INTERNATIONAL/GLOBAL COMMUNICATION IN AESTHETIZED REALITY − PROPAGANDA OR GLOBAL UNDERSTANDING

Vesna Milenković

Abstract

Conquering the world market has become the main goal of media
oligarchy who do not advocate democratization and integration,
but within the process of cultural imperialism through their program
they promote cultures of developed countries. In a global environment,
postmodern media simultaneously become part-takers,
creators and distributors of events promoting entirely the
appearance but not the content and meaning of the transmitted
message. Global communication has changed the space/time paradigm,
and the lack of compassion and interest of the audience from
the ‘center’ for the events at the ‘periphery’ have created not only a
sense of ‘safe’ viewing of news outside the zone of danger but also
the lack of empathy. Unlike traditional perception of reality, the
aesthetic illusion is newly produced media reality aff ects confusingly
the audience which can no longer distinguish between fi ction
and reality, and truth and manipulation.
Transformation of international into global communication arising
from the development of technology, has changed the way
networked users communicate and introduced them into an interactive,
multimedia virtual world that has accelerated the fl ow
of a large number of information that is available to the global audience.
Th us, the process of convergence of international communication
and informative-communicational technology enabled
individuals to emerge from the framework of national states, to
participate in democratic communication and become subjects of
global communication, and depending on their individual abilities,
level of media literacy, motivation and search methods, can
explore the layered structure of the Internet. Th e active individuals,
by taking on the role that previously belonged to journalists,
within the framework of civic journalism, the concept in which the
mass media actively participate in collecting, reporting and critical
review of news, post comments and multimedia attachments and
thus share with journalists the role of “guardian of information”
that once used to be the journalists’ exclusive role. Benefi ts of new
media are also used by journalists involved in institutionalized
communication centers, fostering contacts within their own web
community, taking on the role of a multimedia storyteller who designs
and presents media content in diff erent formats.
Th e aim of the paper is to by using describing and comparative
methods points out the similarities and diff erences between international
and global communication in an aestheticized, media-produced
reality, with a special emphasis on the impact of
propaganda and the importance of the idea of global understanding
which with the development of a global public sphere comes
at the center of interest. Diff erent approaches to the limitations of
the Internet’s role range from refl ection on inequality of participation
in global dialogue, language barriers, the availability of extremist
groups abusing freedom of information, through denial
of the development of cosmopolitanism on the Internet, the role
of the state in regulating internet communication, to great differences
in conditions for work, property condition, knowledge,
skills and knowledge of languages within states. It is concluded
that there are serious obstacles to understanding in the virtual
space in conquering global publicity, developing dialogue and
pluralism, because, contrary to the idea of understanding and
tolerance, there is manipulation, propaganda, language of hatred,
nationalist discourse, and censorship on the Internet. However,
except for limitations, there are also advantages off ered to Internet
users in the sphere of market integration, globalization of entertainment,
fast and easy transfer of ideas, cultures and labor, as
well as in the fi eld of migration and tourism.

References