German popular scientific medical online media: structural and functional aspects

The relevance of the study is determined by formation of self-treatment and self-diagnostic as the leading trends in modern healthcare in many countries. This fact is confirmed by the increase of the number of search queries with the semantic core of “health” in the global network. The object of research in the article are German-language medical popular scientific Internet publications that are studied in the aspect of structuring their textual content and realizable functions. The Internet edition is defined as a virtual resource with media functions. Structural features of the Internet publication are identified: additional content, the vastness of the whole functional- thematic block, the relationship of texts through active links, more illustrated material, interactivity. Functional- thematic blocks of 40 editions are examined in detail in the article, a set of frequency units (food, health, sports, psyche, illness) and unique sections are established. Based on the classifications of communicative functions proposed in linguistics, the relevant functions in medical popular science discourse are revealed: information, advice, warning, entertainment, refutation, advertising. It was established that the information function is realized in all texts of the discourse, but its status (basic or auxiliary) varies depending on the target settings of the text. This research will open possibilities for further study of the medical science popular discourse by considering pragmatic and stylistic aspects.