PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE MEDIA AUDIENCE DURING THE STATE OF MARTIAL

The article is aimed at a scientific analysis of the issue of the evolution of the Ukrainian media audience during the war period in the context of not a spontaneous crowd of people that arose by chance, but as a certain social group, which possesses powerful and stable determinants characterized by general social, psychological, socio-demographic features. It is established that the audience is a social group with defined characteristics, habits, speed of response and perception of information, which is directly and indirectly influenced through a specific information channel. The influence can be carried out both permanently and one-time. One-time impact is characteristic of the audience that came across or was involved in the information channel by chance. It could be an accidental perception of information, like what can be observed while moving in public places, when streams of various information, i. e. advertising, informative, suggestive and other ones, are directed at a person from everywhere. The constant influence on the audience is more conscious when the agent, that is, the person, independently chooses the channel of information that they process. At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, both the audience and the media themselves underwent significant changes. Attention has been drawn to the fact that in the context of the research of the specified changes, attention should be focused on a number of aspects of the media audience, as it is possible to highlight several directions which help identify the audience. It can be a quantitative category, which is the totality of coverage of the information channel, that is, the number of individuals to whom the information is distributed, the characteristic of the heterogeneity of transmissions inherent in one or another group. On the other hand, it could be a more immersive study of the audience aimed at defining what common characteristics unite them or what makes it possible to separate them and make a deeper impact. The audience, which has common socio-demographic factors, may have unifying psychological characteristics, style and standard of living, peculiarities and time limits of communication. In order to find out the determinants which help distinguish groups and carry out targeted influences, there are a number of methods. The methodology of the mentioned above studies is multi-level and is carried out comprehensively. The reliability of the results is ensured by the use of theoretical, empirical, practical-applied methods by which the audience is determined. The audience is a social group that at a certain moment is united by common interests, worldview and behavioral characteristics. At the same time it is the object of influence while the subject is the media. The media is a collection of all means of spreading and transmitting information through available channels, using visual, auditory and discrete methods of perception. The main factors by which a person chooses media are their social needs and interests. A person stops their choice at the most comfortable level of the information channel, whether it is receiving postal messages, e-mails, television or searching the Internet. According to recent studies, almost all adult population of any country is the target audience of the media, which means that the majority of the population is directly or indirectly influenced by the media. Moreover, the audience tends to use several sources of information at the same time. In this way, the audience receives different information — generally accepted, approved by state regulators, or an isolated subjective opinion. Thus, it can be noted that the term «audience» is not constant, but found in permanent transformation. Among the factors that most influenced the change in the interests of the audience, we note persuasion, suggestion and interpretation, taking into account the general atmosphere of the war.