#яНеБоюсьСкаать (#IAmNotAfraidToSpeak), #MeToo, and the Russian media

2020 ◽  
pp. 303-319
Author(s):  
Anna Sedysheva
Keyword(s):  
Russian Media

Chronofact Names: Their Transformations in Contemporary MassMedia

2020 ◽  
pp. 92-102
Author(s):  
Irina Kryukova
Keyword(s):  
Proper Names ◽  
Contextual Analysis ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
New Words ◽  
Technological Disasters ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Tragic Event ◽  
Russian Media ◽  
Historical Periods

The article presents the results of the study devoted to the semantic transformations of chronofact names understood as proper names referring to resonance events that are often tragic. In spite of many studies devoted to the processes of new words activation in various historical periods, proper names, with rare exceptions, are not included in the phenomena under the study. The objective of the following research is to identify universal features of chronofact names that make it possible to study these names as a separate group of onyms with their specific semantic and motivational characteristics. The proper names that have become the symbols of technological disasters, terrorist attacks, antigovernment actions, etc. (Chernobyl, Fukushima, Nord-Ost, Beslan, Bolotnaya Square, Maydan, and so on) served as the material of this study. Contextual analysis of these names in Russian media in the last decades, as well as component analysis of the connotative semantics of each name, allowed the author to select several common characteristics of chronofact names. First, every chronofact name undergoes rapid semantic transformations in the following order: it denotes a certain object – it denotes a singular tragic event (metonymy) and the development of a connotative onym – it denotes any other similar event (metaphor) and develops the characteristics of a precedent name. Second, chronofact names display same lexical and grammatical signs and they are used in homogenous contexts. Third, under certain extra-linguistic conditions, chronofact names are capable of expanding their figurative meanings and denoting a genuine notion for a long time. The material under the analysis is of interest to theoretical understanding of connotation as well as lexicographic description.

scholarly journals “Wars” on COVID-19 in Slovakia, Russia, and the United States: Securitized Framing and Reframing of Political and Media Communication Around the Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta N. Lukacovic
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Research Question ◽  
The United States ◽  
Frame Element ◽  
Political Factions ◽  
Russian Media ◽  
The Government

This study analyzes securitized discourses and counter narratives that surround the COVID-19 pandemic. Controversial cases of security related political communication, salient media enunciations, and social media reframing are explored through the theoretical lenses of securitization and cascading activation of framing in the contexts of Slovakia, Russia, and the United States. The first research question explores whether and how the frame element of moral evaluation factors into the conversations on the securitization of the pandemic. The analysis tracks the framing process through elite, media, and public levels of communication. The second research question focused on fairly controversial actors— “rogue actors” —such as individuals linked to far-leaning political factions or militias. The proliferation of digital media provides various actors with opportunities to join publicly visible conversations. The analysis demonstrates that the widely differing national contexts offer different trends and degrees in securitization of the pandemic during spring and summer of 2020. The studied rogue actors usually have something to say about the pandemic, and frequently make some reframing attempts based on idiosyncratic evaluations of how normatively appropriate is their government's “war” on COVID-19. In Slovakia, the rogue elite actors at first failed to have an impact but eventually managed to partially contest the dominant frame. Powerful Russian media influencers enjoy some conspiracy theories but prudently avoid direct challenges to the government's frame, and so far only marginal rogue actors openly advance dissenting frames. The polarized political and media environment in the US has shown to create a particularly fertile ground for rogue grassroots movements that utilize online platforms and social media, at times going as far as encouragement of violent acts to oppose the government and its pandemic response policy.

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