VERBALIZATION OF CLIMATE IN MODERN MEDIA

Abstract

The article examines the importance of the media in shaping public awareness of climate change. The lexical-semantic content of the rubric "Climate" in modern mass media and its influence on the audience's perception of environmental issues were studied. Previous studies in the field of lexical-semantic field and ecological discourse are considered, pointing to the significant works of scientists in both ukrainian and foreign linguistics. Three research paradigms of ecological discourse from the point of view of linguistics are also revealed: ecolinguistics, cognitive linguistics and critical discourse analysis. Among them, cognitive linguistics has received increasing attention in environmental discourse studies because it emphasizes the constant interaction of people with their environment and as an integral part of it, offering a variety of cognitive construct mechanisms to explore the mental models underlying linguistic structure. The results emphasize the growing environmental crisis and the development of research in this area. It was noted that language appears as a key tool for the formation of environmental awareness. The article drew attention to different approaches to the study of lexical-semantic fields and linguistic features of ecological discourse. There was emphasized the ecological discourse in the context of media discourse and determined its importance in the formation of consciousness. It determined the features of media discourse, as a special type of discourse: group relationship; publicity; creation of a conflict followed by its discussion; staging and mass orientation. There was devised an approach to the study of the lexical-semantic field 'Climate' in the English language, using methods of general scientific and linguistic analysis. The study of the lexical-semantic field "Climate" on the example of BBC News materials made it possible to highlight key lexical units and their content. On the basis of BBC News articles, lexemes were distributed into six groups: natural phenomena, climate organizations and programs, physical notions, natural raw materials, ecosystems, geographical names. This made it possible to come to a conclusion about the variety of components of the lexical-semantic field "Climate" in the media discourse.