New Social Norms of the Pandemic Period: Specifics of Construction in the Russian Media Discourse

Section: Modern Journalism: Subjects and Issues

The article is devoted to the analysis of modern Russian media discourse, which is critical in establishing new social norms during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as wearing protective masks, maintaining social distance, vaccination, and others. The aim of the study is to examine two opposing groups of discursive practices: promoting and preventing the approval of these norms. The research methodology is based on the principles of critical discourse analysis as interpreted by E.V. Chepkina. The material is the texts of Russian media for 2020–2021 indexed by the Yandex search engine and constructing the listed social norms. It is shown that the approval of new social norms during the COVID-19 pandemic is carried out through the following discursive practices: firstly, argumentation, including logical, factual, and psychological reasons (the last point acquires special relevance because medical topics involve appeals to experts’ opinions and the establishment of sanctions for violation of the relevant norms activates the use of threat arguments); secondly, the inclusion of the COVID-19 pandemic into the chronological order of discourse by constructing epidemics of the past, the overcoming of which was associated with the establishment of similar social norms (as a result, the current pandemic reality is perceived as something ordinary); and thirdly, a constant mention of new norms in media texts regardless of their topic, which demonstrates, on the one hand, the importance of the relevant norms, and on the other, their routine and legitimate nature. At the same time, the Russian media discourse involves discursive practices that prevent the adoption of new behavioral models declared by the media as normative: 1) an inclusion in the agenda of events related to criticism of new social norms and demonstration of their non-observance; 2) the use of headlines containing sensational information that contradicts the content of the text and legitimizes the anti-norm; 3) a construction of discourse characters who declare the new norms but do not set an example of complying with them.

Adam M. (2020) An Enemy to Fight or Someone to Live with, How COVID-19 Is Metaphorically Described in Indonesian Media Discourse. Proceedings: 2nd Online National Seminar on English Linguistics and Literature (ELLit) 2020 1 (2): 60–71. Available at: https://proceeding.unnes.ac.id/index.php/ELLit/article/view/528 (aссessed: 04.05.2021).

Alyeksyeyeva I. O., Chaiuk T. A., Galitskaya E. A. (2020) Coronaspeak as Key to Coronaculture: Studying New Cultural Practices Through Neologisms. International Journal of English Linguistics 10 (6): 202–212. DOI: 10.5539/ijel.v10n6p202

Annenkova I. V. (2019) The System of Russian Contemporary Media Discourse. Media Toposes as a Reflection and a Transformation of Russian Cultural Archetypes. Media Linguistics 6 (1): 87–102. DOI: 10.21638/spbu22.2019.107.

Berger P. L., Luckmann T. (1991) The Social Construction of Reality: a Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. London: Penguin Books.

Chepkina E. V. (2000) Russkii zhurnalistskii diskurs: tekstoporozhdaiushchie praktiki i kody (1995–2000) [Russian Journalistic Discourse: Text-Generating Practices and Codes (1995–2000)]. Yekaterinburg: Ural University Press. (In Russian)

Chepkina E. V., Enina L. V. (2011) Zhurnalistskii diskurs: analiz praktik [Journalistic Discourse: Practice Analysis]. Izvestia. Ural Federal University Journal. Series 1: Issues in Education, Science and Culture 2: 76–85. (In Russian)

Foucault M. (1996) Poriadok diskursa [Order of Discourse]. In M. Foucault Volia k istine: po tu storonu znaniia, vlasti i seksual’nosti. Raboty raznykh let [The Will to Truth: Beyond Knowledge, Power and Sexuality. Works of Different Years]. Moscow: Kastal’ Publ. Pp. 47–97. (In Russian)

Foucault M. (2004) Arkheologiia znaniia [Archeology of Knowledge]. St. Petersburg: A Gumanitarnaya Akademiya: Universitetskaya Kniga Publ. (In Russian)

Il’ina O. V., Kablukov E. V. (2020) Praktiki konstruirovaniia regional’noi identichnosti v mediadiskurse Tatarstana [Practices of Constructing Regional Identity in Tatarstan Media Discourse]. Nauchnyi dialog 3: 52–66. DOI: 10.24224/2227-1295-2020-3-52-66. (In Russian)

Jorgensen M. W., Phillips L. J. (2008) Diskurs-analiz: teoriya i metod [Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method]. Kharkiv: Gumanitarnyy Tsentr Publ. (In Russian)

Kalmykov A. A., Kokhanova L. A. (2005) Internet-zhurnalistika [Internet Journalism]. Moscow: Iuniti-Dana Publ. (In Russian)

Klushina N. I. (2019) Mediastilistika [Media Stylistics]. Moscow: Flinta Publ. (In Russian)

Kupina N. A. (2020) Pandemiia koronavirusa: metaforicheskaia diagnostika trevozhnoi real’nosti v tekstakh SMI [Coronavirus Pandemic: Metaphoric Diagnostics of Disturbing Reality in Media Texts]. Izvestia. Ural Federal University Journal. Series 1: Issues in Education, Science and Culture 26 (3): 5–13. DOI: 10.15826/izv1.2020.26.3.044. (In Russian)

Kupina N. A. (2021) Karnavalizatsiya russkogo yazyka v epokhu pandemii [Carnivalization of the Russian Language in the Era of the Pandemic]. Izvestia. Ural Federal University Journal. Series 2. Humanities and Arts 23 (1): 280–292. DOI: 10.15826/izv2.2021.23.1.019 (In Russian)

Kuznetsov S. A. (ed.) (2000) Bol’shoy tolkovyy slovar’ russkogo yazyka [Big Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language]. St. Petersburg: Norint Publ. (In Russian)

Maydanova L. M., Chepkina E. V. (2011) Mediatekst v ideologicheskom kontekste [Media Text in an Ideological Context]. Yekaterinburg: Humanitarian University Publ. (In Russian)

Mohammed S., Peter E., Killackey T., Maciver J. (2021) The “Nurse as Hero” Discourse in the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Post-Structural Discourse Analysis. International Journal of Nursing Studies 117. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2021.103887

Neville F. G., Templeton A., Smith J. R., Louis W. R. (2021) Social Norms, Social Identities and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Theory and Recommendations. Social and Personality Psychology Compass 15 (5): e12596. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12596

Nikolayeva A. V. (2018) Klikbeyt v SMI [Clickbait in the Media]. Russkaya rech’ 3: 43–47. DOI: 10.7868/S0131611718030073. (In Russian)

Palau-Sampio D. (2016) Reference Press Metamorphosis in the Digital Context: Clickbait and Tabloid Strategies in Elpais.com. Communication and Society 29 (2): 63–71. DOI: 10.15581/003.29.2.63-79

Pennella A. R., Ragonese A. (2020) Health Professionals and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Heroes in a New War. Journal of Health and Social Sciences 5 (2): 169–176. Available at: https://journalhss.com/wp-content/uploads/jhss_52_169-176.pdf (aссessed: 12.05.2021).

Pujahari A., Sisodia D. S. (2021) Clickbait Detection Using Multiple Categorisation Techniques. Journal of Information Science 47 (1): 118–128. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551519871822

Roig-Marín A. (2020) English-Based Coroneologisms: a Short Survey of Our Covid-19-Related Vocabulary. English Today 37 (4): 193–195. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078420000255

Skovorodnikov A. P. (ed.) (2005) Entsiklopedicheskii slovar’-spravochnik. Vyrazitel’nye sredstva russkogo iazyka i rechevye oshibki i nedochety [Encyclopedic Dictionary-Reference Book. Expressive Means of the Russian Language and Speech Errors and Shortcomings]. Moscow: Flinta: Nauka Publ. (In Russian)

Van Dijk, T. A. (2013) News as Discourse. London; New York: Routledge.

Vorozhbitova A. A. (2010) Lingual Rhetoric Paradigm as Integrative Research Prism in the Philological Science. European researcher 2: 183–190.

Wodak R., Chilton P. (eds.) (2005) A New Agenda in (Critical) Discourse Analysis: Theory, Methodology and Interdisciplinarity. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.13

Yang Y., Chen X. (2021) Globalism or Nationalism? The Paradox of Chinese Official Discourse in the Context of the COVID-19 Outbreak. Journal of Chinese Political Science 26 (1): 89–113. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-020-09697-1