Digital Amnesia of the Youth Mass Media Audience and Ways of Its Overcoming

Abstract

‘Digital Amnesia’ as a result of the dependence of Internet users is considered in this article on the example of students’ mass media audience. The empirical basis for this article was formed by the results of sociological research obtained by the authors in the framework of the project ”Digitalization of communicative-cultural memory and the problems of its intergenerational transmission” conducted in 2018–2020. Young people in the digital age not only face drastic changes in media practices but also the development of factors affecting the formation of communicative-cultural memory of various societies representatives. This makes it possible to identify some methods of preserving the role of the most important social institution by journalism, as well as the formation of meaningful components of mass media activity under conditions of permanent social and technological transformation. Several conclusions have been drawn from the system analysis. Firstly, the need to introduce the notion of ‘functional media literacy’ into the theory of communication. Secondly, it is possible to overcome digital amnesia by increasing the number of multimedia products of mass media of various subjects. As an example, the Russian Digital project ”1968”, created specifically for smartphones and addressed primarily to the generation Y. evoked a wide public response, and this project offers a method to present and promote specific events, facts and phenomena in the form of multimedia stories. The use of the project materials in university pedagogical practice is one of the most effective ways of interaction with a young audience. Thirdly, the study confirms the hypothesis that a method of information selection focused on sensationalism, discontinuity and conflict is not typical for students as consumers of media products. For most of this demogrpahic, the mass media act as a cognitive and ideological phenomenon that primarily assumes a dialogical relationship between the communicator and communicants. This allows us to conclude that digital amnesia as a form of psychological dependence arises in representatives of this audience group most often when the media discourse lacks intellectual and emotional involvement.