Axiology of Russia’s Image in Mass Media Discourse in Coronavirus Pandemic

Abstract

The current paper addresses the issue of axiological potential of mass media discursive texts generated during the coronavirus outbreak, namely those discussing and debating Russian vaccines. The study draws on discourse analysis and linguoaxiological analysis of media texts, which reveals the main ideological trends of informing the global community about the state of the Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. The authors have determined that the trends revealed as a result of media discourse analysis concern such phenomena as ‘political agenda’, ‘safety issues’ and ‘compulsion to vaccinate / mistrust of government’. To share these axiologically charged ideas, speakers follow particular verbal practices, i.e., using emotive vocabulary, primarily evaluative word-combinations, axiological notions, metaphors, pejorative vocabulary, discursive markers etc. for manipulating the perception of the covered events. As a result, main constituents for the three key thematic fields are identified, extensively described, and structured through verbal representations of axiological notions. The results illustrate how mass media discourse can be used to investigate axiological notions delivered by the author. Besides, it can provide researchers with an instrument to identify the language means used to create either positive or negative media image.