Friday, November 8Институт «Высшая школа журналистики и массовых коммуникаций» СПбГУ
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2023. Volume 10, No. 4

2023
№ 4
(Vol. 10)

The article is devoted to the study of linguopragmatic characteristics of media text in the context of information and psychological impact on individual and collective addressee in the context of mass information broadcasting. As is known, as a special form of text existence in the modern information space, media text contains not only verbal elements realizing direct speech impact, but also non-verbal ones. This symbiosis of verbal and non-verbal means, as well as a number of pragmatic factors and attitudes, multiply the persuasive potential of a modern media text. In this connection, following other scientific fields, linguistics enters into interaction with the phenomenon of informational and psychological impact, which combines linguistic and extra-linguistic aspects of communication. From a structural point of view, media text is a complex communicative organization that combines text, hypertext, dynamic and static images, sound and provides non-linear, multi-channel, multi-layered and multi-dimensional perception of the embedded conceptual meanings, creates opportunities for feedback. What makes a modern media text polycode-multimodal. The purpose of this article is to analyze the linguopragmatic characteristics of the media text as the main form of realization of information influence. We use descriptive, synchronic-diachronic and functional research methods, as well as methods of contextual and communicative-pragmatic analysis. Based on the results of the study, we analyzed and described in detail the linguopragmatic characteristics of the media text as the main form of realization of information and psychological impact on the addressee in the modern information and communication space.

2023
№ 4
(Vol. 10)

The key communication and typological characteristics of a scientific text on the Internet are considered as a special form of representation of scientific knowledge. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the use of a multimodal approach to the study of the specifics of academic texts in the Internet environment, which involves the study of a scientific text in a combination of linguo-stylistic, semiotic and discursive approaches. This approach makes it possible to study scientific Internet texts as certain communicative situations in terms of combining various forms and formats of transmitting and receiving information, taking into account the verbal and visual components, text architectonics, affordances, etc. As a result, the most important features of the academic Internet text, such as hypertextuality, interactivity, multimodality, openness and accessibility, are identified and characterized. The digital online environment has fundamentally changed scientific communication — it has made it cheaper, more accessible, more mobile, at the same time, it has also created new communication problems. One of them is the “extinction” of links in scientific publications: a significant number of hyperlinks either do not correspond to the original content or do not work completely. The number of “dead” links is linear, but constantly growing, which creates obvious threats to the development of modern scientific communication in the Internet environment. Based on the analysis of modern scientific texts, their typology was performed, based on the following parameters: the nature of the creation of texts (PDF versions of texts, web texts and mixed types of texts), the updating of the material in the publication (static and dynamic (“live”) scientific texts), semiotic organization of the text (verbal texts, verbal texts with a static or dynamic visual component), the ability to rate the material and comment on it (texts with excluded and enabled readers’ evaluation), conditions for the reader to access the publication (publications with free and paid full-text access), the prevailing way of perception of information by the consumer (linear, microergodic, non-mutable and mutable ergodic texts).

2023
№ 4
(Vol. 10)

Analysis of the structural elements of the media space and communication mechanisms that shape the information picture of the world and construct the image of socially significant facts remains relevant in the eventful context of modern life; each time it requires fresh empirical material for research. The article analyzes State of the Union addresses of US Presidents in 2003 and 2022 — by George W. Bush and J. Biden — to identify the crypto components, or hidden aspects of leadership that are manifested in both speeches. The choice of sources is related to the current situation in the world, in which one can see some similarities with the context of the presidential speech twenty years ago. The study of texts included two stages: quantitative content analysis and qualitative discourse analysis. To highlight the semantic priorities of the texts, the methods of quantitative linguistics were used; calculating the frequency of linguistic units made it possible to determine the key words of the discourse and its main conceptual vectors. The qualitative analysis of the semantic and pragmatic aspects of information showed that both speeches were characterized by the use of such strategies as generalization, example, amplification, concession, repetition, and contrast. The study revealed that many common features in the speeches were due to the specifics of the genre — both in the lexical content and in the choice of strategies for influencing the audience. Both speeches contain a large number of units referring to the socio-political realities of the era; in their structure, the role of personal pronouns is extremely high, which helps create images of politicians with outstanding leadership qualities that are necessary to unite their people. The analysis also made it possible to highlight a number of peculiarities, both in the agenda and in the choice of means of expression.

2023
№ 4
(Vol. 10)

COVID-19 pandemic and the virus spread of hoax information which accompanied this disease encouraged the World Health Organization to use the word infodemic which was actively employed by the foreign and Russian mass-media. The redoubled attention of the mass-media to the problem of infodemic led to the growth of its social importance, to the increase of the word infodemic frequency which made it order of the day. The semantics of the word infodemic was sophisticated, new meanings in the mass-media definitions appeared, the former demanding meta-language reflection, a new media-concept was formed. The aim of the article is to explore infodemic as the key media-concept of the present time. The main stages of the media-concept’s life cycle are revealed, the peculiarities of its functioning at each stage are described. The research bank was formed with the help of the corpus method. The following methods were employed in the process of the language material scrutiny: definition analysis, component and conceptual analysis, the method of metaphoric modelling, discourseanalysis and content-analysis. The infodemic rapidly turned into a concept due to the highprofile nature, the importance and the ingenuity of the pandemic itself and its reflection in the traditional and social mass-media. The media-concept infodemic went through several stages: onset, growth and maturity. It acquired three lavish and highly-structured layers: notional, figurative and evaluative. The information in each of these layers is distributed according to three conceptual segments: “information — spread — consequences”. In the process of the media-concept’s evolution its initial connection with the medical sphere was weakened. The infodemic was interpreted as a flow of copious and false information which appears and spreads in the mass-media and the Internet in the periods of crucial social periods. The mediaconcept “infodemic” functions as an indicator of a wide variety of social problems connected with the media-consuming.

2023
№ 4
(Vol. 10)

The article is devoted to the identification and description of the communicative and pragmatic specifics of the television discourse of the cognitive program and its linguistic and stylistic originality. The study is based on the material of an intellectual and entertaining quiz, the participants of which were the finalists of the regional competitions “Teacher of the Year”. It is substantiated that the communicative-pragmatic specificity of the program under study is determined by its genre (intellectual quiz), the category of participants (school teachers) and the educational strategy aimed at popularizing knowledge and sharing knowledge. These factors determine the nature of the linguistic representation of the discourse under study. The vocabulary of general education occupies a key position in the discourse under study. The genre of the quiz involves assessing the performance of tasks, which leads to an abundance of evaluative statements. It is revealed that they are represented by speech acts of approval, praise, compliment; in many cases they are used as a manifestation of politeness, as a kind of etiquette formula and create a harmonious atmosphere of communication. The communicative space of the program is characterized by emotionality, expressiveness, figurative speech of the presenters and participants. The noted features are formed through a variety of figurative and expressive means of the language: metaphors, phraseologically related combinations, precedent units. The polyphony of linguistic and stylistic resources of the cognitive program is noted. The basis of speech communication is the neutral style of the literary language in combination with elements of colloquial style. Among the colloquial elements, emotionally expressive vocabulary, elements of general, professional and youth jargon stand out.

2023
№ 4
(Vol. 10)

The article accumulates, systematizes and qualifies the most significant modern and relevant scientific works in the field of digital ethics and memetics over the past five years by means of a semisystematic analysis. This method allows us to consider various areas of research for a specified period and provide an overview of scientific sources on issues of digital ethics and memetics. The studies reviewed by the author were selected on scientific and technical bases as eLibrary, CyberLeninka and CORE according to the following keywords: Internet meme, memetics, digital ethics, ethics of a journalist, social networks. The author’s focus is on identifying gaps in research on both internet memes and digital ethics. The author aims to identify different aspects of the relationship between the Internet meme and the ethics of its creation and distribution, as well as to outline the prospects for further research of the problems raised. The presented article specifies the range of existing semantic gaps in scientific concepts and identifies the main lines of development of the problem. As a result of the study the author notes that the study of creolized texts comes down to three problematic issues: how they influence the user’s picture of the world, how they become popular and who creates them. At the same time, the ethical side of the issue is not touched upon by the authors in their works. Most scholarly articles on digital ethics and journalism ethics boil down to three areas: analysis of codes of ethics, analysis of user behavior on social networks and analysis of the spread of fake information online. Thus, the author concludes that digital ethics scholars almost never consider Internet memes as a subject of study, and vice versa, researchers of Internet memes rarely address ethical issues in their works.

2023
№ 4
(Vol. 10)

The purpose of the article: to consider the linguistic components of destructive orientation in the media discourse of Russia, Vietnam, China and Kazakhstan. Hypothesis: the mass media discourse of Russia, Vietnam, China and Kazakhstan actively uses aggressive verbal strategies to construct a pronounced negative image of a target that opposes, according to the governments of these countries, national interests. The object of the study is the economic media discourse of Russia, China, Vietnam and Kazakhstan. The subject of the analysis is the linguistic components of a destructive nature used in the economic media discourse of the above countries. The scientific novelty is due to the elaboration of previously not considered, new modern speech material, which is of interest both in terms of theory and practice, since it helps to understand the directions of purposeful transformation of the ideological paradigm of the potential target audience with the promotion of clear updated parameters of acceptance/ rejection of the economic situation in the country and/or around it. The relevance of the study is predetermined by the fact that the economic media discourse of these countries previously represented a research lacuna. The scenario approach in the study is used in reconstructive linguistic modeling of destruction in modern economic media in a situation of dominance of digital communication. Communicative actors in the economic media discourse are analyzed through a system of motives that create conditions for the successful implementation of targeted persistence. The simulated transformation of the basic values of the economic space in the structure of background knowledge is based on associative series of interpretation, which depend on the involvement of the intended recipients in a particular information background that is subject to destructive influence. The results of the study are based on a prospective analysis of destructive components in the economic media discourse of the above countries. In the course of the work, the frequency manipulative destructive elements in the economic media discourse have been identified, which are aimed at transforming the standards of public reactions in public coverage of economic and financial problems.

2023
№ 4
(Vol. 10)

One of the challenges of social media as a means of interaction is to ensure media accessibility, i. e. to provide users with a free and unhindered access to the content of computer-mediated communication platforms. In the context of global networking, linguistic constraints due to the use of a verbal code different from the language of the potential user while creating media content, are not the least of the obstacles to such access. Given the obvious dominance of English in the online space, this is mainly a matter of expanding the audience by engaging individuals whose source language proficiency is not sufficient for unimpeded use of social media, in particular for viewing, listening and understanding video content uploaded on video hosting sites and other digital platforms. Since user-generated video content is generally characterised by individual and independent production, free accessibility and target audiences sharing a common interest for a specific subject matter, regardless of their residence area and language affiliation, human audio-visual translation is not considerable in such circumstances. For this reason, as a way to overcome language barriers and ensure media accessibility, the most advanced Internet portals are beginning to implement Web-based online machine translation solutions, made possible by the development of linguistic digital technologies. The survey conducted as a part of this study has shed light on the users’ perception of machine voice-over translation of English-language travel vlogs into Russian, and formulated some hypotheses regarding the ways to further improve its quality. The empirical evidence for this study was obtained from a two-step survey involving users and experts (audiovisual translators) who assessed the quality of machine voice translation of English-language travel vlog into Russian. According to the results ontained machine translation seems to be conceptually acceptable as a means of enabling language media accessibility in social media.

2023
№ 4
(Vol. 10)

The rapidly unfolding process of mediatization radically changes the contours of social reality. Unprecedented arrangements of individuals, communications and media give rise to new collectivities and new translocal discourses on politics, economics, education, culture, and religion. The new media included in the structure of communication opened up access to information and practice beyond the censorship of institutionalized authorities. A variety of movements, groups and communities declare themselves through the communicative spaces of blogs, websites, podcasts, digital platforms. Media’s public sphere gives the voice to youth subcultures that previously were in the gray zones of sociality. These and many other consequences of mediatization call into question the methodological tools of social sciences. Theories on mediatization as well as the empirical research into mediatized social reality are the relatively new developments of the Russian academic field. There is an evident absence of sociological theorizing on mediatization in the Russian literature on media research. This article is aimed at reviewing the institutional approach of the Danish sociologist Stig Hjarvard, who was a pioneer in the theoretical understanding of mediatization as a process of total change in modern societies. The institutional approach is extremely in demand in the humanities. The part of the article covers from Hjarvard’s initial reflections on the mediatization to his later development of approach to mediatization.The article proposes an analysis of the key concepts of the institutional approach and the thematic areas formed through its application in the study of youth — youth practices and subcultures in the media’s public spere and digital storytelling as a tool for identity construction. The proposed article contains an analysis of specific cases of applying the methodology of the approach in the study of subcultures of street graffiti writers, skaters and electro-dancers.