Is the media a means of knowing the world or manipulating consciousness?

The article highlights some aspects of the influence of the media on the human subconscious. It has been found that today the world community is moving from direct knowledge of the world around it to knowledge of the world — mediated by the media — the virtual world, which is increasingly pretended to be real. It is noted that today the main means of profit and struggle for power is mass disinformation, including through the media. Inequality in access to information and misinformation are the basis of market and power-democratic speculation. The dangers associated with the activities of the media are considered. In particular, raising the information threshold of perception in an aggressive information environment can be used for explicit and implicit methods of manipulation; means of communication contribute to the transformation of people into information addicts; latent neurolinguistic programming is widely used, etc. In the context of the influence of the media on the consciousness and psyche of man, the peculiarities of his inner world and the dynamics of self-consciousness are analyzed. The negative consequences of the mass media influence on users and possible ways of its neutralization are analyzed. It was emphasized that the example of foreign countries with negative manifestations and influences of domestic media should be combated by improving relevant laws, creating public oversight councils in the media, strengthening the requirements of public organizations and movements to the legislative, executive and judicial systems.