Psychological perception by students of prosocial media

Abstract

Introduction. In the current situation of socio-economic development, the process of digitalization of a society has a significant impact on the socialization of an individual. Digital media resources can set ideal personality patterns and norms of behavior, forming value orientations and prosocial behavior of youth. Purpose. To analyze and evaluate the influence of prosocial media on the psychological perception of students, expressed in prosocial thinking, emotional reactions and prosocial intentions. Study participants. The sample consisted of 210 Moscow students (28% of males, 72% of females) aged 18 to 26 (M = 21). Methodical tools. The subjects were asked to watch sequentially seven videos (media resources) of prosocial content posted on the YouTube video hosting. The influence of prosocial media on nonsocial thinking, emotional reactions, and prosocial intentions was evaluated using the specially designed questionnaire “Media Resource Analysis”. The obtained empirical data were comprehended and processed using content analysis, quantitative analysis methods (descriptive statistics, percentage analysis, Friedman's two-way rank analysis of variance for related samples, Mann-Whitney test, Pearson correlation analysis). Results and scientific novelty. The study showed that prosocial media cause various emotional reactions (χ = 84.92;