be digitized.

The digital era has brought about a total transformation of the

communication chain. It is not just that the new tools allow
journalists to work with greater efficacy and rapidity; it is the
contact between the media and the general public which has
changed, as users have seen how their means of access to
information and the possibilities of personalizing their
consumption of contents have multiplied.

Despite the above, the effects of digitization are very different

depending on whether we are referring to the press, radio or
television, and therefore it is worth analyzing them separately,
beginning by the written media.

 From the point of view of the users, the change is

already a reality. The coming of the digital technologies

allows them to consume much more information (they
can read as many headlines as they like at no extra
cost) and also to personalize their interests (there are
more and more media which divide their offer up and
present the contents adapting them to the page history
conserved by each online user).
The radio has suffered much less from the effects of the

upheaval caused by the rapid adoption of digital tools

(and customs). In fact, the Digital Audio Broadcasting
(DAB) system has made little progress over the years,
except in the United Kingdom. Although there have been
new developments such as DAB+, the operators are not
very sure about the migration.

 With regard to television, contrary to what has happened with the

radio, the digital migration has received an indisputable impulse:

a mandate from the European Union for DTT to become the
common technology facilitating the access of citizens to free
television. At the same time, television via Internet (IPTV) is also
poised to become a technology of the future.
Because, in fact, what is on trial is the lifespan of the model of

television as we have known it throughout the last half century.

The need to adapt personal schedules to those decided by the
programmers of the different channels no longer makes much
sense when the user can download a programme and watch it
whenever he or she pleases. The advantages of consuming
television in this way are obvious and proof of this is that young
people already consume more audiovisual contents through the
monitors of their personal computers and are abandoning
conventional television, which ties them down to a time and
place.

7. Glocalization and
Localization

Glocalization: A combination of the words "globalization" and

"localization" used to describe a product or service that is
developed and distributed globally, but is also fashioned to
accommodate the user or consumer in a local market.

Glocalization is a proposed solution to some problems of

globalization. Critics believe globalization causes conflict
between an emerging worldwide system of values and
regional autonomy, resulting in the destruction of local
cultures. Glocalization proposes to mediate between this
global system and local community and that local practices
be respected. It often involves tailoring products intended for
international distribution to the tastes of local consumers.

 Yahoo! is an example of a company

that practices glocalization. It markets

a portal that is viewed worldwide and
offers different versions of its website
(and related services) for different
users. For example, it provides content
and language variations in some 25
countries including China, Russia and
Canada. It also customizes content to
appeal to individuals in those

8. Consumerization,
Consumption behaviour
and Global Mass Media

Consumerizationis the reorientation of product and

service designs to focus on (andmarketto) theend
useras an individualconsumer, in contrast with an
earlier era of onlyorganization-oriented offerings
(designed solely forbusiness-to-businessorbusinessto-governmentsales). The emergence of the
individual consumer as the primary driver of product
and service design is most commonly associated with
theIT industry, as large business and government
organizations dominated the early decades
ofcomputerusage and development.

 Consumer markets are now changing large scale

computing as well. The giantdata centersthat

have been and are being built by firms such as
Google,Apple,Amazonand others are far larger
and generally much more efficient than the data
centers used by most large enterprises. For
example, Google is said to support over 300
million Gmailaccounts, while executing more
than 1 billion searches per day.

Mass media perpetuates the myth of consumerism

as a priority of the New Capitalism. As America
settles into its nightly routine of television viewing,
corporate profiteers are quick to substitute the lure of
material luxury and consumer gratification for the
fading spirit. Media advertising sells an image an
empty shell. Corporate America placates its flaccid
public with despiriting pastiche. There is only
fraudulent illusion. Instead of Swiss clockworks
encased in hand carved hardwood, the consumer is
offered a cheap imitation of routed particle board and
computer chip technology. Who cares as long as it
looks good?(R. Kronk)

9. Infosmog in Ukraine

Infosmog: The overload of information (and hype)

now available in the web environment which makes
it so hard to efficiently find quality information.

In Ukraine: There is a lot of misinformation about the

current political and economical situation in the
country. Many printed editions and online portals, as
well as terrorists and Russian mass media, are
spreading fake news in order to manipulate peoples
minds.

10. Information gap

the disparity between what is known and

what needs to be known in order to make a

responsible plan, design or decision.
In recent years researchers have pointed out

that there are huge differences in peoples

ability to obtain and act on information. This
is causing concern, with experts arguing that
a fundamental split is developing between the
information haves and havenots throughout
the world.

 Theinformation rich have good access to

information especially online, but also through

more traditional media such as newspapers, radio,
television, and books and can plan their lives
and react to changes in circumstances on the
basis of what they know or can find out.
Theinformation poordont have such access and
are vulnerable to all kinds of pressures. Though
theinformation richare mainly in the
industrialised countries and theinformation
poorare mostly in the developing world, similar
splits are obvious between prosperous and
disadvantaged groups inside industrialised

Knowledge Gap
The knowledge gap theory was first proposed by

Tichenor, Donohue and Olien at the University of

Minnesota in the 70s. They believe that the increase of
information in society is not evenly acquired by every
member of society: people with higher socioeconomic
status tend to have better ability to acquire information.
This leads to a division of two groups: a group of better-

educated people who know more about most things, and

those with low education who know less. Lower socioeconomic status (SES) people, defined partly by
educational level, have little or no knowledge about
public affairs issues, are disconnected from news events
and important new discoveries, and usually arent
concerned about their lack of knowledge.

Tichenor, Donohue and

Olien: five reasons for
justifying the knowledge
gap:
People of higher socioeconomic status have better
communication skills, education, reading,
comprehending and remembering information.

People of higher socioeconomic status can store

information more easily or remember the topic form
background knowledge

People of higher socioeconomic status might have a

more relevant social context.

People of higher socioeconomic status are better in

selective exposure, acceptance and retention.

The nature of the mass media itself is that it is geared

Communication gap
A failure of understanding, usually because of a

lack of information, esp. between different age

groups, economic classes, political factions, or the
like.
Misinterpretation can result in anything from

picking up the wrong kind of milk at the grocery

store to failing to reach a membership target,
notes Ed Barks, president of Barks
Communications.

Get an understanding of how you look to

others, not how you think you look.

Discursive gap

thedistinctionbetweenformal,

written language used in atextsuch

as anewsarticle, and the less formal,
more personal internal language of
the reader. Thepopularpresstry
tomimicthis language in a way which
engages the reader more.