Genre Stratification of Media Political Discourse

Introduction. The article presents an overview of approaches to the interpretation of the concept of “genre”, considers various genre classifications of political and media discourse. The relevance of the topic of this study is determined by the genre diversity of mediapolitical discourse, represented by a wide range of political and media genres that require consistent study and typologization. The aim of the article is to carry out genre stratification of modern English-language media-political discourse based on the author's own typology.

Methodology and sources. The methodological basis of the article is represented by works in the field of genre studies, discourse theory, English language stylistics, cognitive linguistics, media linguistics, political discourse. The study is an analytical review of works devoted to the genre differentiation of media, political and media political discourse, with the subsequent development of the author's classification of genres of English-language media political discourse.

Results and discussion. According to the results of the review, a genre is a class of communicative events united by a certain communicative purpose. The problem of singling out speech genres and typologizing genres are among the controversial issues of modern genre studies. The main reason for the complexity of genre stratification of political discourse is the heterogeneity and multifaceted nature of this type of discourse. The criteria for classifying the genres of political discourse can be the channel of information transmission, function, communicative purpose, and other parameters. Media discourse has a field structure, including the center (with prototypical genres) and the periphery (with marginal genres, heterogeneous in their structure). Modern media practice is constructed not only by traditional journalistic genres but also by new Internet genres, which complicates the problem of genre stratification. Researchers emphasize the diffusiveness of media genres, the constant genre dynamics that deprives genre of stability, and the blurring of genre boundaries in media space. Formal, micro- and macro-textual characteristics may be the basis for a possible typology of media political genres.

Conclusion. The genre stratification of media political discourse proposed in this study is represented by three groups of genres: mediatized, politicized, and media-political genres. Media-political genres constitute the center of media political discourse, while mediatized and politicized genres belong to its periphery. The criteria of genre differentiation of media political discourse are the channel of information dissemination, intentional dominant and discursive personality formed on the basis of these two parameters. 

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