Analytical review of the USA in modern Russian Mass Media: Features of the genre structure (based on spatial metaphors)

Abstract

The article characterizes conceptual metaphors as one of the ways of structuring the genre of analytical review in modern Russian newspapers. The object of the study is spatial transfer models used by analysts (professional journalists and experts) to represent the image of the United States in the modern world. The research material consists of 138 spatial metaphors in 410 contexts extracted from 43 articles of six socio– political newspapers dating 2022–2023. The relevance of the topic is determined by the need to clarify the place of metaphors in modern mass media, which are undergoing significant changes both in genre-structural and linguistic aspects. The aim of the work is to identify the role of spatial metaphors in the conceptual representation of the United States in the genre of analytical review in modern Russian newspapers. Based on a comprehensive analysis using modern semantic, cognitive and discursive methods of textual material, it was found that in the genre under study spatial conceptual metaphors occupy an important place in the implementation of the main functions of the analytical genre – conceptual (logical-argumentative), evaluative and influencing. In particular, it is shown that in modern all-Russian newspapers, with the help of three basic models of spatial metaphorization (purposeful activity, being and development, systemic connections and relations), an integral image of the United States is formed as an active participant in global economic and socio-political processes, the main purpose of which is to assert its leadership position by subordinating allies and weakening opponents and competitors. The result of such actions is the growth of conflicts and general instability in the world. 

Keywords

• genre of newspaper analytical article
• spatial metaphor
• conceptual model