Ecological reflection and its verbalization in the Russian, English and French media discourse space: a comparative approach

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Ecological reflection and its verbalization in the Russian, English and French media discourse space: a comparative approach

Alla V. Guslyakova^1,2S,

Nina I. Guslyakova³,

Abstract

The article covers the problem of ecological reflection and the ways of its linguistic realization in the Russian and foreign media discourse space at the present epoch of digitalization and sustainable development. The main goal of this research is to characterize the key linguistic ways of expressing ecological reflection at its individual and collective levels of information perception by human consciousness in Russian, English and French media discourses. The study contains a comparative approach towards the analysis of the language units that express ecological reflection in the media discourses of different language domains. This method helps define the relevance of the study, which is primarily explained by the increasing number of interactive media materials focused on the environmental issues of the third millennium. The results of the study demonstrate a different degree of the language expression of ecological reflection (evolutionary, mediative and radical) by means of a particular choice of linguistic instruments specific for a certain language media space. In the end, one common principle is identified in the expression of ecological reflection in the Russian, French and English media discourse space. Despite almost opposite linguistic approaches towards the implementation of ecological reflection in the Russian, English and French media, there is one common challenge that unites them all, and this is the survival of the planet as well as its further sustainable development. Thus, at this stage the language choice for the promotion of eco-reflective ideas becomes convergent for three media discourse space of Russia, France and the English-speaking world.

Keywords: ecological reflection, media discourse space, Russia, English-speaking world, France, media effects, verbalization, evolutionary, mediative, radical

Экологическая рефлексия и ее вербализация в российском, англоязычном и французском медиадискурсивном пространстве: сопоставительный аспект

А.В. Гуслякова ^1,2И, Н.И. Гуслякова ³, Н.Г. Валеева ¹

Рассматривается проблема экологической рефлексии и способы ее языковой реализации в российском и зарубежном медиадискурсивном пространстве в современную эпоху цифровизации и устойчивого развития. Основная цель научного исследования - охарактеризовать ключевые лингвистические способы выражения экологической рефлексии на ее индивидуальном и коллективном уровнях восприятия информации сознанием человека в российском, англоязычном и французском медиадискурсах. Исследование содержит сопоставительный подход к анализу языковых единиц, выражающих экологическую рефлексию в медиадискурсивном пространстве трех различных языковых доминионов. Данный метод позволяет определить актуальность исследования, выражающуюся, прежде всего, в постоянном увеличении объема медиаматериала, посвященного экологическим проблемам XXI столетия. Результаты исследования дают возможность оценить различную степень эмоциональной и интеллектуальной выраженности экологической рефлексии на языковом уровне ее восприятия (эволюционной, опосредованной и радикальной) в медиадискурсивном пространстве российских, англоязычных и французских СМИ. Кроме того, по результатам анализа практического материала исследования выделен общий принцип репрезентации экологической рефлексии в трех различных языковых медиадискурсивных пространствах России, Франции и стран англоязычного международного альянса. Вопреки практически противоположному лингвистическому подходу к языковой имплементации экологической рефлексии в российских, англоязычных и французских СМИ, существует единая задача, объединяющая все три международных медиадискурсивных пространства, которая заключается в выживании современной планеты и ее дальнейшем устойчивом развитии. Таким образом, на данном этапе реализации цели по устойчивому развитию Земли в третьем тысячелетии выбор языковых средств на индивидуальном и коллективном уровнях рефлексивного восприятия разнообразных экологических идей становится конвергентным для всех трех медиадискурсивных пространств России, Франции и всего англоязычного мира. linguistic reflection discourses

Ключевые слова: экологическая рефлексия, медиадискурсивное пространство, Россия, англоязычный мир, Франция, медиаэффекты, вербализация, эволюционный, опосредованный, радикальный

Introduction

In recent decades more and more people across the globe are getting integrated into environmental activities due to the spread of Internet technologies and the popularity rise of new means of media communication. The creation of the Media Ecology Association in 1998 [1] on the North American continent contributed to the spread of the corresponding philosophical ideas aimed at understanding the relationships between such concepts as environments, media, human beings and interactions [ibid.]. Such an approach that suggested "the study of media as environments" [2] developed an ecological metaphor in diverse media texts and circumstances and regarded a technological change as primarily an ecological one [3]. The same approach has also helped people understand the concept that "a new medium does not add something; but it changes everything" [ibid.] including a person's perception of the current global ecological challenges as well as their own roles in the system of sustainable development goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015.

Thus, the main goal of this research is to introduce the concept of ecological reflection through its correlation with the media discourse environment and analyze its ways of verbalization and media effects in different language cultures based on a comparative case study of the Russian, English and French societies.

This research comprises three major parts: first, we focus on the definition of ecological reflection and investigate its transforming role in the present-day global digital civilization. Second, we demonstrate how and why this concept is being actively verbalized in the media discourse space and what a psycholinguistic effect it can contribute to the modern society. Third and finally, we analyze the similarities and differences of the language implementation of ecological reflection in various national domains and summarize the main linguistic trends in its presentation at a contemporary digital age.

Methods and materials

The implementation of the research goal and tasks becomes possible due to the following complementary research methods: theoretical analysis of scientific literature on the presented problem, descriptive and comparative methods, statistical data processing and, finally, content and discourse analyses to undercover the key trends and patterns of ecological reflection verbalization in the media discourse space of Russia, English and French media worlds.

The materials of this work became the discourses of the leading Russian media editions (Vzglyad ("Delovaya Gazeta Vzglyad"), Vedomosti, Kommersant, Argumenty i Fakty, Lenta.ru, Komsomolskaya Pravda), media platforms (Rutube.com; Smotrim.ru, Vesti.ru), social media (VKontakte); English media editions (The Guardian, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Independent, The New York Times, The Sydney Morning Herald, Los Angeles Times, Toronto Star, The Irish Times, The Economist); English-language social media (Twitter) as well as a video hosting (YouTube); French media editions (Le Monde, Le Figaro, Le Parisien), a media platform France 24. The overall number of the analyzed printed characters dedicated to the problem of the linguistic implementation of ecological reflection is 400 000 while the total number of videos watched is 100 hours.

Ecological reflection in the global digital media environment of the XXI st century

Ecological reflection has become a cutting edge social phenomenon which is actively speculated in the first quarter of the third millennium. Reflection (or selfreflection, self-observation, reflective awareness and consciousness) is an individual's ability to witness and evaluate his or her own cognitive, emotional, and behavioural processes [4; 5]. When we define ecological reflection, we mean the ability of a human being to understand their role in the construction of the sustainable environment on the internal and external levels of their interaction with the outer world. In recent decades people have started more and more frequently reflect on the number of ecological issues which appear and happen on the "blue" planet in the XXI st century. The notoriously discussed topics of climate change and global warming, maintaining biodiversity, deforestation, air, soil, and water pollution [6] are on the permanent agenda in the present-day global new media environment. The modernization of digital technologies goes hand in hand with the ecological modernization processes which have become "an effective ecological response to a variety of circumstances or imperatives regarding social-ecological thought" [7] since the beginning of the late 1970s, when a lot of various environmental movements appeared in different parts of the civilized world propagating the review of people's attitude towards the exploitation of Nature. The current technological features of new media (e.g. online video sharing and social media platforms, digital TV and podcasts, online blogging and commenting) allow discovering, discussing and reflecting on the crucial challenges of environmental changes and thus developing adequate solutions to them.

It is important to mention that ecological reflection can be both collective and individual, depending on whether it represents a certain group's idea or a personal ecological worldview. A good example of a collective ecological reflection can be seen in the British media edition "The Economist", whose mission is to provide credible reflections or thoughts on the most "dramatic" environmental dilemmas of our century (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. An example of a collective ecological reflection based on the reports presented in the British media edition "The Economist". Available from: www.economist.com

The choice of words introduced in the lead (a collective human endeavour, our journalists assess) underline the importance of a collective exchange of environmental ideas and building group eco-consciousness so as "to meet the historic goals" of a more sustainable future.

One of the best examples of an individual ecological reflection is demonstrated in the Russian media edition "Vedomosti. Ecology" where the deputy general director of the Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) Vladimir Oborsky reflects on the principle of eco-volunteering in Russia. From his viewpoint, "Эковолонтерство - это внутренняя потребность человека, который борется за окружающую среду там, где проживает" [8]. (Eco-volunteering is an internal human need, who fights for the environment where he or she lives.)

Thus, we may see the linguistic opposition between a collective human endeavour and internal human need that define the understanding of the ecological reflection on both levels of consciousness - an individual and a group one.

The correlation between the language and human consciousness, their unity [9] constitute the basement for controlling human behaviour, knowing oneself and the existence of the external culture. They also help form the symbolic reality which constitutes the existence of a language [ibid.].

Therefore, analyzing the modern ecological reality by means of words in different languages and their inclusion in the world of media symbols which dominate at the present epoch, a much stronger image of ecological reflection can be perceived and better understanding of the evolution of the human ecological consciousness may be provided for the further scientific analysis.

Verbalization of ecological reflection through the media discourse space

The possibility of linguistic explication of ecological reflection draws a line between the human subconscious and consciousness which directly relate this problem to the process of speech generation and also becomes relevant in the framework of this research.

A Soviet psychologist L.S. Vygotsky singled out three stages that are responsible for generating a certain speech act: a motivation phase, internal verbalization (which marks the beginning of the verbal thinking stage) and finally its implementation in tangible external words [10]. The last stage is characterized by a deliberate selection of language tools necessary to express the speaker's thoughts. Deliberateness implies the presence of the goal of the action in the individual's mind, which is subject to the choice of each component of the statement - words, grammatical constructions, intonation and graphic means [11]. A person reflects about how the form of his or her speech message will contribute to the achievement of the introduced communication goals and produces conscious mental efforts [12] so as to reach those objectives. Thus, we may see that internal communicative factors interact with external ones [13].

At the current era external factors can be "understood as conditions that facilitate the emergence of one or another internal regularity of the language" [14]. In other words, social and technological conditions define the reflective mechanism of the language. Taking into account the transformation of the environmental policy in the present-day global society due to recent ecological challenges that Earth is facing today, we may suggest that this external factor impacts on the language and human ecological consciousness. Moreover, these linguistic changes affect directly human reflection on a verbalized level of its environmental functioning. In the paragraph below, we are going to introduce definite examples of the linguistic forms of ecological reflection and demonstrate its functioning in three different languages: Russian, English and French.

Language interpretation of ecological reflection in the Russian, English and French media discourse space: similarities and differences

The former first lady of the USA Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis once mentioned that "all the changes in the world, for good or evil, were first brought about by words" [15]. Understanding Nature and putting efforts to preserve it, starts with an individual's self-reflection focused on the environmental issues that are embodied in a specific set of language (lexical and grammar) structures. Depending on the structure of the language itself, those sets will vary and hence the perception of the outer world with all the ecological challenges in it.

Table 1 below demonstrates three comparison groups of a key vocabulary extracted by means of the discourse and content analyses that deal with the examples of ecological reflection in the Russian, French and English media discourse space. We will take a closer look at their interpretation.

Table 1

Ecological reflection in key terms expressed in the Russian, English-language and French media discourse space