DIGITAL POLIS – OASIS OF DEMOCRACY OR CYBER UTOPIA

Text topic: Globalization and the Media

Text author: Зоран Јевтовић и Радивоје Петровић

Revolutionary changes in the area of communication lead mass media to the crossroads of democracy and the tyranny of propaganda, while capitalist corporatism reduces the number of successful news producers discretely creating invisible information monopolies. At the global level, masses are being ideologically bewitched by fine spinning of filtered and meticulously created messages with pre-designed effects, which causes disappearance of objectivity, equality and social solidarity from the dominant discourse. The battle of ratings and circulation comes to the forefront; in the eyes of media management journalists are considered an expense, while participation of citizens as subjects of political life is minimized. Direct, blatant, arrogant pressure of government media owners and advertisers, results in putting the consumer at the center of interest, so the fun, individualism and narcissism dominate the mass media flows, “tabloidizing” the public arena. Private profit and public interest have never been in love and only with the critical re-examination of the developments can we point to the possible directions for expansion of journalism. The paper states that the role of audience changes in the age of digital media, because after a period of traditional passiveness and consumerism, the audience has been given a chance to assume an active and creative position. The time of multimedia services has brought a number of communication applications, allowing cultural and political diversity and the birth of a global digital policy, networked and open to everyone. This is a great opportunity for the survival of democracy, where journalism itself changes, reverting to its original mission of serving the common man.