Aestheticization of media communication – a tool and an element of the macro-process of social reality aestheticization

Abstract

Aestheticization of media communication is examined in the article as an embodiment of a macro-process of social reality aestheticization. Aestheticization is defined as a socio-cultural transformation that involves engineering and dissemination in society of aesthetic, sensory-driven, sensually expressive, and attractive forms of social beingness (social practices, social relations, and social knowledge), which fosters some meaning and values in society, thereby shaping the relevant worldview. As a multidimensional transformation, aestheticization is realized in a wide range of particular processes and practices in various social areas; media communication becomes the most critical sphere of its manifestation. In studying the process of aestheticization of media communication, we proceed from the semiotic multimodality of media communication in the digital age, which means active use of codes of verbal (natural) and nonverbal (symbolic) languages in modern media messaging. Concerning non-verbal semiotics of the media, aestheticization evolves as perfecting the sensory imagery and graphicness in messaging to evoke sensations, emotions, and to create sensory-driven impressions. Aestheticization of media rhetoric (the verbal component of modern media semiotics) is considered in the article as amplification of speech expressiveness and its different aspects. This is manifested in intensive use of rhetorical imagery and verbal humour, in emotional and stylistic coloring of the speech, and in the liberalization of the media language towards “freedom from” rhetoric – freedom from language decorum, speech culture, and the conventions of the institutional discourse.