INFORMATION NOISE: CONCEPT, TOOLS, CONSEQUENCES

The article analyzes an actual phenomenon of the modern communication space – information noise. The concepts of "noise– and later "information noise" have appeared in the scientific literature since the late 30s of the twentieth century. K. E. Shannon, an American mathematician and information systems designer, was the first to define noise as interference in a channel that makes a signal irrelevant. Further, representatives of both technical and socio-humanitarian sciences have been and are currently dealing with the problems of information noise in various aspects, but the essence of the conclusions remains common: noise is harmful because it creates entropy in the receiving device, distorts communication, and is achieved through manipulative tools in the interests of communicators. Modern traditional media, led by television, new media and social networks are filled with information noise, their task is to attract an audience by any means in violation of the moral and ethical canons of society. The article presents manipulative tools and techniques that contribute to scaling up information noise, the harmfulness of which lies in the fact that it clogs the information space, distracts the audience from really relevant information, makes it difficult to find it, reduces the level of critical thinking, and prevents them from focusing on what is important. Publications devoted to scandals, fakes, and false news provoke the user, reader, and viewer into unconstructive discussions, which often boil down to aggressive verbal behavior and personal insults in the comments. This method of content promotion is unfair and even dangerous. An important conclusion of the study is that the considered communication strategy has a negative impact on the processes of cultural popularization. According to the survey, residents of St. Petersburg with higher education, attacked by senseless news about scandals, get lost in the flow of negativity and do not pay attention to the significant cultural events of the city.