This essay advocates applying a culturally and attitudinally sensitive approach to the analysis of the present-day media and digital communications-inspired societal transformations. In recent years, trends towards the “backslide" in democratic performance and social cohesion have been registered throughout Europe: the rise of populist politics and extreme polarisation has grown in Western Europe, whereas in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) there is noticed an increase of social and economic instability followed by a dramatic rise of anti-democratic political actions. These developments imply a growing need (especially in the CEE countries) to find their own specific ways of dealing with both-systemic restructurings in social/political life, on the one hand, and intensifying feelings of distrust, uncertainty, and discontent, on the other hand. The essay critically examines the changing functionality and logic of contemporary media and communications ecosystems which notably contrasts with the classical line of thinking about the news media as traditional means of establishing and preserving such subjective senses as feelings of attachment and trust, unity and togetherness, solidarity and social cohesion.

本文主张采用一种文化和态度上敏感的方法来分析当今媒体和数字通信所激发的社会变革。近年来，整个欧洲都出现了民主表现和社会凝聚力“倒退”的趋势：西欧民粹主义政治的兴起和极端两极分化的加剧，而中欧和东欧（CEE）则出现了这种情况。社会和经济动荡的加剧，随之而来的是反民主政治行动的急剧增加，这些事态发展意味着越来越需要（特别是在中东欧国家）寻找自己的方式来应对社会/政治生活中的两种系统性结构调整，一方面，不信任感，不确定性和不满感加剧，另一方面。这篇文章批判性地考察了当代媒体和传播生态系统不断变化的功能和逻辑，这与传统的新闻媒体形成鲜明对比，传统的新闻媒体是建立和保留主观感觉的传统手段，如依恋和信任感，团结与团结，团结和社会凝聚力。