EVOLUTION OF THE MEDIA IN NORTH AFRICA COUNTRIES AFTER THE CRISIS OF THE ARAB SPRING

The subject of the study in this article is the changes that occur in the media and related information and communication technologies in the countries of North Africa after the crisis of the Arab Spring. The media played the vital role in political revolutions and transformations, they informed people of opinions of the activists, criticism of the power, contributed to establishing communication between the activists and ordinary citizens, united protests at the local level to turn them into a strong national movement. The revolutionary changes in the Arab world that began in 2011 brought hope for a more open public sphere. Yet, after 6 years, the results of this process do not seem to be unambiguous. On the way of development of traditional media there are still many obstacles. Among them in most Arab countries, there are numerous social and political taboos, propaganda serving the political power, self-censorship of journalists, their prosecution from the authorities. Theoretical and methodological basis for the article were such methods as comparative method, which allows on the basis of comparison of the situation in different countries of North Africa to identify the typological features of the Arab model of the information society; critical discourse analysis, with the help of which it becomes possible to comprehend information policy in different Arab countries. The relevance and novelty of this research is due to the important role played by the media in modern international politics. The author concludes that the Arab countries have yet to find a balance between the state information policy and the democratic potential of free media.