The article offers a culturological vision of publicity, and partly correlative privacy as universal aspects of the joint existence of people. The analysis methodology is based on the perception of culture as a universal specific way of existence of people and society; the perception of society as a sociocultural system; the perception of the evolution of society and all areas of its existence as a result of their holistic sociocultural determination. Publicity is considered in terms of its characterisation as a sociocultural phenomenon (space-time, socioanthropological, functional, communicative, discursive), and then the evolution of publicity as a function and the product of the cultural system is outlined. The main (and diverse) sociocultural influential factors having determined substantial changes in features of publicity (and its relationship with privacy) as from the second half of the 20th century to the present day are analysed: left-wing influence and democratisation of societies after World War Two; rising prosperity of citizens; origination of consumer society; release of public psychology from some conventional cultural taboos including as a result of secularisation and the sexual revolution; widespread and influential mass-media; informational revolution (information society). Critical effects of these factors in respect of publicity and its evolution have been shown. The information revolution of the second half of the 20th century to the early 21st Century is considered as the crucial factor of the radical qualitive transformation of social life, processes of its institutionalisation and with it, public and private spheres. Peculiarities of contemporary online publicness and its relationship with online privacy are addressed. Axiological problems of online publicness are highlighted.
Culture of the Second Half of the 20th Century through the Early 21st Century in Action: Creation of Contemporary Publicity
