Representation of cultural traumas in modern media: between social functionality and institutional inefficiency

Representing cultural traumas in the context of active development in digital media environment the article analyses specifics of the functions and dysfunctions of media as an institution of memory. The author substantiated the idea that further development of digital technologies is a source of new trends in commemorative practices, which contributes to both social functions and dysfunctions transformation of the media environment in relation to the representation of cultural traumas. Based on the analysis of foreign and domestic studies the author made an attempt to identify the specifics of digital media influence on the features of modern commemorative practices. Using the theoretical approach of Jeffrey Alexander the author explored the main stages of the trauma's narrative formation process as well as the most significant representations of trauma in digital media. Based on the ideas of Dominick LaCapra, the strategies of “working through” and “acting out” cultural traumas, as well as the social theory of Robert Merton the article classifies main social functions and dysfunctions and analyses the explicit and latent functions of the digital media environment in the process of representing cultural traumas.