CHIZHIK ANNA V.

The article is devoted to the analytical review of the audience preferences, characteristics of the consumption of informational messages in the context of the horizontal model of communication. The characteristics of the audience, channels of communication are analyzed, the quantitative method of sociological research is used; the recipients are the employees of St. Petersburg State University. The work provides information about the number of digital devices for news consumption, public preferences for the information playback format and the major news sources ranked on age criteria. Then the author studies the change in media consumption time of different age groups, it is concluded that the Internet is an important communication channel, on which almost all age groups spend an average of about 4 hours. The TV and radio are used by people at home or while traveling by car, when it is possible to turn on the channels in the background mode. The youth noted the presence of certain discomfort when receiving the news via radio and printed publications, while for people over 35 years these types of media are of great interest. The study using self-assessment of the audience of media production consumers with the method of personal formalized interview was performed. The study found out that the number of people who are sure that they know where they can find necessary information has considerably grown. In conclusion the survey concerning the problems of perception of the existing media market was made. Several factors affect the development of the media at a time: the economic situation is narrowing the range of the mass media working in the traditional formats (newspapers and radio stations close, television channels disappear) and the legislation developing towards the censorship determines the search for unconventional options of the interaction of the mass media with the audience.