Participation of referential mechanisms of subject nominations in the implementation of reliability in English and Belarusian media texts

Abstract

Taking into account the proportion of objective and subjective, accurate and approximate in reporting of events, the problem of information reliability in different media cultures, is relevant not only from the linguistic point of view, but also proves to be essential for every modern consumer of information. This article is devoted to establishing correlations between the referential mechanisms of subject nominations that encode sources of information and parameters of the reliability of what is reported in English and Belarusian media texts of various genres. The research is based on the methods of analysis, comparison and classification; methods of contextual, semantic and linguo-pragmatic analysis. It has been established that in both media cultures, the referential characteristics of subjects have a direct impact on the reliability of the message in terms of the accuracy / inaccuracy parameter of the language nomination of information sources: the use of a referential subject contributes to an increase in the reliability of the reported data; a non-referential subject, as a rule, reduces the reliability and in limited cases does not change its indicators. It is shown that referential subjects, which are cognitive authorities, participate in the implementation of factual and communicative reliability; non-referential subjects as pseudo-cognitive authorities contribute to the preservation of communicative reliability only and do not provide any of the reliability types if they are sources with an unknown reputation. Taking into account the parameter of objectivity / subjectivity in the modern English and Belarusian press, it was revealed that in both media cultures submitting information exhibits a thematic-genre determination, the absence of simple correlations ‘one-sided reporting – subjectivity’, ‘multisided reporting – objectivity’, the interpenetration of objectivity and subjectivity depending on multiple subjects. It is shown that the objective reporting is possible when the event is covered in a balanced way: without a discourse overweight in favor of one of the parties and without evaluative comments from the journalist-narrator.

Keywords

• reliability
• credibility
• (non)referential subject
• deauthorization
• objectivity and subjectivity of reporting