Popularisation of Scientific Knowledge in the Media Environment: Positive and Negative Aspects

Modern media are integrated into many spheres of society. Scientific discourse is also influenced by the objective process of mediatization. The aim of the article is to highlight important problems of mediatization of science by means of the Internet. The study is based on the analysis of scientific works by famous foreign and domestic authors on the topic of mediatization. The article outlines the main features of social media, which play an increasingly important role in popularizing scientific knowledge and in communication between scientists. The article notes the positive aspects of mediatization of science, and also identifies the following problems: inability to select a universal method of transmitting information; mythologization of scientific knowledge; infantilization of the audience; demonization of media discourses by the academic community; formation of a pseudoscientific functional style; the problem of discrepancy between the communicator and the recipient (dilettantism); creation of false meanings alien to science. The article may be of interest to researchers of mediatization of science and higher education, as well as managers in the field of science.