The mass media in the democratic processes in Ukraine

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The mass media in the democratic processes in Ukraine

Makarenko Liliya,

PhD. Political Sciences, Doctoral student of the Department of Political Science of the Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University

The article deals with the disadvantages in the work of the domestic mass media and with the ways of overcoming it within the potential of the media to establish a dialogue between the state and civil society. It is emphasized that the mass media is a dangerous weapon, because it can both consolidate society and also form destructive settings and mood. In the modern world, the media act as a separate political player, because it have the power to affirm, impose and defend their point of view and force other players to act on this basis. The peculiarity of the media is that it can not make decisions, order, bind, bring to justice.

The media carry out their political and managerial role in the political system by discussing, supporting, criticizing and condemning various political programs, platforms, ideas and proposals of individuals, public groups and political parties. The media act as a kind of public control and publicizing its results.

The main disadvantages in the activities of domestic mass media are its economic and administrative dependence, caused by the bias and subjectivity of people working in the field of mass communication, the need to attract attention and conquer the mass audience by any means. Attention is drawn to the predominance of materials in the media of negative content, which adversely affects the moral and psychological situation in society.

Accordingly, all these disadvantages should be corrected: to improve the regulatory framework of the media, to create public media, to raise ethical and competent standards of journalistic activity, to charge the society positively and confidently in the future, to engage in educational work, explaining and popularizing the steps of the authorities in the direction of development of the state. mass information regulatory framework

Keywords: mass media, messages, news, TV, the influence, manipulation, trust, dialogue, the state, the public.

Problem statement

The research of the role of the media in the society and the political system is very relevant, and therefore, it has been revealed by many scholars.

Analysis of recent research and publications

According to the general definitions of the researchers such as V. Bebik, V. Lysnichy, V. Martynenko, I. Polischuk, Y. Suezhentseva, K. Safiulina, S. Teleshun, V. Shevchenko, the mass media not only inform the news, but also propagate certain ideas, views, doctrines, political programs and thus participate in social management, provide information support to the authorities. The mass media encourage people to certain actions by forming public opinion and developing of certain motivation. The media bring to the attention not only operational, but also official information - laws, orders, decrees, etc. Doing this, it conveys the will of the authorities and its demands. At the same time, the media is a kind of feedback. It accumulates thoughts, aspirations, judgments of people from virtually all spheres of community life - this is a peculiar barometer of public opinion.

The role of the media is in constructing political reality, the question of the influence of the media on the process of democratic development of society and the establishment of civil society institutions were also found in the works of V. Berezenko, D. Dubov, M. Hor- lach, A. Kostyrev, D. Yakovlev.

Thus, D. Yakovlev believes that "In the modern world, the media act as a separate political player, because they are given the power to affirm, impose and defend their point of view and force other players to act on this basis. Political communication becomes a decisive factor in the development of all institutions of modern Ukrainian society. Mass media in the modern political process are not only a leader of information, but also as an authority of "naming" and interpreting events., Due to the enormous opportunities of influence and reach of the audience, the media create not only thoughts about events. They make news from the event, 50 and, putting an action in the symbolic space, interpreting it, recreate the event "[6].

D. Dubov points out a number of contradictions in the media: "The freedom of speech constitutionally enshrined, and the lack of censorship give journalists the opportunity to comprehensively cover up an important events and phenomena. However, freedom of speech in the media does not mean permissiveness and irresponsibility. Too much freedom with the words can have negative social consequences, deform the political, social, economic, cultural orientation of society and every citizen. The specifics of the purpose and characteristics of the activities of mass media may result from manipulation of mass consciousness. It should also be noted the phenomena of probable deviance of journalistic morality: the fact of designing the mass media of reality by controlling the order of coverage of events ("gatekeeper"). Thus, there are contradictions between the freedom of speech and the need to determine the level of social responsibility of the media in the conditions of globalization of the information space "[2].

The purpose of the article

Proceeding from the potentially contradictory role of the mass media in the political system and society in general, we will determine its importance in the modern Ukrainian society, and piont out the disadvantages in their activities that should be eliminated immediately.

Presenting main material

In a democratic society, the media are components of the political system along with the parliament, the executive power, an independent judiciary, and even called as "the fourth power" - not in the sense of "the fourth branch of state power", but in the sense of "the power of civil society". This figurative statement testify to the huge role of the media in modern society.

The peculiarity of the media is that it can not make decisions, order, bind, bring to justice. The mass media exercise its political and managerial role in the political system by discussing, supporting, criticizing and condemning various political programs, platforms, ideas and proposals of individuals, public groups, political parties. The mass media act as a kind of public control and publicizing its results.

What is important, that media can hold back the political confrontation in society, translating it into a dialogue area in order to replace the dangerous confrontation useful and mutually beneficial to society through the cooperation of various political forces.

Consequently, the main functions of mass media in a democratic society are: control of the power, pressure on the power, establishment of interaction and trust between government and society. In the authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, where ideology and media are state-owned, the media is only an instrument of state power.

However, it should be understood that the transition to a democratic way of managing society is a long lasting process. This way of qualitative changes the media should go gradually and consistently as other institutions of the state and civil society. They must learn new rules of the game, new values and responsibility. This explain a lot of shortcomings that accompany the media activities in the modern Ukraine.

However, on the author's oppinion the position of the domestic media seems to be completely irresponsible and unprofessional, which remains unchanged despite the numerous positive changes and transformations that have taken place in recent times both in the political system and in the communicative system and in society as a whole. It is about the dominance of the negative information on the television and in the other types of media. Moreover, such materials concern absolutely all aspects of society's life: from the personal life of individuals to the coverage of the political and economic situation in the country and the world. Television is so enthusiastically looking for and "savoring" plots of all kinds of catastrophes, misery, immorality, unprincipled and frankly criminal behavior, made by an ordinary citizen or any well-known personality. It is sometimes difficult to understand: such a situation and a model of behavior are condemned or imposed as a model for the mass consumer information product? The media behave like a small child, who do not care about attracting the attention of adults: a good or a shameful act. A mass consumer of a “trash”, which is being circulated by the media, readily pours on the surrounding aggression, which is charged with talk shows, reality shows, feature films and documentaries, series, news releases.

The mass media should with the same pressure find stories about talented, gifted people, about scientific inventions and examples of altruism, friendship, devotion and love in the end, to clarify and popularize the reforms being implemented, to tell about the successes of the government (certainly not fake, but real). Total criticism and the one-and-a-half view of "all bad" negatively adjusts the society.

How many people know the meaning and significance of those laws that were adopted during the last session of the Council? How did the mass media join the explanation of the content of the administrative-territorial reform, civil service reform, judicial reform, etc.? Increasing crime, aggression in society, despondency towards politicians and politicians, dissatisfaction with life, apart from the objective foundation, which of course takes place, this is the result of the hard work of the domestic media.

At the moment Ukrainian society goes perhaps through the most difficult period since the formation of an independent state. It's time for the domestic mass media to finally realize its responsibility for the destiny of the country and move from the instigation of mass hysteria to constructive critique and comprehensive coverage and clarification of events and processes of national importance.

T. Vergeles, editor of the information portal "ZIK" writes in his blog: "What is bad for us now, is good. It forces the brain cells to move, look for exits, experiment, and take risks. We do not care about a victim. It's time to take responsibility for yourself. We are poor because we do not want to answer anything. This applies both to the state and to every citizen of the country. We have no other way to defend our land, build up military power, eradicate corruption and do everything for people to live decently. "

Journalists have to take a similar stance today: to stimulate civil society to be active and responsible, showing the society an example.

According to G. Blummer oppinion, the multidimensional penetration of the media into the life of society can play a unifying role and contribute to the consolidation of the society, and disintegration, dissociating, introducing negative stereotypes in the public consciousness, which is especially noticeable in the crisis periods of the historical development of society when people in a state of social uncertainty are especially influenced, easily respond to different new stimuli, ideas, and also more exposed to propaganda and different manipulation [4, p. 123].

Many researchers draw attention to the fact that the manipulative potential of the media flourishes precisely in terms of democracy, since the totalitarian regime is based on frank and cynical violence.

Z. Freire, a media specialist, said: "There is no manipulation for the awakening of the people, but there is total pressure. While suppressed are entirely under the pressure of the reality, there is no need to manipulate them "[4].

Determination the reasons for the manipulative nature of the media is important. In spite of some differences in approaches to their interpretation from different authors, these reasons can be grouped into three main groups:

1. Reasons caused by bias and subjectivism of people working in the field of mass communication. The distortions caused by individual psychological peculiarities, political passions and sympathies.

2. Reasons caused by political, socio-economic and organizational conditions in which mass media operate. The main of them - the dependence of the media on specific social actors. It can be manifested in two basic forms - economic and administrative. The economic form of dependence is that media in a market conditions work for a certain client, for example, advertisers and other large scale capital customers. The administrative form of dependency is manifested in the fact that the media obey their masters and founders.

The way out of this situation is the creation of public or mass media at the national and, especially, regional level. The world experience shows that public media provided by the effective administration and public control over the programm and editorial policies can restore the thematic and meaningful balance in the media, provide access of the public groups that are deprived of it through a high financial exit threshold to the media market. In view of this, the state should promote the formation of a high-quality legal basis and the actual creation of public media.

3. Reasons provided by the process of functioning of the media. In order to attract attention and conquer a mass media audience are governed by certain general rules or principles, while submitting materials and preparing messages, various programs. At the same time, V. Pugachev notes: "... the principles of selection of materials taken by them are poorly compatible with deep analytical reports and often hinder the creation of an information picture of the world, more or less adequate to the reality" [5].

In the process of manipulation, a special place is devoted to the television. It allows to carry out the illusion of contact and fast feedback between the subject and objects of manipulation. At the same time, television facilitates the transformation of communication into the show, into the play with its playwriting, it helps to draw the audience into the interaction process. Television is aimed at developing corporate feelings and, ultimately, the hidden differentiation of the audience. An individual begins to respond on the influence as a representative of a corporate community, and not as a particular entity. In Ukrainian realities, TV channels belong to representatives of financial and industrial groups ("oligarchs"), the absolute majority of which personally personify power, or lobby through its own corporate and political interests.

The American media researcher R. McNeill in 1968 wrote: "Television has become the cause of such radical changes in the means of political informing of the society, such as has not happened since the foundation of our republic. Before spreading the television nothing has made such terrible changes to the technique of persuasion on the masses. In fact, it's not just about television, but because it has become the technical basis for using complex doctrines of manipulation of consciousness. First of all, it is about creating the entire industry of television political advertising. Why the television in the political goals has become a tool for suggestion much more effective than printed press and radio? That is because it was discovered the amazing ability of the TV screen to "erase" the difference between truth and lies. Even the obvious lie, presented through the TV screen, does not cause the viewer an automatic alarm - his psychological protection is disabled "[4, c.173].

In 2004, an Italian writer Umberto Eco, in response to populist rhetoric of the S. Berlusconi said: "Democracy in Rome was about to die when Roman politicians guessed that it was not necessary to take seriously the electoral programs, but it was necessary to invent more ways to please the audience »... [3]

Today, political forces and individual candidates are also trying to use the latest technologies and methods of providing information on the Internet - these are multimedia forms (first of all video or leader's personal page), as well as presence in social networks, keeping personal blogs, etc. Such policies have considerably more chance of being "open", "progressive" from the point of view of active Internet users and young people.

So, at the moment, the Ukrainian mass media can not yet be called democratic, as one can not call the democratic also our state, but gradually we all learn the values and ideals that are called democratic in the world. And the state and civil society and the media are gradually becoming aware of the need for close cooperation, mutual interest in establishing trust in each other, and finally, their responsibility for our common future.

Bystritsky in the article "Communication and the long-awaited happiness of reforms" writes: "Despite the essential elements of anarchy, through the selfish struggle of private interests, the game of populism, the" lack of quality "of many people's choices, the laws

52 necessary for the legal maintenance of reforms, which, in fact, had in mind the EuroMadan, make their way. Necessary laws that provide reforms ... are gradually adopted.

Reforms make way for themselves and through executive power. Deregulation steps should ease business life. The E-Government Agency was created, which replaced several inefficient management centers in this area. Started to work a system of electronic administration of value added tax. Open data sites, including public procurement are created in several leading ministries. 100 local centers for the provision of free secondary legal aid, which forms the civil dignity of a person, have begun its work in all regions of Ukraine. The list of tactical shifts can be continued "[1].

So why does the media not promote positive news?

Now the moment when the media once again should praise the authorities for the ongoing reforms rather than criticize. Probably this idea is somewhat correlated with the president's statement that criticizing the authorities in the current conditionsd this is for the good of the enemy. In psychology there is the notion of "positive and negative reinforcement", which emphasizes that good deeds and actions need to be publicly approved in order to inspire man to make new accomplishments, while constant criticism only stimulates new, depressing acts. These conclusions of psychologists regarding the development of personality can be easily transferred to the social sphere. On the one hand, society will gradually gain optimism and belief in transformation; on the other hand, the government will feel the support and encouragement for further steps if it receives positive reinforcement from the media and, therefore, from the society.

Conclusions and perspectives of further research

Consequently, the main disadvantages in the activities of domestic mass media are their economic and administrative dependence, caused by the bias and subjectivity of people working in the field of mass communication, the need to attract attention and gain massive audience by any means, negativism and pessimism not only in informational materials, but also in materials of an entertaining character.

Accordingly, all these disadvantages should be corrected: to improve the regulatory framework of the media, to create public media, to raise ethical and competent standards of journalism, to learn how to recharge the society positively and confidently in the future, and most importantly - to engage in political enlightenment, explaining the meaning of all reforms, laws of bylaws, promoting insecure but faithful steps of the authorities towards the development of the state.

Civil society and the rule of law can not exist autonomously, without interacting with each other. Such interaction is possible only within the information space. Media, which is the only way of transmitting information, can and must play an important role in the communication process between civil society and the rule of law. Trust to the media is directly proportional to the level of quality of their information.

Список використаних джерел:

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якісно нові суб'єкти політичних комунікацій. Електроннийресурс.Режимдоступу:

http://www.niisp.org.ua/dubov ~2.pdf

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мації в конструюванні політичної реальності» Ав- тореф. дис... канд. політ. наук. Електронний ресурс. Режимдоступу:http://disser.com.ua/con-

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