Media and communication are subjects which are closely related. For quite some time in each public debate references are made to an increasing dependence between media and communication processes. Explicit attention is paid to a changing context of the communication process, and especially the process of political communication. The role of media in the process of public communication is, on the one hand, quite traditional; that is to inform the public, popularize information and mobilize citizens to action, all in the name of the public good. On the other hand, it is also noticeable that modern media play new roles such as providers of entertainment, scandals, sensation, enjoyment. All this brings a question: which of these functions tell us about the future of the media, and – consequently – how do they change the process of political communication in the public sphere? And is this what we want?

Human rights are “basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled”. Proponents of the concept usually assert that all humans are endowed with certain entitlements merely by reason of being human. Human rights are thus conceived in a universalist and egalitarian fashion. Such entitlements can exist as shared norms of actual human moralities, as justifi ed moral norms or natural rights supported by strong reasons, or as legal rights either at a national level or within international law. However, there is no consensus as to the precise nature of what in particular should or should not be regarded as a human right in any of the preceding senses, and the abstract concept of human rights has been a subject of intense philosophical debate and criticism. As the new millennium emerges, trends in global human rights are changing. Human rights issues are crossing sovereign boundaries and are no longer just issues of the state. As more and more non-governmental organizations are growing, and the Internet expands and facilitates a quicker spread of information, there are more and more people raising concerns about human rights related issues. Some of these come from the increasingly larger and infl uential commercial sector including large, multinational companies, while the others are raised by ordinary people, being parts of diff erent networks. The aim of this article is to examine the way social networks influence and change the methods of raising the awareness concerning human rights on one hand, but, on the other hand, to analyse how new media contribute to deepening global inequalities.

Political life in western democracies, even beyond the periods of subsequent elections, resembles permanent electoral campaign. All the actions of politicians and public relations of professionals are calculated to maintain supporters, attract hesitant citizens and persuade opponents. There is a common perception of media as a channel serving politicians, supported by spin doctors, to submit messages, aiming at achievement of political success. Analysis of changes in terms of communication and political marketing requires redefinition of classical categories operated by political marketing and communication, namely the notions of sender, message and receiver. While reformulating these categories, it is necessary to also analyze new tools and devices used by domains mentioned above. Presentation and explanation of their new content, definitions and relations between them leads to the conclusions concerning new role of media in the world dominated by high technologies.

The expression (and concept) of “new media”, initially describing the facilities which permitted the spread of information in real time amongst many recipients, although present in western literature for sixty years, still merits thorough analysis. The rapid development of new media, signifying nowadays communication methods of a more digital nature, necessitates a thorough analysis of its infl uence on several aspects of social and political life. New media and politics. Internet, democracy, electoral campaigns, a work edited by Marek Jeziński, provides such an analysis in terms of political marketing, theories of political systems, ethics and other fields of interest of social and political studies. The book consists of two parts, one of which concentrates on relations between media and democracy. The second one covers the impact of the Internet on political life and the role of new technologies in providing information, shaping attitudes, changing the forms of political participation and exercising social control.

Audience of the media and elicitation potencial of Internet
The article discusses a problem about audience of old and new media. At the beginning of text author mentions each epoch in the history of human thought, ending its consideration of the time of post-post modernism, in which an integral part of human life is, in her opinion, the computer. Then goes on to present two different trends recognizing the public media. One associated with the hypothesis of the spiral of silence by Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann and the other based on a spiral barking and clamor proposed by Stanislaw Ignacy Fiut. In the next part of the work takes the issue of ways to receive media information and identifies specific concepts of audience. A key part of the article is the section on public opinion of old and new media, in which the author shows both the differences and similarities that occur between users different media types.

The role of the media in the museum education of persons with disabilities
Educational function is one of the essential functions of museums. New media allow to create an interactive and engaging exhibitions, which help museum education to use the latest educational trends that are geared towards self-development of the recipient. Thanks to modern technologies persons with disabilities can participate like never before in educational museum programs. In this article I present a report on the research on facilities for the disabled in Cracow museums. I am also presenting the latest media technologies that will make the museum’s offer more attractive to all audiences and allow persons with disabilities to participate in the process of meeting and experiencing the exhibition.

Social media in the process of building civil society in Lublin
Abstract: Implementation of the policy of participatory management of the city includes the active involvement of citizens in the processes of co-decision. The involvement of the residents in the policy of urban space development gains more and more recognition among the local authority regulating the rules of cooperation with the citizens in the local and national law. Implementation of new communication tools is a response to social needs, as results of social needs and made them used by the residents. Natural stage communication process has to incorporate social media into a dialogue with the residents.
Below I present an analysis of social media and the role they play a in the process of building civil society Lublin. In this article I will present the media used by the City of Lublin in communicating with residents, the role of social media in this process and the level of social involvement in the communication process with the use of Facebook.
Looking at the city as a place for the realisation of the residents’ needs, one cannot overlook the instruments for their implementation. Every city builds its own code of activity. The success of the residents in the realisation of their projects equals the success of the authorities in the implementation of the participatory city management policy.

Homo sapiens in information society
Abstract: This publication discusses the problem of the origin of informationbased society and the impact of its most important processes on human life. The author in her work shows how commercialization, and above all “McDonaldization” and consumerism changed the picture of modern human individual, and of society as a whole. Her discussion starts by individual epochs in human history, ending at the stage of the invention of the computer, and then the popularization of the Internet. In the first passage the publication introduces the reader to the world of information- based society by providing its origins and development. Then, it directs attention toward the processes inherent to a society based on information, focusing mainly on consumerism and commercialization and their impact on contemporary media. The author connects the concept of consumerism with the culture of digital narcissism and indicates its’ impact on today’s youth.

Development and popularization of new communication technologies generate new dimensions of opportunities and threats associated with learning and using technologies as well as with their sociocultural consequences. The article presents four dimensions of social perception of these threats and opportunities: creativity, representative potential, psychological attitude, privacy and control. They were distinguished on the basis of two research projects using qualitative research techniques. Particular attention was dedicated to generational usage of technology. In this way, the paper may be the basis for distinguishing the dimensions of technological competencies.

Th is article aims to discuss the problem of communication at and outside of school, in a world dominated by digitisation. The prevailing fashion for the use of online information resources has moved into every aspect of life, including education. Interviews with teachers of different educational levels have been conducted. They were intended to illustrate teachers’ att itudes to the requirements of the increasing technological development. A basic question that accompanies the deliberations refers to the quality of education in the world of digitisation. The discussion is reinforced with examples and analyses of the current media education.

Using of new media in academic education

The dynamics of social change also forces changes in education. New media play a very important role in the education process. Nowadays, didacticians are more and more willing to use didactic means served to them by the development of modern technologies. This form of conducting classes is making classes more attractive and activating students. In this article, PhD students indicate which applications and e-learning platforms use during conducting classes and describe what is important for the effectiveness of the teaching process. The article present’s research among a group of PhD students. Selected electronic aids selected by PhD students have been characterized. The author pays attention to on need to improve digital literacy among academic educators and the need to adapt academic education, which would be a response to the needs of a digital student.

Video games are an important part of contemporary culture and economy, since the number of video game users is constantly increasing, part of that group consists of children. Socialization of young gamers largely takes place in the family. The purpose of this article is to present the conclusions brought by the research on role of video games in the life of the modern family. The study focuses in particular on the issue of technological and cultural competence of children and parents. The research was conducted employing quantitative and qualitative methods a questionnaire survey and interview. Some worrying phenomena has become noticeable within the pool of twenty four surveyed families, especially in terms of: shortcomings in the cultural and technological competence of parents, insufficient level of parental control, limited communication between parents and children or the lack of support from the school. This article is an attempt to deepen the analysis of impact that video games have on the family environment. The mentioned issue is particularly important in the perspective of growing prevalence of this medium and its specificity significantly different from older media.

Election silence is a legally determined period that typically begins directly before Election Day and lasts until the voting comes to an end. During the election silence, it is forbidden to conduct “any form of electoral agitation aimed at promoting a particular candidate, list of candidates or electoral committees participating in the election among voters”. Due to the rapid development of new media, particularly the Internet, many experts argue that in the age of digital media it is no longer enforceable. Thus, the main purpose of this paper is to answer the question of whether or not it is justified to retain the current regulations on election silence. These considerations are supported by quantitative surveys conducted by the author, as well as the survey realized by the Public Opinion Research Center (CBOS).

Assuming the statement, according to which video games (or the entire culture related to them) can serve as a valuable teaching material, is true, it is reasonable and justified to question the still-existing opposition and dispute that digital games must face in school environments. This fact is all the more astonishing as it is the representatives of educational environment that are currently providing particularly didactically inspiring evidence, and thus also strong arguments for this claim. At the same time, the fact that computer games have always dealt with the cultural industry, or at least as much as with culture, means that the “distrustfulness” towards digital games present in the educational space does not only have to be an expression of prejudices and moral panic. Acting from the position of a philosopher involved in the educational potential of computer games, in this text I take up to formulate a possible answer/possible answers explaining the reasons for this conjuncture. Relying on the hermeneutic method, I also suggest possible ways of reading a computer game, pointing to its didactic importance. This text is therefore directed primarily to teachers and educators interested in searching for innovative and practical educational strategies.

The continuous development of technology actually does not allow for the creation of a uniform definition of the media, but the redefinition of the notion of media is necessary. The broadcasters – institutions that have played an essential role have lost their importance as a major player in the media market. They take the position of content providers, and the media users (the auditorium, as widely defined today) and they also do not limit their position to the role of the consumers of the content. Through the availability of various materials, the recipients do not have to be limited now to one broadcaster who can affect the perception of the problem or event. This change was caused by the opportunity of the interaction between the broadcaster and the user. The recipient does not feel just a passive listener, but can actively participate in the creation of media content and thereby substantially influence the content transmission. This issue is important in the situation where the media are required for specific actions, eg. in case of threats and emergencies. The question which arises here is what kinds of media should fullfil such obligations and to what extent you can limit the freedoms and fundamental rights of individuals in the area of communication.

Contemporary German Printed Media – Chosen Aspects

The paper draws on selected examples of the structure and working of the contemporary German print media, pointing to the most characteristic features of the matching process in the German press to the rapidly changing socio-economic environment, that is, the marketing of media coverage. German quality newspapers and magazines found their niche in this rapidly changing media market and have become media entities that provide broad services to the public, including that which requires in-depth analysis and information from the international space. Press despite its tabloidisation retains its influence nationwide and targeted, albeit to a limited group of customers (mostly elite) in these segments is trying to counter the general mediocrity of communication and provide not only emotional but also a fair comment and free of information and knowledge.

The influence of new media on the process of modernizing the content of teacher education is studied; the functions, principles and pedagogical conditions of using new media in the process of professional training of future teachers are revealed. A set of historiographical and historical- comparative methods and approaches is used. The source base consists of international scientific periodicals of pedagogical publications of the USA, articles from the ProQuest electronic database; and documents of international organizations (UNESCO, UN). The results prove that new media, under certain conditions (selection of relevant texts, reliance on vitagenic experience, motivation, stimulation, writing, etc.) contribute to the formation of pedagogical consciousness, ensuring the professional development and formation of the future teacher.