The media and the individual: Economic and psychological interrelations

Abstract

The mass media have become one of the crucial institutions of modern society; it is hard to overestimate their role in the formation of people's beliefs, values, and physiological characteristics. The media industries are now an integral part of the leisure and entertainment industries. With free time becoming a key economic resource of society, the individual lives and psychological well-being of people are significantly influenced by the processes of mass communication and by media companies; this level of influence results in the emergence of a new human being-homo mediatis. © Lomonosov Moscow State University, 2013. © Russian Psychological Society, 2013.