Cultural/Social Media Space of the Digital Generation

Abstract

Taking the example of Kazakhstan, this study examines the formation and analysis of the cultural media space of the digital generation. Information and communication technologies are the basis of a communicative media environment that has an internal regulated structure, which affects the socialisation of a person. The content of the cultural media space of the digital generation is formed on the basis of digital technologies and represents people’s visual worldview with images, signs and symbols. The processes of transformation of society affect the young generation and the content of the media space that determines their social and ethnocultural identity. The study presents the results of working with schoolchildren and students aged 14-18 using focus groups to explore the impact of digital culture (media culture) on adolescents in Kazakhstan. Based on the interdisciplinary approach, the findings demonstrate intergenerational contradictions because of the active involvement of Kazakhstan in the global internet community. The cultural media space of Kazakhstan has been shaping the social communications of the digital generation that has grown up in a sovereign state. The theoretical concepts of P. Bourdieu, C. Mannheim and other scientists served as a methodology for this study. Based on the interdisciplinary approach, the findings demonstrate intergenerational contradictions because of the active involvement of Kazakhstan in the global internet community. The findings also unravel that the transformation of the value orientations of adolescents is influenced by the factors of geographical location and ethnicity.

Keywords

• digital generation
• media space
• social platform
• communications