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Social media: approaches to defining the concept

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For citation: Druker M.M., Yanovskaya G.V. Social media: approaches to defining the concept // Mediascope. 2021. 2. Available at: http://www.mediascope.ru/2699

DOI: 10.30547/mediascope.2.2021.2

 

© Malvina M. Druker

Senior lecturer at the Institute for the Humanities, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (Kaliningrad, Russia)

© Galina V. Yanovskaya

PhD in Philology, freelance analyst at the Center for communication and multimedia technologies “Mediapark” (Kaliningrad, Russia)

 

Abstract

The relevance of this study is determined by the lack of a generally accepted scientific definition of the concept of "social media", as well as generally accepted classifications of functions and types of social media. The study of existing approaches to defining the concept and constructing classifications has been conducted based on the methods of systemic-structural and functional analysis and data grouping.

The definition of "social media" has been developed taking into account the essential features of the considered object and the basic requirements of logic. The article identifies five generic characteristics of social media (purpose, significance of information, form of content, nature of the addressee, and purpose). A ten-component classification of the functions and types of social media has been carried out. From a functional point of view, all social media as a segment of the media system, regardless of the type, have two basic functions – informational and communicative; other functions (intellectual, consumer, entertainment, etc.) are completed according to the types of social media and the needs of users. With the development of technology, social networks are acquiring more and more features of social media, so the controversial issue of the correlation between the concepts of "social media" and "social networks" has been tackled in favour of their synonymity from both empirical and theoretical perspectives.

Key words: social media, media system, classification, functions.

 

Notes

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