CONTEMPORARY UKRAINIAN-LANGUAGE MEDIA BROADCASTING: VALUE- AND MEANING-BASED GUIDELINES, COMMUNICATIVE MODELS, AND THE LINGUISTIC DIMENSION

Abstract

This article examines contemporary Ukrainian-language media discourse as an important factor in cultural communication, the transmission of social values, and the construction of national identity amid the digital transformation of the media landscape and a full-scale war. It justifies the need to shift from a predominantly normative understanding of the Ukrainian language’s role in the media to viewing it as a culture-forming and communicative resource. Based on media content from “Suspilne” and “Ukrainska Pravda”, a comparative analysis was conducted of the value- and meaning-based orientations, communicative models, and linguistic and stylistic practices of contemporary Ukrainian-language media discourse. The specific characteristics of two models of media communication were identified: the institutional-public model and the author-network model. It was found that the former is dominated by social responsibility, legal culture, reliability, expertise, and a focus on the public interest, while the latter more clearly emphasizes openness, public accountability, critical thinking, personalization, and dialogue. It has been shown that the linguistic organization of both models combines the normative aspects of the Ukrainian language with elements of colloquialism, expressiveness, evaluativeness, and professional terminology. This interaction attests to the transformation of traditional boundaries between institutional and everyday discourses and the formation of new models of mediabased cultural communication. Particular attention is paid to evaluative vocabulary, metaphorical constructions, colloquial elements, foreignlanguage loanwords, repetition, and other characteristics of spoken media discourse as means of constructing meaning and interacting with the audience. It is argued that contemporary Ukrainian-language media discourse fulfills not only an informational and communicative function but also a culture-forming one: it represents social values, reinforces national linguistic identity, shapes models of public behavior, and promotes the cultural consolidation of society.