Rhetorical Risk Zones in Mediatexts of Turbulent Times

Abstract

The concept of rhetorical risk is introduced and actualized within the framework of the rhetorical decoding of the text concept aimed at studying the mechanisms of effective text formation. The phenomenon of textual effectiveness gains particular significance in turbulent periods of human existence. The research material consists of a corpus of mediatexts created during the COVID-19 pandemic and in April 2024 during the devastating flooding in the Southern Urals and Western Siberia. The aim of the article is to identify the zones of rhetorical risks in the text and to identify their indicators. In accordance with the methodological principles of linguorhetorical reconstruction, the zones of rhetorical risks in the text were identified as inventive, dispositival, and elocutive. Indicators of the inventive zone include the implicitness of the speaker’s practical goal-setting and the orthodoxy of the thesis put forward. Indicators of dispositival risk zones include one-dimensionality of argumentation, excessive use of statistical data as arguments, and frequency of related reasoning. The elocutive zone of rhetorical risks arises due to the speakers’ neglect of such a significant communicative criterion for turbulent times as dialogism. The research results can have broad professional applications — from educational activities to mass media and linguo-expert practices.