The mythologeme “coronavirus” in the modern mass media news in Europe and Asia

Abstract

The article analyzes the impact of nominations in the media discourse on the coronavirus on the public consciousness of Europe and Asia. The authors consider the historical, sociological, and psycholinguistic aspects of the use of names in texts about the coronavirus, identify the features of the impact of such texts on the reader and determine the target orientation of such texts. Hypothesis: names in news reports about coronavirus in modern news discourse in conditions of quarantine and self-isolation act as triggers that unite different strata of society, creating a hologram of a single mental space, actualizing archetypal images of the confrontation between Good and Evil. Particular attention is paid to the connection between ethno-confessional myths and ideas about the coronavirus in the public consciousness, their involvement in information wars. The methodology for the analysis of names is standard; it includes sociolinguistic, structural, and semantic analysis, evaluative, motivational, target analysis, etc. The study helps to understand linguistic universals in the transmission of psycho-emotional moods in a stressful situation in a pandemic. The article will be of interest to specialists in the field of linguistics, sociology, political science, psychology.