Abstract:

In the present-day globalized world new media with their distinctive features have brought human society to a highly interconnected and complex level, penetrating and dissolving human boundaries and influencing the way we live, think and behave. The cyberspace formed by the new media allows people to generate virtual experience and reality. Moreover, it effectuates the free alteration of one’s gender, appearance, ideology, occupation, personal and professional needs and values ([1]).

Our research focuses on the discussion of the relationship between the new media environment and university students’ perception of their professional values in the modern conditions of globalization.
In fact, the globalization of young individuals’ culture, ideology and lifestyle has become a conceptual magnet attracting research and theorizing efforts from a variety of disciplines and interdisciplinary formations such as psychology, political science, cultural studies, cognitive linguistics, communication and media studies, journalism and sociology.

Therefore, multiple studies show that many young people today see the meaning of life in interesting work, in their welfare, in the humanization of social relations and in building a truly democratic state, whose activities would be aimed at creating conditions for the harmonious development of a man ([2]). The formation of new media community that crosses all the boundaries of human society definitely challenges the way young individuals perceive their common life principles and professional values.

Thus, our research introduces the hypothesis that university students’ professional values are defined by the new media environment and they may be changed in case the digital media communications are evolved in time and space. We also hypothesize that in the modern globalized media world students’ professional values are shaped by such psychological mechanisms as goal-setting, professional reflection and professional self-concept.

To estimate the validity and reliability of our working hypotheses a number of Russian university students’ surveys were conducted, including the Rokeach Value Survey ([3]). The results of the research were statistically processed and they introduced the interrelation between the new media environment and the students’ professional values.

In the end, the research findings generated a set of questions that future works should seek to address in the discussion of the new media effects on the university students’ professional values as well as their general worldview in the globalization context.

References:
[1] Guo-Ming, Ch. (2012). The impact of New Media on Intercultural Communication in Global Context. China Media Research, 8 (2). PP.1-10.
[2]Shabanova, M.A. (1996). Svoboda v usloviyakh reform. Svobodnaya mysl'. №4. S. 62-72. [in Russian].
[3] Rokeach, M. (1973). The Nature of Human Values. New York: The Free Press. 438 p.

Keywords:

Globalization, new media environment, professional values, university students, psychological mechanisms.