Online Audience in Digital Media Network

Abstract

The last few decades have been marked by the expansive development of technology which has reflected on the media world and the opening of new communication platforms. Not only professional communicators no longer lay claim to the production of media content, but also ordinary citizens become increasingly involved in the media sphere as creators. The subject of the paper is the online audience, its role and position both within the frames of conventional, traditional media on the web and social media space. The aim of the research paper is to approach an answer to the question whether new, digital media enable audiences’ greater freedom and autonomy in expressing opinions, attitudes and ideas on the web and does it become participatory in the true sense of the word. In addition, the research paper is directed towards contemporary practices of monitoring and tracking the activities of web users, especially on social networks, with the dilemma of whether it is possible to talk about the freedom of network users regarding the constant surveillance of the invisible algorithms which keep collecting and processing information about them.