Fisenko T. Social networking services as a phenomenon of the modern media environment

The thesis is devoted to the current state of social networking services (SNS), their structure, tools and principles of operation. The author outlines the main stages of study of the phenomenon of social networking services in various sciences, and defines the term "social networking service" within the science of communication. Structural and logical organization of social networking services are qualified, and their communication characteristics and content components are analyzed. Content analyzes of messages in SNS allowed to identify potentially influential tools, used in social networking services, and possible consequences of their use. In the work the conditions of communities functioning in SNS are defined, and the principles of their construction are revealed. On the basis of experimental studies the pragmatic two-step model of communities development and promotion in SNS is concluded.