Axiology of Mass Media: Problem Fields and Study Strategies

The paper deals with the development of a new scientific subject, the axiology of mass media, which is, on the one hand, a practical discipline of philosophical theory of values, and on the other, a natural continuation of the recently developed axiology of journalism. The last one explores journalism as a source and retranslator of social values in all their subject and semantic diversity, and journalism itself as a social value, researching the principles and ways of assimilating of socio-cultural values by journalists, and the effectiveness and methods of their representation in the audience of media. The need to deepen the theory of value analysis of the media and to broaden the scope of study is caused by growing demands from society for understanding and evaluating the processes taking place in the modern media environment, which at present are not limited to the functioning of either traditional media or Internet publications. First, media processes have gained a certain and significant expansion due to the active invasion of the information space by the so-called “mass person”, the intensification of the presence in this space of former media figures – politicians, scientists, cultural figures, etc., the arrival of new ones – bloggers, regular authors of communities, etc. The content of the media environment got expanded – texts, music, videos, games; the number of media platforms increased – messengers, telegram channels, video hosting; the problem of interaction with artificial intelligence emerged. Second, it was due to the technological revolution in the information environment of society which has become digital and, thus, in its development has acquired a new quality. The value analysis of facts, phenomena and processes of digital media communications is one of the most important methods of satisfying society’s demands for new knowledge. Thus, the construction of mass media axiology is objectively predetermined. Consideration of the preconditions for the formation of a new scientific discipline is the subject of this study. The research is based on the study of philosophical discourse on axiology, as well as relevant publications by practitioners-journalists in their professional media.