Local Media as Fractals of Social and Media Systems

Abstract

The article presents a view of local media from the perspective of the synergetic paradigm. The study discusses the idea to consider them as a fractal of social and media systems, a zone of quasi-stable state, where the changes able to influence both of these systems can originate. The relevance of the research is due, first, to the ontological changes in media systems and information consumers in the context of the media turn. Second, it is related to the growing interest in the study of urban communication spaces at the intersection of urban studies, journalism, communication studies, philology, and other disciplines. It is shown that the study of local media in Russia is difficult due to historical reasons. First, it is not specifically local media that have been studied, but urban journalism as part of regional journalism and separately participatory journalism, implemented more often than not at the level of local media. Second, there is the influence of established research traditions (empirical-functionalism, political economy, and anthropological paradigms). The authors suggest to look at local media through the lens of synergetics, which focuses on the issues of self-organization of systems and allows the application of the principle of non-linearity not only to their evolution, but also to their architecture. The synergetic paradigm makes it possible to imagine local media as a fractal, and not so much as an element of the system reflecting the self-similarity of its different levels, but as a zone of randomness and fluctuations. Such media exist on the boundary of two environments that differ markedly in the logic of interaction between participants in communication: the more stable, codified and more thoroughly regulated environment of mass communication and the more chaotic and freer environment of interpersonal communication. Local media, especially non-institutional ones, remain open to experimentation by non-professionals and under certain circumstances fluctuations in this zone of media systems can spread throughout the social system. An example of this fluctuation is the blogosphere: the practices and approaches of non-professional authors, who initially interacted with small local audiences, are now changing the way the entire media system functions and the distribution of information in society.