The Impact of Internet Media on the Cognitive Attitudes of Individuals on the Example of RT and BBC

Objective: Revealing of the presence or absence of changes in the cognitive attitudes of the individual under the conditions of external information impact on the example of the political-value content of the individual and groups consciousness. Background. Against the background of the growing digitalization of modern society and the networkization of the political space, the informational influence on individual and collective consciousness is increasing. It is extremely important to identify the features and effects of the influence of various information impulses on the cognitive attitudes of the individual and groups. Study design. The authors studied the impact of external information influences from watching videos of popular media («RT» and «BBC») on the cognitive attitudes of an individual using a special experiment. The authors used analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the Wilcoxon T-test to verify the presence of a real information impact. Experiment participants. Experimental sample: 21 people (86% women, 14% men). Among the participants in the experiment there were 11 people with higher education (52%) and 10 students receiving higher education (48%). Eight participants in the experiment were receiving or have already received the first speciality “psychologist” (38%) and 13 people who chose another speciality or speciality “psychologist” as a second higher education (62%). Measurements. The authors have monitored the heart rate variability of experiment participants using event-related heart rate telemetry technology. The participants have been tested to assess the level of emotional maladjustment (EED), as well as a questionnaire to identify the level of inclination towards conservatism and liberalism. Results. Watching videos from popular media has influenced the change in the level of conservatism, as well as the level of emotional maladjustment of the participants in the experiment. Higher education contributes to greater stability of cognitive attitudes, since after the informational impact, the inversion of the cognitive attitude occurred only in 16% of cases, and most of those who changed attitudes are students (67%). Conclusions. External informational influence from popular media has an impact on the change in cognitive attitudes and political-value content of the individual and group consciousness.