Images of Reality Cover Image

Images of Reality
Images of Reality

Author(s): Iwona Jakubowska-Branicka
Subject(s): Social Sciences
Published by: Instytut Stosowanych Nauk Społecznych Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: media; 'parallel realities'; 'Images of Reality'

Summary/Abstract: The contemporary world is a reality of a market of pieces of information that operate in parallel and are bound by nothing. Different sources convey different types of information about the shape of social reality, thereby creating different images of this reality, their truth or falsity being essentially unverifiable. The assumption that media create images of 'parallel realities' is the starting point for the reflections made in the following article. At the same time the media fact, understood as a creation of reality, translates into social fact, understood as an event. Decisions made by individuals - which relate to their actions - are formed in reaction to these events. Can this assumption be justified in scholarly theory and experience? What are the mechanisms of reality-shaping used by the media? And, finally, what are the determinants that decide which sources of information we consider trustworthy? These issues are discussed in 'Images of Reality'.

  • Issue Year: 2014
  • Issue No: 18 (2b)
  • Page Range: 71-91
  • Page Count: 20