The problem of periodization of the modern Russian media language

The paper discusses the possibility of periodization of the language of Russian media, and factors that contributed to qualitative changes in the field of forms and style of mass information. Based on the concepts "mass information" and "mass media", the authors link the time of appearance of the media with the time of appearance of a mass audience capable of being their addressee. This is the period of the 1930s when in the Soviet Union introduced compulsory seven-year education. Qualitative changes in the language of the media, which allow to speak about the stages of its development, are connected with the category of evaluation, the style of communication with the addressee, the content of the opposition "self-other". The impetuses for these changes are significant changes in the political, economic, ideological, cultural state of society. Taking into account all factors, the authors distinguish two main periods in the language of the media: the Soviet and the post-Soviet. The specific of the Soviet period is determined by the political-economic and ideological confrontation of the Soviet state and the capitalist "West". The single-directional assessments, the state-promoted unity of opinions and values determined the linguistic-semantic cliches of the language of the Soviet media. The linguistic uniformity of the media texts of this period is also associated with the authority of the linguistic norm and classical fiction. A special stage within the Soviet period is the "era of perestroika". In the language of the media, new phenomena emerged: the intonation of the slogan and appeal disappeared, the means of intertextuality began to be actively used, irony and sarcasm became the basic tonality accompanying the symbols of the outgoing ideology, a tendency towards democratization was clearly revealed. Within the post-Soviet period, there are three stages, each of which is characterized by important social processes affecting the language of the media: 1) "carnivalization" of the language of the media (1991-2005); 2) legislative regulation of the language of the media (2005-2014); 3) information wars (2014 - the present). At the first stage, the democratization of the language of the media becomes a fact expressed in stylistic diffusion, disregard of the norm, and a diverse language game. In the "self-other" opposition, the "other" place is occupied by the Soviet past, derogatorily referred to as "sovok". The second stage of the post-Soviet media period is characterized by attempts to legislatively regulate the language of media texts, the involvement of the institution of linguistic expert examination in the fight against speech aggression, extremism, slander, etc. The third stage is consonant with the Soviet period in terms of increased ideology of the language of the media. After the events of 2014, on the one hand, the image of the West as an existential adversary is being formed, and, on the other, Russian power is "demonized"; direct ideological evaluations, verbal labels are in demand; technologies of manipulative influence are activated. The proposed periodization is of interpretative-probabilistic nature, and requires further clarification.

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