Issue

Content:

• Advertising and Public Relations

  «Targeted Advertising in Social Networks: Searching for Efficient Semiotic Models»

  Efficient targeted advertising comprises various semiotic resources, which can be combined differently in various “semiotic settings”. Many of such “settings” are frequently used in digital marketing and they show their efficiency. This paper presents the results of the research into two resources of meaning-making in targeted ads, i.e. words and iconic items, and two levels of transmitted meanings, i.e. denotative and connotative. The corpora analysis of verbal components in 400 targeted ads of Russian major retailers revealed a range of characteristics of targeted texts, e.g. the usage of clusters of keywords and lemmas and persistent lexical, grammatical and syntax constructions. According to the results of the A/B testing, the authors identified that the most efficient is the model combining verbal and non-verbal components, where the iconic item represents connotative meanings associated with the situation of consumption decision or usage of a product, while the verbal text transmits denotative meanings. Besides, advertisements with identified verbal patterns are more efficient than messages without any patterns distinguished during the corpora analysis. The authors claim that the clich constructions and their efficacy are determined by the market niche of a product and by the marketing goals. It is admitted that other advertising segments can face different language patterns and semiotic resources used in targeted ads than those described in the paper. The balanced combination of verbal and non-verbal means in personalized advertisements can underlie the succinct and efficient marketing message. Therefore, from the marketing point of view, the relevant technical setting of target parameters or the choice of the efficient communicative channel often do not suffice for more significant marketing results. The properly executed ensemble of verbal and non-verbal resources can provide the substantial realization of the semantic potential of advertising texts.
  Keywords: targeted advertising, creolized text, multimodal text, semiotics of an advertisement, verbal components of an advertisement, visual components of an advertisement
  DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.5.2020.328
  Evgeny A. Kozhemyakin, Valeriya G. Lovyagina 3
• New Media

  «“You are Your Data”: Self-Tracking as a Phenomenon of Deep Mediatization»

  The article examines digital self-tracking (the practices of surveying one’s body, behavior and thinking by means of mobile applications and wearable devices) as a case of deep mediatization. The study of this phenomenon is relevant not only due to the increasing popularity of self-tracking technologies, but also due to a broader tendency of metrization and quantification of social life. Examining a growing body of foreign research literature in the field, the author defines self-tracking as a media technology and social practice with a range of specific features. In particular, self-tracking is problematized through the concepts of deep mediatization, datafication, gamification and automation. The article addresses different theoretical optics, through which these aspects of quantified self-tracking are understood and analyzed. The positions of both proponents and opponents of this practice are emphasized. The article concludes by pointing to the polarization of academic discussion around self-tracking and the related processes of deep mediatization, while emphasizing the necessity of going beyond it.
  Keywords: self-tracking, digital technologies, deep mediatization, datafication, gamification, automation
  DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.5.2020.2953
  Evgenia G. Nim 29

• «Communication with the Involvement of Hearing and Deaf/Hard of Hearing People: Social Media Opportunities»

  The paper presents the findings of the research which was aimed at getting an idea of communication of hearing and deaf/hard of hearing people in real life and in social media. The empirical basis of the study is composed of focused interviews with non-ordinary representatives of the group studied, who are simultaneously the holders of expert knowledge about the life of the deaf and hard of hearing community. It was found that the main conditions influencing the process of the deaf and hard of hearing people’s communication, are the choice of language, the extent of hearing loss and the age when hearing was lost. The research also resulted in the construction of two theoretical models of communication, whose participants are hearing and deaf or hard of hearing people. The models are applicable both to communication that proceeds in real life and to communication in social media. Both models take into account the presence of the main communication barriers. One of the respondents’ statement, according to which deaf and hearing people practically do not communicate in social media, requires further study.
  Keywords: communication, social media, the hearing, the deaf, the hard of hearing, models of communication
  DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.5.2020.5476
  Yuliya F. Shamsutdinova 54
• Foreign Journalism

  «Populism, Political Personalization and the Attention of Leading Print Media to Foreign Leaders in the G20»

  This article analyzes the influence of populism on the attention of the leading print media of G20 countries to political leaders. Using the Factiva database, the authors collected information on the number of mentions of G20 countries and their leaders in the five leading print media of each G20 country in 2018 and supplemented it with information from the Populists in Power Around the World database. In addition, the mentions of the leaders are compared with the mentions of their countries. The authors show that populist leaders attract more attention from the international press. Also, in the focus are leaders of the countries with a personalized form of government, which suggests a high concentration of attention on the head of state. Populism combined with a personalized form of government reinforces this effect. This conclusion corresponds to previous research into the growth of political personalization: the international media pay more heed to the activities and statements of political leaders rather than to economic developments.
  Keywords: G20, global news flow, populism, media, international news, political personalization
  DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.5.2020.7797
  Anton P. Kazun, Anastasia D. Kazun 77

• «Arturo Perez-Reverte's Column: the Author’s Voice as the Main Factor of Influence»

  The article focuses on the characteristic features of the author's column by the Spanish writer and journalist Arturo Perez-Reverte. A detailed analysis of his texts reveals the “common territory” of the author's works of fiction and journalism. An author’s column as a hybrid genre is seen as an ideal field for creative experiments and techniques that make it possible to expand the possibilities of this genre and attract new readers at the same time. It is proved that ethos is not only the main rhetorical resource of the column, but also the key to its understanding, since it is in the ethos that the main themes, ideas and style are reflected. The headlines of the articles in columns and collections show an increase in the author's intents. The author uses the rhetorical techniques as a means to create his unique style, which allows him both to win the trust of his readers and develop their mental independence.
  Keywords: op-ed journalism, author's column, ethos, hybrid genre, rhetorical devices, style
  DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.5.2020.98126
  Veronica M. Sokolova, Elena V. Koreneva 98
• History of Journalism

  «Public Correspondents of the Soviet Physical Culture and Sports Press: the Educational Aspect»

  The article analyzes the activities of fizсors (physical culture correspondents) as a component and, at the same time, a rather specific part of the movement of rabselcors (working-class and rural correspondents) common to the Soviet press of the 1920s – 1930s. The work draws attention to the fact that both the Rabselcor movement and the physical culture movement equally served the goals of the Soviet government to foster and direct the activity of the masses into the framework that it needed. On the basis of archival documents stored in the State Archive of the Russian Federation and not previously put into active scientific circulation and using the materials of non-periodicals and periodicals of the second half of the 1920s – early 1930s, the author of the article considers how the main areas of activity, attitudes and goals of the Rabselcor movement were refracted in the sports sphere, what features distinguished fizcors’ activities. Special attention is paid to the study of organizational work carried out by editors of magazines and newspapers with freelance authors, in particular, instructional materials published on the pages of periodicals and as separate publications. We consider them as one of the first attempts in the history of sports journalism to provide the wide range of volunteer sports press assistants with the basics of knowledge necessary for the preparation of newspaper materials.
  Keywords: history of journalism, physical culture, physical culture and sports press, Rabselcor movement, public correspondents, fizсors
  DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.5.2020.127147
  Konstantin A. Alexeev 127
• Discussion

  «Media Piracy and Streaming Services in the New Reality»

  This article elucidates the results of analysis into the impact of media piracy on major Russian streaming services. The authors turn to scholarly investigations, Russian anti-piracy legislation and theoretical works and opinions of representatives of the music and video streaming service industry. The novelty of the study consists in the identification of modern piracy practices and features of streaming services operation in the context of a global pandemic. The authors supplement existing research with new stages in the development of media piracy and conclude that the level of media piracy in the world has increased during the pandemic. Some possible ways to combat media piracy in the new reality are suggested in the article. In particular, the development of alternative marketing instruments and support of self-regulation in the fight against media piracy as a substitution of rigid legal regulation, which is not always effective.
  Keywords: media piracy, streaming services, pandemic, coronavirus, anti-piracy law, digitalization, new reality
  DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.5.2020.148167
  Alena S. Denisova, Alina V. Kolosova 148