Interconnection of Media and Telecommunications

Since the end of the 20th century, the media (newspapers, magazines, radio programs, television programs, and websites) have undergone significant changes, improving the quality of technical products and increasing efficiency. This allowed the press to increase production speed, reduce the cost per unit of output, and, with the transition to digital technologies, to open new high-quality, high-speed journalism capabilities.

Thus, the media is increasingly thought of as a means of mass communication (MMC), bringing it closer to telecommunications. After all, one of the oldest newspapers in the world (the daily British, since 1855) was called The Daily Telegraph, after one of the first telecommunications devices, the telegraph.

Earlier, the journalist's tools were a pen, a pencil and a typewriter, and journalism itself was limited to newspapers and magazines. Today, journalism includes telecommunications (radio, television, telephone and the Internet). Even in Azerbaijan, serious internet publications have appeared that significantly complement and compete with our print media, radio and television (although, unfortunately, ANS TV and such venerable and popular newspapers as Zerkalo and Echo are closed).

It is said that "A society"s structure has always been determined by the nature of the means of human communication, rather than by its content." Apparently, the means of communication (telecommunications) determines the method of media perception by its consumers, influenced by the means of transmission (telecommunications) used. Clearly, the appearance of the Internet in media publishing systems radically changed the fundamentals of the traditional publishing business.

New means of telecommunications (sound recording equipment and video cameras, computers, mobile phones ...) that allow working not only with printed text but also with sound and image have been added to the list of modern journalistic techniques. And progress in telecommunications contributed to the emergence of new media production technologies (radio journalism, TV journalism, Internet journalism, etc.).

Telecommunications has lessened the huge gap between newspapers of the regions and the newspaper of our capital (thus making news more accessible to the regions). ICT broadens the horizons of regional journalists traditionally fed by information from the local library or data from the local district administration. Today, the media collect, process, print and publicly transmit by special means.

Although the media cannot be directly identified with telecommunications (a technical means) the media does provide for the transmission of messages to all consumers. Beyond that, the media and its transmission technology involve specific interrelations to achieve their activities and, in effect, constitute a special social institution.

The media can include all the press, radio, television, cinema, audio and video recording, satellite communication, cable television and computer networks (united under the same name - telecommunications). And the technology of information (telecommunications and ICT) provides such properties of mass communication as the stable preservation of messages for a time, the transmission of messages over long distances, the repetition of the same content, and the provision of messages to a multitude of people and directions simultaneously.

Today, the technical means of the media and telecommunications are oriented toward many senses, which means that they affect different types of perception: the printed press - on visual perception (visual channel), the radio - on the auditory perception (audio channel), the television - on the visual and auditory perception (audiovisual channel), and the Internet - on all of them!

Perhaps this accounts for the media"s having such a significant influence on the course of election campaigns, on the outcome of voting in referendums, on provoking a mass protest or a political scandal capable of fomenting a crisis in society"s power relations. The media can also serve as the most effective ally of the powerful (with a developed ICT infrastructure) and mobilize citizens to solve vital problems. The media also acts as the main means of shaping public opinion and can initiate political change by persistently creating the impression of public problems.

Consequently, the media is a social institution acting as the main element of the communication process; for collecting, organizing and disseminating messages so necessary for the activities of the information community (IC). Therefore, in the conditions of authoritarian regimes, the creation of a database on each person through ICT can endanger privacy and human rights, especially in elections, referenda and in dissidents" struggle with the media.

The relationship between the media and telecommunications helps shape worldviews and define the reality surrounding us and the direction of our human activity. It is possible that if you give the required information (with the help of the media and ICT) and allow a person to have a positive personal experience (via the Internet or telecommunications), the person could almost find "true" happiness.

Yes, the media is indeed the "fourth estate", capable of managing a citizen. Probably there is no need to use any zombie formation methods; the desired result, that is, creating an ordinary person"s outlook, can be achieved competently, methodically and gradually through the interconnection of media and telecommunications (fresh example, a showman became President, or even fresher, a journalist became Prime Minister).

Today, a new generation of journalists are writing in native Azerbaijani, especially on electronic websites, where, as they write, they look back at the non-existing censorship. It can be surprising, but opening Minval.az, Musavat, or Haqqin.az ... you do not really feel any difference in content between these newspapers and websites; it is as if there is a general editor-in-chief above their main editors.

However, the media and telecommunications (the Internet) can not only create a stable outlook for a generation of cohorts, but can also motivate this cohort to take short-lived necessary actions they may be unaware of. It seems that the relationship between the media and telecommunications is moving to control people"s feelings. After all, a person always has feelings, emotions and desires. Since he cannot control or keep above them, another person or persons can insert whatever they want into his mind, undetected (that is, the media and telecommunications become a mediating instrument between people).

Media and telecommunications play a critical role in the younger generation"s personality formation, because they use the media and the Internet to the maximum, greedily drawing information of different content.

After family and school, the Internet and television have the highest impact, because they are a channel for intensive socialization of young people.

Further, the media and telecommunications (in the form of the Internet and television) also bring erotic films that corrupt and vulgarize modern youth. It is frightening to witness this vulgarity, impurity and fakery not only on television, but also in newspapers, magazines, and on the Internet. Countering these negative influences are significant positive points, such as where the media and the Internet keep young people informed of world events, remove "information hunger" and promote active distance education (DE).

The media and the Internet increase the general (including political) culture of people, inform both the authorities and the public, and relieve social tension. The media and the internet ask for the cultural and behavioral norms that are projected onto the youth and especially onto adolescents, shaping their orientation and cultural behavior. It is particularly interesting in this regard to analyze both positive and negative models of social behavior spread through the media and the Internet, as this directly influences our understanding of the content context and socialization of adolescents. Today, as the influence of the media and telecommunications on schoolchildren in the process of mastering the world around them grows, determining the position of teachers in schools and universities grows problematic. In this context, the media play an essential role in shaping the values ​​of the younger generation and in promoting the Western way of life and the perception of a new world.

The Internet"s advantages include offering educational and practical experience, the correct use of which can improve performance at school, at the institute, and in life. Some drawbacks include inaccurate data, as well as information unsuitable for children and adolescents. After all, there are websites devoted to pornography, pyrotechnics, suicide, and to the actions of certain drugs; in short, to all those things that threaten children"s health.

The media and telecommunications, (social network) by raising people's awareness, can help reduce the risk to victims of human trafficking, this slavery of our century, and also to people kidnapped to extract organs for sale, also something of a slave system. It is believed that every fifth human trafficking victim in the world belongs to these apparently helpless underage children of rogue countries. We identify the economic development gap as the factor creating human trafficking victims in developed countries, poverty and misery in developing countries. In telecommunications we call it "digital inequality".

Today, it seems that the blocking of news resources (telecommunications) means their closure for the community, and probably the elimination of media freedom in Azerbaijan, although the telecommunications philosophy is to promote the accessibility to consumers, not to block it. Even if these resources contain defaming or illegitimate norms, according to the law "On Information, Informatization and Protection of Information" passed last year, it is necessary to conduct lawsuits in a civilized manner. And the closure of websites under the pretext of defamation probably means directly applying censorship in the media through telecommunications.

Therefore, the interrelation between the media and telecommunications is an alternative for the open society, especially in the developing world. This interrelation can completely change not only the media system and the associated media industry, but also provide transparency throughout the entire information society (IS). Telecommunications is clearly needed to improve the quality of the media, but not as an arbiter for censorship.