Plotnikova Mariya V.

The article discusses the fundamental problem of suggestive influence of the social networks’ discourse
on young people. Extensive digitalization of contemporary media space, as well as the emergence of
fundamentally new hybrid forms of media discourse, have led to a serious transformation of political
communication. At the same time, political content in some Russian and international social networks is becoming an effective tool for promotion of certain ideological attitudes. Speech manipulation as a
manifestation of the dissonance of the linguistic ecology of media discourse and an effective weapon of
information wars lies at the heart of the post-truth phenomenon having an undoubted destructive potential from the point of view of public safety.

The empirical base of the research on the influence of the ”new media”discourse is the video materials
of TikTok service and the related content of YouTube platform, as well as users’ comments. The method
of sociolinguistic interpretation was used in this study, which makes it possible to identify the correlation between linguistic and extralinguistic data, the functional load of the phenomena under study, as well as the potential of their influence on a certain social group considering the data obtained. Interpretation of
the research material is carried out from the perspective of the cognitive-semiotic approach: videos on a certain political topic are referred to as creolized polycode texts.

As a result of the analysis, the main factors that led to the active use of the platform for political
propaganda were identified. Some technical aspects of the functioning of this social network, which
have a significant impact on the use of certain manipulative tactics in the creation of politically oriented content, are examined. We analyze precedent socio-political situations (cases) that have caused a significant
response from the youth audience of TikTok users in Russia and abroad.

The analysis carried out from the perspective of the linguistic ecology has shown that creolized texts
with a dominant acoustic code, i.e. created using music representing protest, have the greatest manipulative potential. Taking into account the principle of functioning of TikTok, it has been suggested that the “for you” page greatly contributes to the effectiveness of social media propaganda among the young people: the
network forms certain behavioral patterns of youth according to the principle of simulation.

Further study of destructive communication phenomena that lead to the marginalization of the cultural identity of the nation and the disruption of the harmonious coexistence of social groups and institutions can contribute to the adoption of effective measures in the field of social management, including the legal sphere. 

The article is devoted to the problem of destructive communicative behavior of Russian political figures, which has acquired a national scale in the last few years, as one of the factors of discrediting the government. In the context of total digitalization of the Russian public space, the communicative failures of certain officials instantly become public and undermine the trust of the country's citizens in the state power, contributing to the development of protest thinking. It seems that in order to solve this problem, it is necessary to analyze the main causes of conflict-prone communication behavior of politicians and consider possible ways to prevent communication failures. The analysis considered high-profile statements of political figures that caused negative responses in the Russian public space for the period from 2015 to 2019. The analysis shows that the greatest potential for conflict arises when political figures address socially significant topics. In the course of public speeches and statements on social media pages that affect social issues, politicians need to exercise the greatest caution and responsibility in choosing the means of speech to implement their communicative intentions. A high risk of communicative failure occurs when replacing the form of the answer to a direct question with the form of advice, as well as when referring to figurative comparisons. Manifestations of open speech aggression in public professional communication inevitably lead to a situation of communicative failure. All these forms of communication with a high degree of probability cause the effect of discrediting the government. In this regard, politicians, and especially civil servants, should avoid such forms of destructive communicative behavior in the performance of their professional duties.