Our international research and education program in digital media helps societies gain standardized and continuous insight in media addictions, media unreality index, media use and opinions of public to build successful media strategies, thus increasing freedom of emotional expression in today’s media to overcome influence of negative news and unrealistic contents.
Our television programs are dominated by negative news, which often lack connection to our daily realities. At the same time, trivial entertainment content is offered by different media in their race for profits. Thus, content offered by mass media might not be useful asset to our realities, but it is rather used by corporations to hook ourselves to different products and services. On the surface it looks like audiences are given choices, but instead, contemporary media offer uniform, entertainment-rich content, lacking of elementary connection to our emotional realities.
Similarly, it seemed as if wide accessibility of Internet brings more choices for media users, but in fact, it is being used as substituting agent for their direct lives, while mainstream media online stay similar, like their broadcast or print versions. Recent research has shown an increase in media use by children and their attempts to apply concepts from computer games to their direct realities. Being primary seductive, deceptive, intensive and unrealistic, overall societal impact of mass media may be alienating one, as their users are unable to resist pointless use, while being aware of its negative sides, like in case of most drunks and drug addicts.
I established basis of this research and education program, while working on my PhD research. At that time, I was conducting media use survey in 5 countries, with more than 5000 participants. Also, I was analyzing daily press from Serbia, France, Greece, USA and South Korea. Preliminary results show high rate of media addiction and notable increase in media unreality rate from 1961 to 2005. This indicators show it would be important to examine media contents, the way they are being used and their social implications, in order to craft future media strategies in Europe and beyond.
In the past, there were indications that many individuals use media as fantasy machines, to escape their daily realities, not to assist their lives, but up to now, there were no ways to effectively measure the scope of media addictions. We aim to provide an insight in media addictions, throughout the world, by conducting annual media use survey in 33 countries.
Also, there is a trend of offering trivial contents by mass media, which contradicts our daily realities. To get media unreality index in these countries, We would create semi-automatic media analysis software, based on keywords and social network for media research, which would provide real time insight in differences between social networks and mainstream web sites contents.
Thirdly, We would gather international data on media use and some sociological parameters to publish them online and establish relations between them, media addiction rate and media unreality index, which finally might outcome in values of social entropy.
At the same time, We would organize panel discussions about future of media, with journalists, visionaries and wider public involved, to capture their take on societal trends. International digital media education programs about online journalism, blogging, social networks, e-government, digital TV, web media, new world philosophy and open mind would feature both online and direct participation of students and journalists, obtaining practical knowledge needed for their work and providing us with feedback on their media-related experiences and advices on how to make better, society-centered media.
In the development component, We would use feedback from panel discussion and education programs and results of our innovative research to get continuous and standardized monitoring of media and their sociological effects, helping governments draft their media strategies, thus making a fruitful field for future reality-based-media.
president
Positive Center for Digital Media
