Vesna Milenković
INTERNATIONAL/GLOBAL COMMUNICATION IN AESTHETIZED REALITY − PROPAGANDA OR GLOBAL UNDERSTANDING
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.
