Search for a command to run...
The paper deals with the world epidemic reflection in mass media discourse. The information about coronavirus may be grouped under the following titles: 1) disease definition, its history and characteristics, 2) activities of the authorities to fight the epidemic, 3) prognoses of specialists concerning its development, 4) commentaries of internet users about it. Typical reactions to apocalyptic threat of today make up the following groups: 1) dissemination of information about the situation, 2) emotional response to the news, 3) tentative efforts to find rational or irrational explanation of the facts, 4) advice and recommendations, 5) reduction of information to comical absurdity, 6) insolent trolling the internet commu-nity for questionable self-affirmation. The reaction of the active network audience to the coronavirus news is often very emotional, explanations are both rational and mystical, authorities are blamed for their incompetence and corruption and they are politically charged; public anonymous discourse has a high degree of sarcasm and grim humor. The study shows that the social networking discourse and blogs have become an important component of media communication, and the attitude to the credibility of the news disseminated by mass media has changed: if the news published in a paper or transmitted over the radio or television were accepted by many people as true a few decades ago, now, in the post-modern era, fakes and facts occupy almost equal positions in news streams.