Сучасні ЗМІ як інструмент інформаційної війни

Abstract

The article shows the powerful influence of mass media on the power systems of society in the post-industrial era. It consists of collecting, retrieving, processing, modifying, storing and distributing information flows on a planetary scale. The subject, in accordance with the set tasks, resorts to information operations, which consist in manipulating the information in order to achieve strategic advantages over the enemy. Media channels in this case are an effective tool for information warfare, and messages circulated by it are informational weapons. Media from the very beginning were an important element of propaganda, misinformation, advertising, the spread of ideology, and so on. During the twentieth century, their influence increased exponentially because of the development of communications and information technology. Modern media are a powerful tool for conducting information wars. Their influence on society, politics, and the economy of all without exception of the countries of the world will be constantly growing, controversially affecting the national states. Governments of these states will find it increasingly difficult to keep the situation under control, as they are under the pressure of external and internal information channels around the clock. Special services and the military sector will try to exert pressure on civilian media in order to use their potential for their militaristic purposes. It is obvious that civil society will rely on such an effort and in the future, it will be possible to achieve the desired balance on this issue. As modern wars are conducted for knowledge and information dominance, the factor of information wars comes to the fore. The author is convinced that one of the criteria for the progressive development of modern civilization is the opposition to information wars, hybrid threats. Authorities need to protect their own information channels, the development of domestic media, whose mission is to preserve the integrity of its own information field and deprive the opponent of the possibility of influencing it. In implementing measures to protect their own information environment, governments should be guided by the principles of the philosophy of humanism and democracy and should ensure the maximum possible freedom of civil society institutions. In other words, the counteraction to hostile informational influence on society should be carried out by the state by working out a system of protection and counterbalance. Setting up effective work of all subsystems of state power, and not at the expense of prohibitions, restriction of human freedom. In particular, her right to privacy, participation in mass actions, access to reliable and truthful information, freedom of choice, etc.