Social and network interaction on the Internet: to the definition of the media phenomenon

Abstract

The large-scale introduction of computers into professional and everyday human activities, the formation of a global mass communication system based on the Internet and the formation of a single network space formed the basis of a modern social communication system. But at the same time, despite the long period of their development, there was no unambiguous concept denoting the phenomenon of Internet-based media, which includes means of communication, as well as the social-network interaction environment formed by them. The authors analyze four concepts used to display the media phenomenon: (1) information and communication environment, (2) social network space, (3) media space and (4) public communication space. Analysis shows that each of these concepts focuses on a specific aspect of the communications of modern society. The information and communication environment is a semi-structured set of computers and information and telecommunication technologies that allow organizing actor interactions to coordinate their activities in the storage, transmission, processing of information. A social network space is rhizome from social media, which allows users to organize online communication and produce user-generated content. Media space is a complex configuration of social media related to the production and consumption of media, the unity of which, within the framework of the information picture of the world, holds a certain social space together. The public communications space is a set of social media aimed at mainstreaming socially significant problems and discussing in the social-network space.