The object of research in the article was video essays published on the KinoPoisk YouTube channel. A multi-stage methodology for studying polycode media text was proposed, which is characterized by a system of applied techniques: genre, structural-semantic, conceptual analysis of media text; methodology for analyzing the polycode structure of a media text. Using the example of the analysis of the video essay «Why One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a Great Cinema», the constitutive genre features of the media genre, which are determined by the content dominants of the media text, are highlighted: title/title (sometimes subtitle) of the video essay; the compositional division of the video essay into parts, which are also given headings – this structure organizes the narrative of the video essay; description (annotation) of the video and time codes where the headings of the parts are written; movie quotes (visuals); fragments of the original soundtrack of the quoted films; musical accompaniment of video essay; semantically and stylistically complicated voice-over text (with the obligatory use of intertextual signs of various types); specific installation. The multi-level semantic structure of the video essay was studied and it was concluded that the content dominant of the video essay being studied is the concept of «Freedom» – one of the basic linguocultural concepts of the Russian language picture of the world. It has been established that the leading code through which the dominant content of a video essay is interpreted is verbal, supported and reinforced by other codes and subcodes of the polycode structure of the media genre. The analysis of the media text allows us to conclude that the author’s selection of film works, interpretation and interpretation of their content dominants, the tone of the discussion, «fitting» the film into the historical and cultural context, objectification of the value system of the collective author allows one to effectively influence the worldview of the mass addressee, forming and/or reframing his ideas about key ethical and cultural concepts, about historical and modern realities and events.