Digital dimensions of propaganda and the dehumanization of mass consciousness

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the digital dimensions of propaganda in the context of the dehumanisation of mass consciousness within the development of the information society. The aim is to clarify the relationship between the digitalisation of communicative practices, the transformation of propaganda mechanisms, and changes in the axiological and cognitive structures of individual and collective consciousness. The methodological framework is based on an interdisciplinary approach combining philosophical-anthropological, sociocultural, hermeneutic perspectives, and elements of critical discourse analysis. Media reality emerges as a specific space of representations in which information functions primarily as interpretation, leading to the displacement of direct experience and the formation of a reactive mode of perception. Digital propaganda operates through a complex set of technological mechanisms, including algorithmic segregation, content personalisation, emotional framing, and the fragmentation of truth, which ensure deep penetration into the cognitive and emotional structures of consciousness. The phenomenon of post-truth defines the conditions for dehumanisation by contributing to the decline of critical thinking, empathy, and reflection, as well as by fostering simplified binary models of interpreting social reality. The virtualisation of communication is associated with the transformation of sociality and subjectivity, manifested in phenomena such as smart mobs, information bubbles, and the anonymisation of interaction. Particular attention is given to young audiences as the most integrated into the digital environment and simultaneously the most vulnerable to manipulative influences.

Digital propaganda constitutes a new phase in the evolution of social communication, functioning as an immanent element of the information ecosystem and shaping a destabilised and fragmented model of mass consciousness. In the philosophical dimension, this poses a challenge to humanistic principles and highlights the need to develop effective mechanisms for counteracting dehumanisation, particularly through the advancement of media literacy, critical thinking, and value-oriented activity.