The concept "truth" in modern newspaper opinion journalism: semantic and stylistic analysis of the city newspaper Kuznetskiy Rabochiy

The concept "truth" occupies an important place in the media because of their functional nature: the content of the concept absolutely corresponds with the communicative aim of a newspaper text which aspires not only to tell reliable information but also to form fair social opinion. In the described material, we can find three main components of the concept "truth": "truth of fact", "truth of thought" and "truth of conscience". The meaning "truth of fact" reflects the taxonomic description of the word truth that imparts particular opinions about events and facts. The meaning "truth of thought" implies true estimation not of a fact itself, but of its (or their) interpretation expressed in opinions. The component "truth of conscience" takes a dominant place from the point of view of the concept's content; it forms the ethical basis of the concept. The syncretism of these meanings is in journalists' thoughts about historical truth. Concrete definition of the "degree" of the truth is typical for newspaper materials; it subjectifies the narration and, accordingly, reflects the regulative purpose of the speech subject. There are four degrees of the truth: 1) absolute truth; 2) partial truth; 3) "rather truth than untruth"; 4) possible truth, a version. Actualization of meanings "truth of fact" and "truth of thought" is connected with the image of a journalist who tells reliable information; it underlines the importance of a particular range of topics. The meaning "truth of fact" is typical for materials about the city's history and its present, about interesting people; there are facts not only of the outer world, but also of the inner one. The center of newspaper materials which express "truth of thought" are events of cultural life and society's moral temper. Specification of the truth's substance appears in contexts due to a construction with preposition ABOUT. The semantic domination of the meaning "truth of conscience" in a newspaper text is supported by different stylistic features. The thematic dominant of the contexts which present "truth of conscience" is the person's moral core. Such topics as law, nation and authorities, newspaper, history, problems of housing and utility services are less frequent; yet, they are presented in many contexts, too. The key semantic and stylistic role of the meaning "truth of conscience" proves the importance of the "absolutely Russian" sense of the notion "truth" in media discourse; it is shown in newspaper authors' return to significant topics; besides, the meaning "truth of conscience" is more often and variously presented in the strong position of a headline, in regulative structures based on reiteration, in sense lexical paradigms based on semantic similarity and contrast, in regulatives-syntagmas including metaphors.

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