Media Space and its Paradoxes
The beginning of the information age is associated with the intensive development of fundamentally new information technologies. They form the basis of screen culture, the center of which is the screen as the ultimate element of modern electronic devices. Screen and screen culture generate the formation and development of media reality, which has a contradictory, paradoxical nature. At present, it is perceived as an integral part of society's life, its socio-cultural environment. The impact of mass media and media culture is one of the central issues in the profound transformations of the lifestyle and mentality of our contemporaries, which makes it necessary to analyze this phenomenon. The article considers the genetically mediated features of media reality, as well as its paradoxes on ontological, social, and axiological levels Mass communication in a special way forms the picture of the world, the sphere of publicity, and social practices. The social and cultural image of the modern world is formed on the basis of access to information channels, and not on the basis of reliable knowledge. The social and cultural realities of the modern world are ontologized by mass communication media that can eliminate, replace and distort factual material. Thus, there appears a "double" meaning of reality - in the form of actually existing one, and in the form generated by the mass media. Transforming the essence of things or phenomena, multiplying options for manipulative technologies, mass media, however, can give the impression of special authenticity. Freedom of speech, the greatest social achievement of the European civilization, is opposed by the inclusion of mass media in the structure of the main institutions of society. Manifested by the Western world and officially established by legal institutions, it clearly goes against the affiliated practice of the Western media. The role of the media environment in the democratization of society is also contradictory, since in reality it contributes to the strengthening of the existing inequality. Being in the public space is also highly contradictory. It provides status advantages, but may not comply with the regulatory rules, views and values enshrined in society.