Manuel Castels: strategy of the internet culture of the information age

Kirillova N. B.

2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of the monograph "Galaxy Internet: Reflections on the Internet, Business and Society" by the famous American sociologist, analyst of the information age and network society Manuel Castells, which immediately became a scientific bestseller, popular in many countries of the world. Castells wrote his book in the initial period of the Internet civilization, which caused enormous changes in various spheres of society: politics, business, culture. The analysis of the new socio-cultural human environment conducted by the scientist, far from direct prophecies and forecasts, remains as relevant and in demand, logically continuing the problems of many fundamental studies of media communications and media culture of the information age, previously presented in the works of V. Benjamin, R. Barth, J. Baudrillard, G.M. McLuhan, E. Toffler, etc. Analyzing and generalizing socio-cultural, philosophical and communicative concepts of M. The author substantiates the emergence and development of new alternative cultures existing in the Galaxy of the Internet, in social networks, in the modern communication and digital space and predicts their prospects.

Keywords:Manuel Castels, information age, media communications, media culture, "Galaxy Internet", virtual reality, Internet culture.