Fluctuations in the Media Market in an Era of Communication Abundance

The accelerated development of innovative technologies raises the issue of assessing the state of the media market, taking into account its current transformations. However, it is difficult to identify the nature of the changes in the media sphere without reference to hindsight as the starting point of the transformation. The article substantiates a number of transformational factors that have become landmarks amid the fluctuations of the media market, resulting in its fundamental modification.

The article highlights the relationship between the media system and the audience emerging in the digital era, modified by the introduction of digital technology. But the phenomenon is viewed in terms of the Forth Industrial Revolution and the transformation of socio-economic reality. The author quotes the Russian physicist S.P.Kapitsa who believed that progress was not determined by the population size, but by the multiplicity of communicative interaction, that is, by the dissemination of experience and knowledge. The processes of communicative abundance in media space based on mass and media communications are substantiated. The analysis is based on specifying the milestones, referred to as media turnarounds, which have influenced media market and led to reforms in Russian media industry.

The first media turnaround was the entry of Russian media into the market followed by the introduction of the Internet into media space, which led to the emergence of new media and of amateur media producers. The emergence of social media heralded another media turnaround. The next media turn will be the introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies. The visualization of media space is becoming the leading trend, while digital TV now follows the audience, in accordance with the thesis “Consumer is King”.