Consumption of information provided by mass media and professional competence of a student

Abstract

  The subject field of this article is the problem of formation and actualization of professional competences of future specialists in the area of advertising and public relations in the context of peculiarities and dynamics of information consumption of modern youth. Articulation of the problem on the one hand is substantiated by the relevant vectors of scientific works – transformation of the practices of media consumption by mass audience, crisis of confidence in broadcast media and the institution of journalism, quality and specificity of modern media texts, professional competence of the representatives of mass media; whole on the other hand – by the need to resolve practical tasks in educational process in terms of formation of philological fundamentals of professional activity. In the course of this research, the author applied sociological methods. The respondents became the firs-year students majoring “Advertising and Public Relations”, who proceeded with discipline “Theory and Practice of Mass Media”. The first part of the questionnaire allowed determining the general attitude to the phenomenon of mass information and the key behavioral patterns of the students as its consumers, as well as the levels of identification and personification of the modern mass media. The second part was focused on the criteria of selection and the desired set of characteristics established by mass media, as well as potential development prospects of mass media. As a result of the conducted survey, the author determined variations of the content-thematic structure of information requests, range of time input, “standard” requirements of young audience to modern media sources, overall picture of consumer preferences of the students by the type of mass media, which altogether defines the relevant model of media consumption. The article reveals the problematic areas within the system of perceptions of modern media, which are substantiated particularly by insufficient level of information culture among the first-year students: difficulties with identification of the representatives of mass media sphere, stereotypical assessments and “desirable” qualities of new mass media. The conclusions and recommendations are formulated on practical implementation of the acquired results with regards to solution of the task of formation professional communication qualities of a specialists of media sphere.