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Section 2. Political regionalism. Ethnic policies
Section 2. Political regionalism. Ethnic policies
Havrylyuk Viktoriya, University of Silesia, Doctoral student, the Faculty of of Social Science
E-mail: [email protected]
Socio-political image of the Ukrainian regional mass media
Abstract: the article is devoted to the characterization of the state, the key features and trends of modern domestic regional mass media. There are determined and specified informational, social, ideological, political and economic objectives of current regional mass media also revealed specific features of regional mass communication.
Keywords: regional mass media, regional mass communication, civil society actors.
Modern society is characterized by a rapid process of «mediatization» [1, 32] of social relations and increase the value of the media. Regional mass media is able to gather the needs of local communities, act as a key institution in formation of a democratic society, open dialogue between all social actors.
Mixed impact of the phenomenon of globalization on of transformation processes in Ukrainian society, complex nature of the national information space, the presence of difficulties in implementing the processes of mass communication generate conflicting estimates of the mass media operation at regional level of social interactions.
The key functions of the regional mass media today is information, formation of public opinion and creation of an image of the region. But media of every region is not sufficiently focused on the functions of consolidation, transfer of knowledge or culture and socialization. There are some visible important dysfunction of the regional media: imposing certain points of view, withholding information, provocation of conflicts. Thus this media that are privately owned (except for the state) is much more dysfunctional and even uncontrolled. And of course the agenda of this type of regional mass media is carried out with primary regard to the interests of owners and authorities. At the same time territorial coverage of the problems of the com-
munity’s life in media is built next way: first line are facts that are important for media owners, and only then — for the region.
For a more comprehensive understanding of the social purpose of the regional media we can analyze their role in the context of political communication. Today domestic regional mass media is a channel for information for citizens, which is important for maintaining social awareness and civic engagement of people. Instead, for the government mass media are largely an instrumental value, and only then it acts as intermediaries in contacts with citizens. Regional media are suspended from interests of citizens and tend to defend the authorities’ and corporate’s goals. This is a trend of regional mass media in Ukrainian society today.
As for the economical trends of regional media in Ukraine, so the aspiration of regional media to combine responsibility towards society and business objectives are implemented only partially. Most people underlines the priority of regional business interests of the media in the region over the social. This indicates mainly economical character of direction of the media in today’s difficult market conditions and demonstrates awareness of the media needs to build new social and economic strategy.
Evolution of the economics system on the background of global social changes transformed the mass media to an important subject of socio-
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Socio-political image of the Ukrainian regional mass media
economic relations. Strengthening of principles of market and free competition implies that the mass media should be directed at the obtaining financial profit through maximizing its customer satisfaction. The environment of the regional mass media is filled with numerous subjects, which include state, socio-economic organizations, owners, investors, consumers and others. In particular, the state regulates the “rules ofthe game” in the media, controls the observance of the principles of mass media, provides equal opportunities for all participants in the media market and the necessary basis for economic reforms in the media sector [2, 285].
We emphasize that for the development of regional mass media is extremely important role on the state, which balances economic, politic and informational policies to support and transform the media into a profitable business and maintain their social role.
Based on the results expert survey author describes the key features of the image of domestic regional media. Regional mass media today are characterized primarily as politicized, informative, accessible, substantial but technologically underdeveloped, biased, irresponsible, conflict, unprofitable dependent.
As for estimates of the basic features of regional media, so for the audience it is more important secondary features of regional mass media (presence in the area of access, periodicity, etc.). The image of the modern national mass media in regions is formed according to their focus on socio-economic organizations, civil society actors, the subject of political communication and ideological influence. So re-
gional mass media may be considered as an measure of social relations in the region and society in general.
The carriers of the greatest potential of conflict today is an online media and non-governmental channels, the least potential have the state regional newspapers. Most often regional mass media are the main implementing environment and best tools for intensification of conflicts and practically do not act as a means of solving social conflicts.
Regional media are under the growing influence of globalization. However, they are «verifiers» of information about the environment for citizens. The audience tends to be informed the local news, but of its global context, that’s why regional mass media broadcast primarily local and regional news, while international news are reported in view of the importance for the region. So during the construction of images of foreign countries, the media in the region «serve» only the amount of information that is necessary to «dilution» of the general flow of information, for entertainment the audience, it’s based on the principle of «mosaic.»
Therefore, there is an urgency to implement in practice of regional mass media of Ukraine the principle «social — local — mobile» or «sociality — locality — mobility», which combines social responsibility, attention to local interests and increase the mobility of the media.
There is also a need for further research focusing on the development of domestic regional mass communication under the influence of new information and communication technologies for media, socioeconomic, political and socio-cultural vectors.
References:
1. Безносов М. А. «Медиатизация» политики и ее опасность для демократии/М. А. Безносов//Вест-ник Харьковского национального университета им В. Н. Каразина. - 2010. - № 891. - С. 32-36.
2. Каррингтон Т. СМИ в условиях экономики: приоритет экономических факторов/Т. Каррингтон, М. Нельсон//Право на свободу слова. Роль СМИ в экономическом развитии/Всемирный банк. -М., 2005. - С. 285-311.
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