ABSTRACT
The aim of this research paper is to reveal and explore the negative concepts, i.e. anti-values, verbalized in the professionally compiled media texts on the topic of YouTube as they shape the idea of what YouTube is and how it functions. The authors identify anti-values in the newspaper and magazine articles, reveal linguistic means through which they are implemented, as well as define their relationship with the context. The authors attempt to rationalize the use of anti-values in the texts about YouTube and provide a commentary on both linguistic and extra-linguistic features of these entities. Anti-values reflect concepts, phenomena, ideas or notions that are deemed unacceptable or undesirable in some cases universally, and in some specifically by the users of the platform or those affected by it. The research findings can be used in both axiological and socio-linguistic studies conducted for pragmatic, scientific or educational purposes.
ABSTRACT
Drawing on the studies of linguistics, axiology and discourse analysis, this paper contributes to the linguistic framework of value-based communication studies by establishing the algorithm of shaping values in popular science IT discourse via the set of linguo-axiological methods. The authors' aims include establishing dominating communicative strategies employed by the authors of the texts; identifying language structures and lexical means responsible for the both explicit and implicit formation and verbalization of certain values represented in the texts about YouTube; organizing the identified values into a system as presented by the authors of the texts. The paper uncovers dominant YouTube text characteristics, focusing on the instrumental role of values this type of discourse represents, and implements a complex methodological set (CDA and linguo-axiological analysis) in order to outline three basic communicative strategies that the authors of the texts employ: the information strategy; the instruction strategy; the evaluation strategy. The conducted research reveals that the texts of mass media about YouTube contain the following values, classified by the authors into three axiological groups: relevance (approval, authenticity, entertainment, fame, influence, popularity); relationship (accessibility, connection, feedback, relatability); profession (career, competitiveness, money, promotion, time). The results of the study include theoretical conclusions about how the modern-day discourse of information technology (IT-discourse) reflects both fundamental and profession-specific human values, thus shaping the way addressees perceive the industry through language. These findings make it possible to form a new type of IT-discourse text architecture, which would take into account the pragmatic-axiological charge necessary to shape and divert the set of addressees' values.
