ABSTRACT Despite their ubiquity and integration into everyday life, social media platforms remain under-theorized as central spaces for the curation and negotiation of diasporic identity. Contributing to the knowledge in diaspora studies, using digital ethnography and case studies from two Bangladeshi American influencers’ Instagram accounts, this paper shows that from within the postfeminist neoliberal space of social media these women curate a transnational brown/desi girl identity through their drive towards inclusive beauty, challenging patriarchy, racism and global injustices. I argue this enables them to symbolically rupture classifications like racial hierarchies of beauty, normative discourses around ethnic and migrant women and their position within global politics, creating a ‘brown girl’ space built on sharing of common experiences or assemblies whereby the followers of these influencers relate and add to their experiences via like, comment and share – multiplying the reach of the diasporic community.

The article is dedicated to the study of the features of media polemics in English-speaking media in the Old and New Worlds amid global political transformations from 2025 to early 2026. The subject of the research is the discourse presented by leading Western publications regarding U.S. policy. Indeed, the activities of Donald Trump and the American establishment have recently been viewed by the media through the lens of a gradual "destruction" of transatlantic relations. In this context, there is a growing criticism of U.S. policies, which, according to commentators, are increasingly characterized by imperialistic features. The rhetoric of leading political figures in the European region reinforces the perception of a crisis in the union between the Old World and the United States. The author analyzes the main news triggers that characterize the current tactics of American foreign relations, highlighting the most frequent interpretations of ongoing processes. The methodological foundation of the work is a qualitative content analysis of publications from leading English-language media, including the identification of thematic accents, lexical markers, and narrative strategies. The corpus of analyzed sources includes publications such as The Economist, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Times, The Atlantic, and The Nation. As a result of the study, it was established that there is a significant increase in critical rhetoric concerning U.S. policy in the media space, which is increasingly viewed through the prism of neo-imperialism. A key actor in the media discourse is Donald Trump, whose international activities are presented as a primary factor in the destruction of allied relations, the rise of protectionism, and a shift towards unilateral transactionalism. The main conclusions of the work are that modern Western media not only reflect but actively construct discourse about the crisis of transatlantic partnership. Media narratives reinforce the notion of a shift towards a "post-American world" and a reassessment of the global balance of power. Prospects for the further development of the situation are related to a possible deepening of the rift between allies, a rise in nationalist and protectionist trends, a weakening of the role of international institutions, and further polarization of public opinion. In the media space, this could lead to an escalation of confrontational rhetoric and the entrenchment of the image of the United States as a source of systemic risks to international stability.

Can social media spaces host sites of memory (or, as Pierre Nora called them, lieux de mémoire, and how do user congregations at such sites evolve? This article examines a decade-long collection of tweets about the International Holocaust Remembrance Day to investigate how digital sites of memory are produced and evolve on platforms like Twitter. By applying computational text analysis to operationalize the definitional features of a site of memory, the study explores the discursive composition of the Holocaust Remembrance Day as a memory site, the evolution of the site’s relevance over time, and the user dynamics that shape this composition online. As part of this exploration, we introduce the idea of protean memorialization, a form of digital memorialization characterized by changes in the discursive composition of a memory site, but not its relevance. We conclude by discussing the limitations of our work and directions for future research.

In an increasingly multipolar media environment, middle-power states are expanding the use of international broadcasting beyond conventional nation branding toward more structured forms of cultural diplomacy and regional coordination. This study examines Kazakhstan's Silk Way satellite channel and the inaugural Silk Way Star transnational music competition as a case of entertainment-centered international broadcasting across the Silk Road region. Drawing on a qualitative single-case study design, the analysis covers the completed 2025 broadcast season, including ten televised broadcasts (nine competitive rounds and a final episode), publicly available institutional materials, participant and jury composition, multilingual production features, scoring mechanisms, and distribution arrangements. The study integrates soft power theory, media governance scholarship, and research on international broadcasting to examine three analytical dimensions: institutional configuration, linguistic strategy, and format design. The findings indicate that Silk Way Star operates through a coordinated co-production framework involving twelve participating countries, a six-language broadcasting structure that combines accessibility with the visibility of the Kazakh language, and a hybrid jury–audience evaluation system that distributes cultural recognition across national participants. These structural features position Kazakhstan not solely as a content producer but as a coordinating actor within a transnational media architecture. Rather than demonstrating direct soft power outcomes, the study shows how entertainment formats may create institutional and symbolic conditions that support visibility and claims of cultural legitimacy within a regional media space. Limitations include reliance on publicly available materials and the absence of direct audience perception measures, suggesting the need for future work with audience analytics and comparative cases.

The aim of the study is to identify the institutional features of art journalism, which determine its status as a special institution of cultural communication in the structure of modern media space. The methodological basis of the study. The basic methods used were inductive-deductive, systematic, comparative-descriptive, as well as institutional and structural-functional approaches. The results of the study. The article examines the place and role of art journalism in the media culture space in the context of sociocultural transformations of society. The purpose of the article is to identify the essential characteristics and institutional features of art journalism in the structure of the media cultural space. The key result of the research is the development of an integrative concept linking the axiological, media-technological and professional-ethical aspects of art journalism in the context of the transformation of the Russian socio-cultural space. The proposed concept has a high heuristic potential and opens up the following research vectors in the direction of empirical verification and comparative research. The prospects for the research are related to the empirical analysis of specific media projects of art journalism, comparative studies of national models of cultural journalism and the development of methods for assessing its value-forming effect.

Purpose of the study. The purpose of the research is to develop the conceptual foundations of the socio-cultural phenomenology of war as an interdisciplinary philosophical approach that reveals its structure not only as a socio-political event, but also as a deeply rooted cultural and existential experience, represented in narratives, rituals and institutions of various historical eras. The research methodology is based on an interdisciplinary synthesis of philosophical phenomenology (E. Husserl, M. Merleau-Ponty), hermeneutics (G. Gadamer, P. Ricoeur), critical theory (T. Adorno, M. Horkheimer, M. Foucault) and philosophy of culture, which allows for a multi-level analysis of war as a phenomenon of consciousness, discourse and cultural practice. The results of the study substantiate the key provisions of the socio-cultural phenomenology of war.: 1) distinguishing war as an event and war as a stable symbolic structure of culture; 2) identifying the evolution of the legitimization of violence from sacred to rational-ideological and humanitarian-ethical discourses; 3) proving the immanent connection of totalitarian wars with the crisis of the modern project; 4) critical analysis of the «new military humanism» as a paradoxical form of legitimization of violence in conditions of postmodernity. The prospects of the research are seen in the further development of the epistemology of armed conflicts in the context of digitalization, an in-depth analysis of the anthropology of «hybrid wars», as well as in the application of the proposed approach to the study of modern forms of information warfare and the transformation of collective memory about violence in the global media space.

This study examines the production of gender pronouns as a form of cultural production in Elliot Page’s Instagram coming‑out post published on December 2, 2020, in which he publicly identifies as transgender and adopts the pronouns he/they. Situated within the broader context of digital media and gender discourse, this research aims to understand how language practices related to gender identity are produced, represented, and circulated in contemporary social media spaces. Employing a qualitative approach, the study analyzes both linguistic choices and visual elements present in the Instagram post, alongside selected audience responses in the comment section. Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of cultural production provides the main analytical framework, particularly through the concepts of habits, cultural capital, social capital, and arena. The findings suggest that Page’s position as a well‑known public figure enables the strategic use of pronouns he/they as a symbolic practice supported by significant cultural and social capital. Audience reactions demonstrate a process of symbolic negotiation marked by affirmation, solidarity, and resistance, reflecting broader tensions surrounding gender norms and identity recognition. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of how gender identity is constructed and contested in the digital era and emphasizes social media’s role as an influential arena for cultural production and symbolic power.

Digital media have reshaped electoral communication, yet official campaign websites, owned and strategically controlled media spaces, remain underexamined within hybrid media systems. This study investigates how these websites function in Portugal’s 2026 presidential election, focusing on the tension between participatory affordances and strategic control. A qualitative-dominant comparative content analysis of all eleven candidate websites is conducted using an integrated multi-model framework combining interactivity, web campaigning, functional analysis, digital sophistication, and political framing. The findings reveal a stratified digital landscape in which most websites operate as unidirectional communication hubs prioritizing narrative coherence and mobilization over deliberative interaction. Rather than functioning as democratic equalizers, campaign websites reproduce and amplify pre-existing strategic and organizational asymmetries. A key contribution of the study is the identification of a systematic association between the strength of campaign framing and the level of digital infrastructural investment. The study contributes by conceptualizing campaign websites as central media infrastructures and by reframing digital campaigning as a strategy-driven, rather than technology-driven, process.

The study investigates how the media shape perceptions of security in the European Union’s border regions, focusing on Latvia and Estonia, both of which share a border with Russia. Drawing on media dependency theory, it examines the relationship between media use and perceived threats under conditions of social instability and uncertainty. Two research questions guide the analysis: (1) how risk perception relates to goals of mass media use and (2) how border residents choose different information sources regarding potential military threats. The focus group discussions indicated that respondents’ goals of media use closely aligned with dependency relations under conditions of perceived risk and uncertainty: maintaining a sense of safety and being informed, protecting family members and property, reducing uncertainty, distinguishing credible information from misinformation, and sustaining psychological stability. The risk perception and media use were mutually reinforcing: the media not only provided information but also regulated emotions, fostering both preparedness and fatigue. Differences between Latvian- and Russian-speaking audiences in Latvia and Estonia highlighted how competing narratives influenced stress levels and perceptions of security. The findings suggest that border residents having opportunity to live in different media spaces (or systems), lay on the media content they trust more, and have opportunity to compare sources and adopt protective behavior. In this context, media dependency extends beyond information-seeking to include emotional management and action-oriented responses during times of crisis

Today, health, as a key indicator of the vital activity of society, undergoes qualitative and quantitative changes. Scientists focus on a steady decline in health indicators among Russian citizens. Scientific interest in the formation of a healthy lifestyle among young people increases. Formation of a culture of health and promoting HL principles happens through social institutions. Higher education institutions have an environment, which acts as a platform to grow value attitude toward personal health among students. This study aims to examine the challenges associated with the formation of a healthy lifestyle for students. The authors utilized general sociological theoretical approaches. A questionnaire survey served as the empirical basis. The results demonstrate the multidimensionality of the concepts of “health” and “healthy lifestyle.” Young people interpret HL in ways influenced by both subjective and objective factors. Students often exhibit unstable motivation and inconsistent value orientations toward maintaining a healthy lifestyle. This is so because of a lack of activity approach to health reserves formed by the microenvironment (family, reference groups) and macroenvironment (media space, blogosphere). The study identifies key determinants that reduce students’ health resources, outlines health-preserving practices, and analyzes factors that influence students’ attitudes toward a healthy lifestyle. The authors also define major problems in the formation of HL and suggest directions for addressing these problems. Scientific novelty is determined by empirical confirmation of existing contradictions in the field of healthy life-style. Young people acknowledge the importance of health yet often fail to incorporate it into their daily behaviors. The results emphasize the prominent role of new media in shaping HL principles and introduce a multi-level classification of issues related to HL formation. The results have practical value for enhancing health preservation strategies existing in higher education institutions and Department of youth policy of the Tyumen region for developing effective health preventive programs.

ABSTRACT This article explores the circulation of the names Amarildo and Marielle in the online and offline urban space of Rio de Janeiro. These names, and the questions, “who killed Marielle and ‘where is Amarildo?’ refer to Mr Amarildo de Souza, who was forcibly disappeared by the military police in the context of the ‘pacification’ of the Rocinha Favela and the Black congresswoman, Marielle Franco, who was murdered by right-wing militias. Analysing the circulation of these questions on street signs, and its movement to the online space of social media via the hashtags ‘#CadêAmarildo?’ and ‘#QuemmatouMarielle’, I argue that the act of asking for victims of state violence disrupts the urban space envisioned by colonial discourses of the ‘pacified’ and depoliticized city by enacting subjects that are both present and absent, thus disrupting the official discourse and practice of security and development where subjects circulate according to racialised and gendered conceptions of risk, threat and neoliberal productivity.

ABSTRACT This paper examines the digital media platform YouTube as the “other,” heterotopic and liminal space that enables the articulation of queer South Asian diasporic subjectivities otherwise marginalized within normative socio-cultural frameworks. Through analyzing select YouTube poems by Alok Vaid-Menon and Fatimah Asghar, the paper situates YouTube digital poetics as alternate spaces of resistance, metaphor of “in-between” and/or “elsewhere” that deconstruct the (hetero)normative narratives of South Asian diasporas, and global queer discourses. Diasporic queer poetry on YouTube exemplifies transnational, transcultural, and transgressive geopolitics as alternative “safe spaces”, cultivating networks of queer belonging while simultaneously problematizing essentialist and homogenizing understandings of identity. Drawing on recent scholarships on queer platformization of digital media spaces (YouTube), the paper highlights how YouTube queer poetry resists assimilation/sublation into totalizing meta-narratives, instead reclaiming space for a queer self that thrives on fragmentation and multiplicity. Further, the queer subjectivities embodied in these poems embrace their deterritorialized, and fluid positionalities, reveling in “disorientation”, alterity, and (un)belonging. Through deliberately rupturing socio-constructionist notions of authority, these poetic performances engender “alternative hermeneutics” of South Asian diasporic queer subjectivities, transnational connectivities, and resistance, thereby remapping diasporic geopolitics through digital queer poetics.

The research relevance is determined by the need to understand how the historical evolution of sports periodicals influenced the perception of martial arts in different periods of martial arts in the digital age, the growth of global mobility and cultural hybridisation. The study aimed to analyse the peculiarities of kickboxing representation in Ukrainian and international sports periodicals, incorporating the historical and cultural context and the transformation of the media image of this sport. The research addressed sports journalism as a source of socio-cultural information that traced the evolution of public perception of martial arts in the media space. A set of methods was used: historical and cultural analysis, source studies, content analysis of media texts, critical discourse analysis, and linguistic and stylistic reading of texts. The materials were based on eight publications in sports periodicals in Ukraine, the United States, the United Kingdom and international platforms published from 1997 to 2024. All texts were analysed by format, genre, style, audience and content focus. The study determined that Ukrainian sports periodicals focused mainly on institutional and applied aspects of kickboxing functioning – the activities of sections, the role of coaches, organisational conditions and the achievements of athletes. The international media, on the other hand, demonstrated a personalised and narrative approach, emphasising stories of personal transformation, social context and cultural symbolism. The study determined that the media image of kickboxing in the global discourse was shifting from a technical discipline to a means of self-expression, representation of identity and an element of pop culture. The study also noted a tendency towards genre hybridisation, in which traditional forms of sports journalism were combined with elements of cultural storytelling, entertainment content and symbolic interpretation, which led to the complication of the information code of martial arts in the media space. The practical significance of the results is determined by an outline of the mechanisms of influence of sports journalism on the formation of ideas about martial arts, which can be used in the training of specialists in sports communication, media education and cultural analysis

Hip-hop serves as a Black cultural form that explains the Black experience, condition, and communicative patterns using language, imagery, and critique. Grounded in hip-hop epistemology (HHE) and hip-hop theorization (HHT), this study explores the discursive continuity of Black resistance to hegemonic whiteness by aligning GZA’s 1995 song, Labels, with commentary made by Black athlete-led media (BALM) contributors. With attention to Black athletes in the Men’s National Basketball Association (NBA) and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), this study positions their perspectives regarding sport media as central sites of contemporary Black cultural resistance. Using a parallel thematic content analysis, the findings revealed three connected themes - Why You Speakin’ for Me? , Everybody Eats but the Chef, and No Label, No Filter – that expose a persistent refusal of white hegemonic control across time, industry context, and space. The shared discourse outlines the persistence of narrative control, theft of Black cultural labor, and the reclamation of Black voice. The discursive continuity highlights the embedded and expansive nature of Black resistance – with emphases on narrative, voice, and authority. The researcher asserts that BALM is not a fleeting trend, but the result of longstanding exclusion and manipulation of Black athletes by white-dominant media spaces.

The subject of the study is the discursive dimension of reputation in the contemporary media communication space – the set of textual and communicative mechanisms through which the reputation of a subject is constructed, consolidated, and transformed in media discourse. The relevance of the work is determined by a profound transformation of reputation formation mechanisms in the digital media environment: algorithmic content filtering, viral information dissemination, the growth of user-generated content, and the platformization of the information space have caused reputation to acquire a dynamic, distributed, and multidimensional character. Traditional approaches that reduce reputation to the dichotomy of "positive / negative" or to an instrumental interpretation within managerial practices prove insufficient for describing complex discursive processes in the digital environment. The aim of the article is to identify the structural levels of the discursive realization of reputation and to analyze the mechanisms of their textual embodiment. To achieve this aim, the following objectives are addressed: substantiating the transition from simplified models to a multi-level approach, identifying the key levels of reputational construction, analyzing the textual and discursive mechanisms of reputation formation at each level, and defining the functions of reputation in the media space. The methodology is based on mediatization theory, critical discourse analysis, the media-linguistic toolkit of evaluativity, and the theory of symbolic capital. Systemic analysis of the structure of reputational discourse and the method of structural modeling are employed. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the systemic description of the discursive dimension of reputation as a multi-level system of textual practices functioning in the digital media environment. For the first time, five structural levels of the discursive realization of reputation are identified and described – cognitive-informational, evaluative, narrative, metaphorical, and pragmatic – and for each of them specific textual mechanisms are defined: agenda-setting and headline constructions, modal and lexical coding of evaluation, narrative framing, conceptual metaphorical models, and credibility construction strategies. The interrelation between the structural levels of reputational discourse and the mechanisms of their textual embodiment is revealed. Four functions of reputation in the media space are defined: orienting, legitimizing, structuring, and constitutive. It is demonstrated that the stability of the reputational effect is determined not by individual evaluative markers but by the interaction of all levels of discursive realization. The proposed analytical model provides a foundation for further operationalization of the phenomenon of reputation in media communication studies and makes it possible to account for the complexity and multidimensionality of contemporary discursive processes in the digital environment.

The subject of the research is the mediatization of the tabletop role-playing game (TRPG) discourse and its peculiarities. As a process of media integration into various spheres of public life, mediatization affects many areas, including the entertainment industry. It is interesting to trace the process of the game's release in the media based on the example of the tabletop role-playing game community. The purpose of the study is to examine the process of mediatization of game discourse with the subsequent representation of this type of discourse in the media space. In the course of the research, the boundaries of the terms "mediatization" and "game discourse" are established, the specificity of the latter is determined by classification in the terminology system of V.I. Karasik. Through the use of comparative and descriptive analysis, as well as a number of mathematical methods, the bi-directional mutual influence of media and gaming discourse is noted, and the duality of development trends and individual game forms’ popularization within tabletop role-playing games is highlighted. The novelty of the study is due to the chosen subject: the backstage subculture of role players, the relative closeness and smallness of their community, the claim to belong to underground culture, as well as the tendency to isolation through using gaming slang explain the lack of knowledge of the NRI phenomenon at the present stage. As a result, the scientific value of the phenomenon under study is established and the prospect of further research in the field of media culture and gaming practices is determined. On the one hand, gaming discourse forms the space of modern entertainment media discourse, on the other hand, it goes beyond virtual platforms, and its vocabulary and imagery system become part of the cultural life of young people. An important conclusion is that the mediatization of TRPG demonstrates the ability of any media message to reach a new level, acquiring the status of a figurative media narrative.

The object of the study is the media discourse of The New York Times dedicated to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict; the subject is the linguistic means and techniques for constructing the image of Russia within this discourse. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has been accompanied by intense coverage in Western media, which has directly influenced the formation of Russia's international image. The image of a state in modern conditions is shaped not only based on facts but also through the interpretation offered by the media. In the era of digitalization, the media space becomes a key factor in the global information environment, framing the perception of political events and foreign policy actors. The goal of this research is to trace the evolution of Russia's media representation in The New York Times from 2014 to 2024 and to identify the discursive methods for constructing a negative image of Russia. Using critical discourse analysis, the transformation of Russia's image in the English-language press is studied based on The New York Times (2014–2024). Particular attention is paid to linguistic means and rhetorical strategies, including the use of evaluative vocabulary, metaphors, historical analogies, and narrative frameworks that reinforce the image of Russia as a "threat" to the international order. The analysis revealed key narratives that reproduce the dichotomy of "democracy - authoritarianism" and strengthen the frame of the "enemy image." The media discourse of this publication shows a specific dynamic: from relatively balanced coverage to a consistently negative, demonizing representation of Russia. It is shown that the ability of the state to effectively manage its own media image becomes an important factor in its international reputation. The transformation of Russia's image turns into a significant component of a new reality, which some call "Cold War 2.0." The influence of this image will persist even after the active phase of confrontation fades into the past: it will continue to create barriers for productive dialogue between Russia and Western countries. The results of the study contribute to the development of media linguistics and political linguistics, demonstrating how the media shapes long-term cognitive and ideological structures of perception.

This article presents a comparative analysis of the emotional coloring of news texts in Russian and Chinese media using the example of coverage of three key events in 2024: the development of artificial intelligence technologies, the change of power in Syria, and the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. The subject of the research is the emotional and evaluative vocabulary, syntactic techniques and tonality of news texts in Russian and Chinese media in the context of their cultural, political and informational differences. The purpose of the study is to identify the features of the use of emotional means of expression, stylistic techniques and strategies for constructing news reports in the media space of the two countries, as well as to determine how national differences in approaches to event coverage affect the perception and formation of public opinion. The paper uses methods of linguistic analysis, including sentiment analysis, syntactic and lexical analysis, which made it possible to assess the degree of expression of emotions and stylistic features of texts. The results of this study showed that the Russian media is characterized by a more restrained and analytical style, in which the emotional assessment of events is mainly conveyed through quotations and choice of vocabulary. In contrast, Chinese media are more actively using vivid emotional and evaluative vocabulary, means of artistic expression (metaphors, rhetorical questions) and interactive syntactic constructions, especially in materials related to technological advances. Russian publications display a neutral or neutral-negative tone, while Chinese publications are more often focused on a neutral-positive presentation of information. The scientific novelty of the study lies in a systematic comparative analysis of the emotional coloring of news texts in Russian and Chinese media using the example of coverage of current international events in 2024. Unlike previous studies, this work focuses not only on lexical and syntactic analysis, but also on cultural and political aspects of shaping the tone of news in the media space of the two countries. The findings of the study highlight the significant difference in approaches to covering events in Russia and China, reflecting cultural and political peculiarities, as well as strategic priorities of media communication in the context of globalization.

Digital Ethics and Value Education: A Study of Moral Behavior among Adolescents in Social Media Spaces

Introduction. In academic discourse, the problem of conceptualizing the process of transcultural adaptation of folklore texts that embody the cultural memory of a people remains relevant. Despite the close attention scholars have paid to the “Kalevala” as a monument of epic heritage, there is still no comprehensive interdisciplinary study that would consider the “Kalevala” as a dynamic and open system functioning in diverse cultural contexts and media, identify the universal mechanisms and patterns of its adaptation, determine the degree of stability (“resilience”) of its archetypal plots, images, and mythologemes, and analyze the ambivalence of contemporary interpretations that combine simplification with attempts to preserve authenticity. Addressing this gap constitutes the relevance of the present study. The aim of the research is to identify and analyze the specific mechanisms and techniques through which the “Kalevala” has been transformed from a national epic into a phenomenon of global culture. Materials and Methods. The study is based on an integrated approach that combines three complementary methods. Comparative analysis is used to juxtapose the original Finnish runes with their translated and adapted versions, making it possible to trace the transformation of plots and images across different cultures. Intermedial analysis is aimed at examining the processes through which the epic text is translated into other formats, such as cinema and painting. Narrative analysis is employed to identify key cultural codes, symbols, and archetypes, and to trace their preservation, omission, or reinterpretation. The corpus of sources for the study consists of key cases of the transnational reception of the “Kalevala”, representing various media and cultural contexts: literary works that have experienced a direct influence of the epic; audiovisual interpretations; and visual adaptations and representations in comics. The transcultural adaptation of the “Kalevala” is realized through three principal techniques: the refocusing of plot lines, narrative simplification, and the transformation of the semantic characteristics of characters. Results and Discussion. The principal channels through which the epic is adapted within the media space have been identified: literature, visual art, cinema, and cultural tourism. The key technique of adaptation has been determined to be the decontextualization and subsequent recontextualization of mythological meanings in accordance with the demands of a foreign cultural environment and mass culture. Despite the persistence of archetypes, they are not static. The semantics of adapted characters have been shown to depend on the cultural code of the audience as well as on the historical and political context of the period in which the adaptation was created. Specific techniques have been identified through which the “Kalevala” is transformed from a national symbol into a global cultural product. Conclusion. The conclusions drawn by the author contribute to the development of linguocultural studies and the theory of intercultural communication, as well as to folklore studies and mythology, translation studies, and the sociology of culture. The prospects of the research lie in the creation of a universal analytical model applicable to other national cultural phenomena. The materials of the article may prove useful in the development of academic courses in cultural studies, world literature, the history of art, and Finno-Ugric studies, including sections devoted to contemporary interpretations of epic heritage; in the preparation of textbooks and anthologies illustrating the transformation of folkloric narratives in mass culture (using the Kalevala as an example); and in the preparation of lecture materials for continuing education programs dedicated to the visualization of epic narratives in cinema, comics, and painting.