Polityka medialna Unii Europejskiej a media masowe - kreowanie tożsamości

Abstract

Media are an important element of social cmmunications and a major participant in the process of political communications. Individuals build their own idea of reality on the basis of information spread by the media. Especially the modern mass media are actively involved in shaping the views of the public on certain phenomena. The structure of the media consists of both the type diversity (printed press, radio, television, the Internet) as well as their ownership diversity (private, social and public media). The former approach to mass media came out from the nation-state as the basic unit of analysis, which usually also allowed to designate the access territory of the mass media. Identity and consistency were generally defined in geographical terms. Today, because of the rapid development of new technologies we are dealing with more equal opportunities for access to the media, though mass media are sometimes used to direct or control both consumer and political behavior. In the new socio-political reality media must adapt to the new market. The challenge for today’s mass media is a strong social stratification and different cutural patterns. The shape of media policies in defferent countries is a result of their political system, the degree of democratization of social life and the media development.