Parameters of Regional Media Discourse: Subject, Communicative Situation, Context Structure

The article examines the main characteristics of regional media discourse defined on the basis of Teun. A. van Dijk’s cognitive discourse theory. The article focuses on three aspects: the types of subjects of social action; features of the media text; and the context structure of regional media discourse. The author proposes to introduce a regulatory goal setting along with the cognitive one into the media discourse functioning model. This change influences the ultimate goal of media functioning. According to the author, apart from giving information, journalists and their articles have an important task of encouraging social action. Therefore, the article concentrates on the types of subjects of social action, but not on the types of authors of media texts. Subjects of social action are: institution, person, media, and society. All of them (except for society) can act both as authors and main characters in media texts. Society is the only subject of the media field that is symbolic. Its function is to give an ethical assessment of the content of the media message. Mass audience is characterised as generally passive, and it is not able to become the subject of media discourse. It leads to the fact that the opponent (interlocutor) of the author cannot take part in shaping the content and developing the dynamics of regional media discourse, like in oral discourse. The characters of the texts, i.e. subjects of social action, do it, depending on how the author presented them. As a result, the images of subjects become dramatic. Thus, the main communicative factor in shaping media discourse is the activity of the mass media and the authors. The text is an elementary unit of media discourse. The text takes up the functions of a communicative situation and can fill gaps: it can help reconstruct some characteristics of the simulated speech communication. The media text (in the intended role characteristics of the consumer) contains conditions for the consumption of the mass product. The importance of the context increases in the conditions when a typical situation becomes equal to the text of a media message. In accordance with regulatory goal setting, the structure of the media context is as follows: the event-related context layer is on the surface, the social is deeper and leads to the development of social change in the actions and the worldview of the consumer, and the cultural media context is the most profound and penetrating. All layers of the media context are closely intertwined and connected with each other.

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