The specifics of digital media and the communication role of media content consumers in assessing the student audience (based on the materials of a sociological study)

Gapeenkova Marina Yurievna ORCID: 0000-0002-0463-2350 PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Higher School of Social Sciences, Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod 603155, Russia, Nizhny Novgorod region, Nizhny Novgorod, Minina str., 31 marinagapeenkova@gmail.com

Pesin Mikhail Viktorovich Postgraduate student; Department of Philosophy, Public Communications and Tourism; The Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod 603155, Russia, Nizhny Novgorod region, Nizhny Novgorod, Minina str., 31 mihpesin@gmail.com

Introduction

The internal dynamism of the global media space of digital communications disposes not only to search for forms of adaptation to the requirements that this space imposes on us, but also to reflect on the specific characteristics of digital media and its own role in the communication process.

Being within the boundaries of the academic paradigm, we can rely on both the analysis of audience behavior and media theory (from Marshall McLuhan ^[1-3], Stuart Hall ^{[4, 5]} or Elihu Katz ^[6] to Joke Hermes ^[7] or Alexander Galloway ^[8]), offering different views on the very nature of digital media, and their audience, which can be understood either as initially passive, or, on the contrary, as resisting the imposition of patterns and stereotypes by the mass media, or even as producers of meanings, and not their consumers ^{[9, p. 347]}. The modern Russian research discourse also includes a variety of approaches to understanding digital society in its communication component: the models of interaction between users of social media ^[10], and the formation of digital etiquette ^[11], and specific phenomena of modern media culture, such as Internet memes ^[12], and fundamental problems of digital a turn in the understanding of human existence ^[13], socio-cultural prerequisites for social communication in a digital society ^[14], cognitive features of the formation of a youth subculture in electronic communication ^[15].

Within the boundaries of everyday perception, without being involved in theoretical discussions, we also tend to form our own vision of the designated problem, but the possibilities of implementing these views are limited for most of us. The desire to overcome this limitation leads us to digital media as the most open public communication space that does not require any special theoretical training and at the same time opens access to dialogue with other people.

Subject and methods of research

The subject of this study was the ideas of students of Nizhny Novgorod State Linguistic University, who are majoring in Advertising and Public Relations, about the specifics of digital media and the communicative role of consumers of media content.

The study was conducted by means of a questionnaire survey using the descriptive method and the method of analysis. Students of the 3rd and 4th courses (bachelor's level), 1st and 2nd courses (master's level) were interviewed. A total of 300 people were interviewed as part of the study.

In the course of the research, students were asked to identify a set of phenomena that they include in the concept of digital media, identify their specific characteristics, analyze the communicative role of authors and consumers of digital media content, select criteria for evaluating these phenomena and evaluate them in accordance with their choice.

The results of the study

1. The specifics of digital media

Defining the specifics of digital media, students identify the following characteristics:

1) high speed of dissemination and accessibility of information;

2) a variety of content and the availability of so-called effective content that claims to have a certain practical value;

3) popularity, including due to the entertaining nature of the content;

4) the breadth of the audience;

5) providing opportunities for social integration, communication and interaction;

6) influence on public opinion;

7) development of creativity;

8) the vision of possible threats to society associated with the danger of spreading false and provocative information and disinformation in today's rapidly changing world.

The very emergence of digital media as a specific phenomenon, in the view of the student audience, is associated with various factors of influence:

1) social (the formation of a creative class, the emergence and development of online communities);

2) socio-cultural (the emergence of media literature);

3) media (development of media urban spaces, changing the role of the addressee from passive to active);

4) scientific and educational (the emergence of significant media theories, for example, Marshall McLuhan, Stuart Hall or Scott McQuire).

The most significant media platforms, from the point of view of the studied audience, are the blogosphere and social networks, the most relevant media phenomena are HYIP, advertising and PR. In the process of analyzing these phenomena, students actualize two groups of ideas: 1) goals that encourage the use of media, and 2) value judgments of a moral nature regarding specific media phenomena, authors and consumers of media content.

1.1. Goals of accessing digital media

Among the goals of turning to digital media on the part of information consumers, the desire to be aware of current events dominates: this is the reason that motivates almost 92% of respondents to be interested in media content. More than 60% of students consider media as a resource for improving the level of education and as a source of entertainment. The goal related to social interaction is highlighted as significant (almost 47% of respondents): students note that media provides access to content that can be discussed with other users, including online, using a second screen that creates a presence effect, as happens, for example, when we watch a movie and at the same time we discuss it with someone via messengers. Self-identification through identification with famous personalities (slightly more than 40% of respondents) or with acquaintances and friends (more than 28%) It is also recognized as an incentive to turn to digital media. And finally, the last goal, which is highlighted by the smallest group of students (18.4%), is to find opportunities to distract from life's problems.

Students' perception of the goals of authors who create content on social networks and blogs demonstrates attention, first of all, to the prospects of personal growth: creating digital content, from the point of view of the respondents, opens up opportunities for 1) development, 2) self-expression and 3) getting rid of feelings of loneliness. In relation to social networks, 79.6%, 81.6% and 73.4% of respondents identify these goals. In relation to the blogosphere, the same goals are fixed by 73.4%, 83.7% and 53% of respondents. Students also note earning opportunities as a key goal for the authors of both media platforms: 85.7% of respondents see earnings prospects when working with social networks, 81.6% — when working with blogs. A significant number of respondents identify negative goals that encourage authors to use digital media: for example, students believe that social networks and blogs facilitate lying (44.9% and 32.6%, respectively) and allow deceiving people for the purpose of earning and manipulation (46.9% and 55%, respectively).

1.2. Evaluation of digital media

The value judgments that students offer regarding digital media are both emotional and value-based and are based on traditional ideas about the moral and immoral. The evaluation criteria are 1) the benefits or harm brought by media platforms and media phenomena to society, and 2) the responsibility of authors and consumers of media content to other people.

Regarding social networks and blogs, the majority of respondents are of the opinion that the benefits or harm that these sites can cause depend on the choice of the users themselves: 67.6% of students give this answer in relation to social networks and 78.5% in relation to the blogosphere. 28.4% of respondents consider social networks to be a useful phenomenon, blogs are positively assessed by a smaller number of respondents -18.5%. A small number of respondents call both social networks and the blogosphere a uniquely harmful phenomenon: 4% and 3%, respectively.

In relation to the media domains that respondents identify as the most relevant (HYIP, advertising and PR), the distribution of ratings is changing. Thus, the majority of respondents (50%) consider HYIP to be a harmful phenomenon, 46% associate its impact on society with the responsibility of primary and secondary HYIP figures, and only 4% see it as a useful social factor. Regarding advertising, the percentage of respondents who believe that the benefits or harms of this activity depend on the authors and advertisers remains high at 52%. The distribution of ideas about harm and benefit, in comparison with the assessment of HYPE, changes to the opposite: 44% of respondents assess the positive impact of advertising on society, 4% negatively. The highest positive assessment characterizes PR: 60.3% of respondents attribute public benefit to this phenomenon, 2% attribute harmful effects. 37.7% of students speak about the responsibility of organizations and PR specialists to society.

Among the content creators who form the media context, students identify 1) bloggers, 2) opinion leaders, 3) advertising and PR specialists, and 4) advertisers who determine the thematic and value component of ideas that are widely spread in the mass consciousness. By defining a set of qualities necessary for these categories of communicators, respondents demonstrate a focus on those moral norms that are recognized as unconditionally positive and socially approved. Recognizing that three of the four categories of authors have the right to act in their personal interests (with the exception of opinion leaders: only 4% of respondents recognize the right to act in their personal interests) and paying tribute to intellectual requirements, students prioritize qualities based on honesty, conscientiousness and recognition of the need to act in the interests of the majority of people. Thus, 79.6% of respondents expect honesty from opinion leaders, 57% from bloggers, 60% from advertising and PR specialists, and 51% from advertisers. Conscientiousness as a necessary characteristic is indicated by 69.4%, 42.8%, 47% and 51%, respectively, actions in the interests of the majority of people — 63.3%, 34.7%, 42.2% and 44.9%, respectively.

2. The activity of the digital media audience

In the course of the study, students were asked to choose a set of characteristics that define the concept of an active and passive audience of consumers of digital media content. Respondents consider the audience to be active, which 1) resists the imposition of templates and stereotypes by the mass media, 2) produces rather than consumes meanings, and even 3) forms its own agenda. Students refer to the passive audience, which 1) only accepts messages, 2) does not perceive information critically, and 3) does not resist the imposition of cultural and ideological cliches by the mass media.

Analyzing the impact of media on consumers of information, students conclude that audiences are more influenced by media than they themselves influence them.

At the same time, the activity or passivity of the role played by consumers of information in the respondents' view depends not so much on the type of audience as on the communicative situation.

When assessing their own communicative behavior, the majority of respondents (63.3%) assess their role as consumers of information as active, while the number of those who consider themselves to be a passive audience turns out to be quite significant (36.7%).

Conclusion

The conducted research allows us to draw the following conclusions.

1. Against the background of many channels, a variety of content and the dynamism of the information environment, in order to understand the specifics of digital media, students adapt their own communicative behavior to the framework of the most familiar phenomena to them — social networks, blogosphere, hype, advertising, PR. For both the ordinary consciousness and the researcher, these phenomena are relevant insofar as they actualize the routine practices of reproducing standardized identities ^{[16, pp. 13-26]}. However, no frame captures the phenomenon, it only presupposes its interpretation, therefore, the semantic space that the respondents analyze is determined by their individual or group socio-cultural experience.

2. For the student audience in question, the experience of existing in the space of modern media communications combines both the experience of their own communicative practice in the creative and interactive media environment, and the experience acquired through the perception of a set of ideas and problems relevant to media professionals: the transformation of Marshall McLuhan's perception from interest almost exclusively from hippies to recognition by academic circles, the role of the creative class ^[17] in the perception of large cities as architecturally organized mass media ^[18], the acquisition of a new social status by communities of fans of various phenomena of mass culture ^[19], the approval of media literature as a recognized object of scientific research ^[20]. Turning to the analysis of the formation of the modern communication space and to reflection on their own identity in this space, the respondents actualize the complex of traditional moral values and preferences that determine their habitual social roles and communicative behavior.

3. The predominance of value assessments is natural, since it is impossible to expect an individual to be absolutely neutral in relation to the actions, including communicative ones, of another individual. On the contrary, human behavior often demonstrates a lack of neutrality in relation to any value judgments and subjective assessments ^{[21, p. 829]}. When understanding the value traditions and guidelines, which are perceived by respondents as stable and proven by the experience of generations, and are embodied in communicative behavior, two trends draw attention to themselves. On the one hand, focusing on the material component of a social organization redirects the respondents' consciousness from fundamental values to material things ^{[22, p. 265]}, on the other hand, despite the convergence of ethical values with values at the level of bodily comfort ^{[23, p. 490-491]}, it is obvious that there is a need to rely on some reliable moral foundation. In a sense, we can talk about the importance of ethics in the Aristotelian sense for the student audience under study ("it is absolutely impossible to act in public life without being a person of certain ethical qualities, namely a worthy person" ^{[24, p. 296]}) and the realization of this ethical perception in demanding moral integrity from authors and consumers of media content.

As for the emotional approach to evaluating media phenomena, respondents have it both at the level of everyday perception, where it is obviously predominant, and at the level of research perception, which is also not always free from emotional judgments. The emotionality of assessments within the boundaries of both ordinary and professional approaches implies that the object of interest is either condemned or praised, which often prevents an objective analysis and description of the processes taking place and, therefore, according to V. Pareto, makes the final conclusion incorrect ^{[25, p. 19]}. In relation to media, such an approach involves shifting the focus of attention in the direction of the influence that media have on a person, determining his social and cultural experience. As A. Galloway notes, with this approach, the media turn out to be deterministic devices, and their influence, if considered from the point of view of normativity, is either positive or negative ^{[8, p. 19]}.

4. Analyzing the role of communicators in the digital media space, students demonstrate both the desire to manifest and develop creativity in the field of mass communications, and a high degree of involvement in the ethical issues of this activity, especially in relation to issues related to the possibilities of transforming public opinion and including a large number of people in this process as direct authors and creators of information content.

At the same time, respondents perceive their own activity in the communication process in two ways. On the one hand, extracting fragments of information, knowledge and impressions from diverse media resources, they not only construct from them the complex of ideas and attitudes that allows them to comprehend their social, cultural, emotional reality and their own place in it, but also realize this construction. Thus, in the process of communication, they can act as active figures, taking a well-defined position in relation to the messages they receive. According to the algorithm described by Stuart Hall, without rejecting the message, they change it in such a way as the context of their own perception requires. Within the framework of the communication practice that was actualized by the so-called creative class ^[17], this means that they claim to be the co-author of the received messages, clearly realizing the role of the interpreter as active in relation to the author of the message. On the other hand, the same saturation and intensity of the media stream becomes a source of negative reflection about the picture of the world emerging in their minds, which begins to be perceived as mediated, in the words of Peter Sloterdike, obtained second-hand and even bought for money ^{[26, p. 739]}. At the same time, awareness of the communicative role is replaced from an active, co-creative, to a passive one, when the consumer of information acts inside the code, which, following Stuart Hall, can be called dominant.