Realization of the characteristics of the symmetrical opposition wealth/poverty in the Russian media discourse

Wang Jia

This article presents an analysis of the features of the implementation of the symmetrical opposition "wealth / poverty" in the Russian-language media discourse. The author gives a brief description of mass communication, as well as how it affects the formation of public consciousness. Particular attention is paid to the concept of "discourse" in the context of both the media and the development of modern information technologies. The material of this article is the publications of online publications selected by the method of continuous sampling. It was found that at present, ideas about rich and poor people are expressed through contextual and linguistic antonyms. Their basis is material wealth, as well as its inequality. At the same time, the opposition under consideration can be verbalized both completely and partially. The author also considers verbs and set expressions associated with the opposition "wealth / poverty". It has been established that the poor stratum of the population in the media discourse is seen as honest, hardworking, generous, disinterested, etc.; the wealthy segment of the population is described as dishonest, immoral, miserly, etc.

Keywords:media discourse, opposition, wealth, poverty, Russian language.