Political discourse as a communicative practice of constructing virtual political reality

On the base of a postmodern approach to understanding modernity, the authors identify the conditions of origin and the essence of a new phenomenon called virtual political reality and outline theoretical approaches to understanding of social and communicative practices of its construction. They emphasize that these phenomena, as well as discursive practices, are of a symbolic nature. Political discourse is considered as a communicative practice of creating semantic meanings of certain political phenomena and actions. The authors raise the issue of the mutual influence of discourse and social reality, considering the transformation of political discourse as a tool for constructing and changing virtual political reality.