MASS MEDIA AND A CRITICAL REFLECTION ON SOCIAL PHENOMENA

Text topic: Philosophy of Media

Text author: Биљана Јокић

This paper represents the possibilities of a critical attitude towards mass media contents, based on semiotic thesis on mass media as a mediator in transfer of interpreted meanings and constructor of social reality for recipients. After the discussion of some mass media persuasion mechanisms, an attempt is made to overview the psychological processes that are basic to the receptivity of consumers to persuasive media messages, in the frameworks of widely applicable models which differently interpret the role and accuracy of intuitive and judgemental heuristic processes. The definitions, measures, and theoretical interpretations of key variables emphasize the role of prior knowledge and experience, despite the introduction of constructs that lead to an impression of psychological outreach directed to mystification of cognitive processes. The final part of the paper focuses on possibilities of overcoming the conceptual disharmony of different approaches in studying cognitive processes and the importance of intuitive and analytically processed information integration, in an attempt to critically evaluate not only the media simulacrum, but also the wide social context.