ДИСКУРС МАССМЕДИА КАК ИННОВАЦИОННОЕ СРЕДСТВО РЕПРЕЗЕНТАЦИИ ОБРАЗА КИТАЯ В ЯЗЫКЕ БРИТАНСКИХ СМИ

Abstract

Nowadays, mass-media discourse is a common object of study in various research works. This is connected with the fact that information and telecommunication technologies are developing at a fast pace. Mass media discourse is inseparable from society, that is, a large audience for whom information is transmitted in a simplified form.The media seeks to influence public consciousness through mass-media discourse, forming certain attitudes and values in the public mind. The aim of the study is to identify the main conceptual characteristics of China's image, as presented in the British mass media discourse. The research analyzes articles on political and economic issues about China published by the British media. By means of contextual, conceptual and semantic analysis the authors identify and describe such basic conceptual characteristics of China's image being formed in the British mass-media discourse, as China – a business partner of Great Britain, China – a threat to the global economy, China – a state with slowing down development. The first conceptual characteristic presents China as a state it is economically profitable to cooperate with. The second one, in turn, indicates that the state of its economy affects the situation in the world. As for the third characteristic, it describes China as a country with less progressive development. In addition, there is a semantic classification of the lexical units characterizing China, as well as a comparative analysis of the percentage of words and expressions used. These conceptual characteristics are expressed by such parts of speech as nounsadjectives, verbs and adverbs, as well as by verb phrases. The words and expressions used fully describe Great Britain, confirming the accuracy of the highlighted characteristics.