Representation of Russia’s image in german media discourse in the context of the 2018 fifa world cup

The paper reveals the specifics of constructing the image of Russia in the German media discourse in current media texts covering preparation for the FIFA World Cup, which has been held for the first time on the territory of the Russian Federation. International events of this magnitude put the host country in the center of attention of the world community not only during the event, but long before it, and after the implementation of the project. At the same time, the contact of most members of society with the surrounding reality is mediated by mass communication. In the process of describing the events taking place in Russia, the German media tend to implement the opposition ‘own vs. alien’. With the use of lexicographic data, the semantic content of the concept ‘own vs. alien’ is analyzed, which allows to identify the key aspects of the values underlying this opposition: ‘own’ and ‘alien’ denote belongingness, indicate the type and mode of action. The linguistic mechanisms of constructing the image of Russia are characterized. Having analyzed the empiric material, we conclude that the most dominating strategies are alienation and exotization. The main language means for constructing the image of Russia are lexemes with pejorative connotation, culture-specific words, illocutive verbs, comparison.