Preview as a Creolized Text: Features of Russian, British and American YouTube News Videos

Abstract

The article presents a comparative study of verbal and non-verbal features of previews of Russian, British and American news and political videos as well as offers an analysis of the most widespread types of visual metaphors of this type of creolized text and their potential influence on the viewers. The current study is relevant due to the complex structure of video previews, which is including both verbal and non-verbal components. The aim of the current study was to, firstly, identify verbal and non-verbal peculiarities of news previews in the Russian and English segments of the internet, and, secondly, determine some similarities and differences. The methods used included comparative method of analysis, cognitive discourse analysis. The material of the study was the previews of videos of official and unofficial news video channels of YouTube and Yandex Zen from 2020 to 2022. Political affiliation was not taken into consideration. The authors note that the more official channels have a stricter form of visual representation of the material presented. As a result, some similarities were identified, such as colour choices, showing emotions, using gestures and including elements of popular culture. As for the differences, the authors note the typical composition choices (usage of opposing images in Russian and British videos, collages in British videos), the presence of tricks or clickbait (both verbal and non-verbal) when covering the information (most characteristic of Russian previews). In conclusion, the authors highlight that further study of video previews appears to be promising.