UDC

81.119

Authors

Tat’yana A. Lenkova
Ryazan State University named for S.A. Yesenin; ul. Svobody 46, korp. 1, Ryazan, 390000, Russian Federation; e-mail: talenk@yandex.ru

Abstract

This article was written within media-linguistics and investigates the role of photo captions in a creolized media text. A creolized nonfiction text not only combines the verbal component of the article and visuals in the form of photographs, but also includes all sorts of captions and comments that are of both informative and certain pragmatic nature. This paper compares the attitudes toward the methods of using legends in Russian and German press. Russian journalists often turn to photo archives and find it reasonable to illustrate different contexts with one and the same picture. This, according to the author of this article, opens up many opportunities for manipulation of public opinion. German journalists are more careful with captions, believing that photos should correspond to certain material and thus guarantee its authenticity and unambiguity. In addition, the representatives of German press see legends to be complementary to photos, i.e. the comment is subordinate to the illustration, while in Russia the relationship is reverse. In our opinion, the use of legends depends on a number of factors, such as the customer, type of the organ, editorial policy, preparedness and awareness of the target audience, etc. In any case, the legend, as an integral structural component of journalistic material creolized to different degrees, requires serious study.

Keywords

creolized text, photo caption, legend, informative and manipulative function, Russian and German press

References

1. Lenkova T.A. Novye tendentsii v oformlenii pis’mennogo diskursa pechatnykh SMI Germanii [New Trends in Written Discourse Representation of German Print Media]. ESSJ, 2011, no. 6, pp. 121–125.
   
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