Newspaper Headline as a Tool in the Formation OF Public Opinion (Based On Spanish and Russian)

Abstract

This work was carried out within the framework of medialinguistics (the term of T.G. Dobroklonskaya) – an actively developing area of linguistics that studies the functioning of the language in mass communication [1]. Media text belongs to the newspaper-journalistic style, which carries out a two-pronged task: informative and influential. At the same time, according to the universal recognition of sociologists and linguists, the impact on the consciousness of the public through semantic and evaluation information prevails, gradually displacing the function of information.

The newspaper and magazine variety has become the most widespread within the framework of the journalistic style, since the main goals of the information text are clearly traced here: to inform the addressee about any fact that is socially significant; explicitly express its attitude towards it and arouse a certain attitude of the addressee [2], [3].

It is these facts that dictate the choice of the object of study in this work – a newspaper headline, as a special variety of media texts, which contains information about the most popular and current situation related to the Covid-19 virus today. In this perspective, the extent of the influence of newspaper headlines on the formation of public opinion in Spain and Russia is analyzed. The article considers the headlines of Spanish (“El País” and “El Mundo”) and Russian (“Izvestia” and “Kommersant”) newspapers devoted to the topic of Covid-19, in terms of their functional workload, namely, the explicit or hidden introduction into the consciousness of readers of subjective interpretation of information instead of objective presentation of facts. The results of the study show that communicative tactics of prevention, intimidation and attraction are recruited in the headlines of the Spanish and Russian press through lexical means of language. Research material and theoretical conclusions can be used in the preparation of Spanish language courses [4].