Basic Communicative Strategies and Tactics of Russian and Armenian Medical Media Discourse

This article explores the deployment of various communicative strategies within prominent medical blogs. The study analyzes 400 texts in Russian and Armenian, sourced from diverse social networks. The selection of these materials is justified by the growing popularization of medical knowledge and the escalating public interest in health, which motivates physicians to undertake active educational initiatives across all accessible information platforms. The objective of this research is to systematically delineate the primary communicative strategies and tactics employed in Russian- and Armenian-language medical blogs authored by doctors from a range of specialties. The significance of this study arises from the incontrovertible popularity of social networks and the progressive mediatization of medical discourse, coupled with a gap in scholarly literature regarding the comparative analysis of Russian and Armenian medical discourses. The findings reveal that medical media discourse on social networks predominantly implements two communicative strategies: informational-educational and manipulative. Each strategy has distinct goals and is manifested through specific communicative tactics. The informational-educational strategy seeks to disseminate medical knowledge through tactics such as providing concise information, referencing authoritative sources, offering guidance, and dispelling medical myths. In contrast, the manipulative strategy aims to market certain products or services, thus actively employing marketing tactics like extolling the virtues of one’s offerings, drawing attention to the blogger’s professional accomplishments and expertise, among others. The study concludes that tactics associated with the manipulative strategy are prevalent in both Russian and Armenian medical blogs, as are tactics related to myth debunking, instructional guidance, and the provision of succinct information within the informational-educational framework.

1. Akaeva, E.V. (2013). Kommunikativnye strategii uchenykh v nauchnoy meditsinskoy kommunikatsii. [Communication Strategies of Scientists in Scientific Medical Communication]. In Rechevaya kommunikatsiya v sovremennoy Rossii: materialy III Mezhdunarodnoy konferentsii: v 2 tomakh. Tom 1 (Omsk, 27–30 iyunya 2013 goda) [Speech communication in modern Russia: proceedings of the III International Conference: in 2 volumes. Vol. 1 (Omsk, June 27–30, 2013)] (pp. 165-172). Omsk: Omskiy gosudarstvennyy universitet im. F. M. Dostoevskogo [Dostoevsky Omsk State University] (in Russian).

2. Benevolenskaya, N.P., & Fedotova, N.L. (2019). Rechevye strategii i taktiki meditsinskogo diskursa v yazyke sovremennykh rossiyskikh SMI [Speech Strategies and Tactics of Medical Discourse in the Language of Modern Russian Media]. Izvestiya Yugo-Zapadnogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya: Lingvistika i pedagogika [Proceedings of Southwest State University. Linguistics and pedagogy], vol. 9, no. 1(30), pp. 21-27 (in Russian).

3. Dotsenko, E.L. (1997). Psikhologiya manipuljatsii: fenomeny, mekhanizmy i zashchita [The Psychology of Manipulation: Phenomena, Mechanisms and Defense]. Moscow: CheRo, Izdatel’stvo MGU [Moscow State University publishing house] (in Russian).

4. Foucault, M. (1994). Slova i veshchi. Arkheologiya gumanitarnykh nauk [The Order of Things: an Archeology of Human Sciences] (V.P. Vizgin & N.S. Avtonomova, Trans.). Saint Petersburg, A-cad (in Russian).

5. Gureeva, A.N. (2016). Teoreticheskoe ponimanie mediatizacii v uslovijah cifrovoj sredy [Theoretical Understanding of Mediatization in the Digital Environment]. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 10. Zhurnalistika, 6, 192-208 (in Russian). https://vestnik.journ.msu.ru/books/2016/6/teoreticheskoe-ponimanie-mediatizatsii-v-usloviyakh-tsifrovoy-sredy/

6. Issers, O.S. (2008). Kommunikativnye strategii i taktiki russkoj rechi [Communication Strategies and Tactics of Russian Speech]. Moscow, URSS-LKI (in Russian).

7. Karasik, V.I. (1998). O kategorijakh diskursa [On the Categories of Discourse]. In Jazykovaja lichnost’: sotsiolingvisticheskie i ehmotivnye aspekty: sb. nauch. tr. [Language personality: sociolinguistic and emotive aspects]: collection of scientific papers (pp. 185-197). Volgograd – Saratov: Peremena (in Russian).

8. Karasik, V.I. (2000). Ehtnokul’turnye tipy institutsional’nogo diskursa [Ethnocultural Types of Institutional Discourse]. In L.N. Troshina (Ed.), Ehtnokul’turnaja spetsifika rechevoj dejatel’nosti: sbornik obzorov [Ethnocultural specificity of speech activity: a collection of reviews]. Moscow: INION RAN (in Russian). https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/etnokulturnye-tipy-institutsionalnogo-diskursa

9. Karasik, V.I. (2015). Diskurs [Discourse]. Diskurs-Pi [Discourse-P], 12(3-4), 147-148 (in Russian).

10. Kiseleva, L.A. (2022). Osnovnye napravlenija issledovanija problemy «jazyk i ehmotsii» v otechestvennoj i zarubezhnoj lingvistike nachala XXI veka [The Main Directions of the Problem Research “Language and Emotions” in Russian and Foreign Linguistics of the Beginning of the XXI Century]. Gumanitarnye issledovanija [Humanitarian Researches], 2(82), 43-49 (in Russian).

11. Kiseleva, L.A., & Ibragimova, Je.R. (2021). Ehmotivnyj potentsial leksicheskikh jedinits v konfliktogennykh mediatekstakh (na materiale televizionnykh tok-shou) [Emotive Potential of Lexical Units in Conflictogenic Media Texts (by the Material of Television Talk Shows)]. Filologicheskie nauki. Voprosy teorii i praktiki [Philology. Theory & Practice], 14(6), pp. 1737-1742 (in Russian). https://doi.org/10.30853/phil210300

12. Kozharnovich, M.P. (2021). Mediatizatsija meditsinskogo diskursa: sposoby, atributy I riski [Mediatization of Medical Discourse: Modes, Attributes and Risks]. Medialingvistika [Media Linguistics], 8(4), 421-437 (in Russian). doi: 10.21638/spbu22.2021.408

13. Kravtsova, E.V. (2012). Nauchnyj diskurs kak vid institutsional’nogo tipa diskursa [Research Discourse as Type of Institutional Discourse]. Vestnik Yuzhno-Ural’skogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya: Lingvistika [Bulletin of the South Ural State University. Series “Linguistics”], 25, p. 130-132 (in Russian).

14. Pivovarchik, T.A. (2019). Setevoj medicinskij diskurs Bajneta: kul’tura kommunikatsij [Medical Discourse network of bynet: communication culture]. Kommunikativnye issledovanija [Communication Studies (Russia)], 6(3), 776-793 (in Russian). doi: 10.25513/2413-6182.2019.6(3).776-793

15. Shmeljova, T.V. (2015). Mediatizacija kak fenomen sovremennoj kul’tury i ob”ekt issledovanija [Mediatization as the Phenomenon of Modern Culture and Object of Research]. Vestnik Novgorodskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta im. Jaroslava Mudrogo [Vestnik NovSU. Issue: Liberal Sciences], 7(90), 145-148 (in Russian). https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/mediatizatsiya-kak-fenomen-sovremennoy-kultury-i-obekt-issledovaniya

16. Shuravina, L.S. (2013). Meditsinskij diskurs kak tip institutsional’nogo diskursa [Medical Discourse as a Type of Institutional Discourse]. Vestnik Cheljabinskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Filologija. Iskusstvovedenie [Bulletin of Chelyabinsk State University. Philology. Art history], no. 37(328), iss. 86, pp. 65-67 (in Russian).

17. Tajupova, O.I. (2019). Mediameditsinskij diskurs kak ob”ekt lingvisticheskogo issledovanija (na materiale sovremennoj nemetskoj zhurnal’noj periodiki) [Medical media discourse as an object of linguistic study (based on the material of modern German magazine periodicals)]. Rossijskij gumanitarnyj zhurnal [Liberal Arts in Russia], 8(5), 352-360 (in Russian). doi: 10.15643/libartrus-2019.5.5

18. Volkova, E.V. (2021). Realizatsiya informatsionno-prosvetitel’skoj strategii vracha v mediadiskurse social’noj seti [Communicative Tactics of the Doctor’s Informational and Educational Strategy in the Media Text of the Social Network Instagram]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta [Tomsk State University Journal], 463, 15-24 (in Russian). doi: 10.17223/15617793/463/2