MEDIA IMAGE OF A CHILD IN TEXTS OF THE BRITISH NEWSPAPER “THE GUARDIAN” DESCRIBING MILITARY EVENTS IN SYRIA AND UKRAINE

The article presents a study of the mechanism for creating an evaluation in a text in cases of using adherent-evaluative nominations – representatives of the media image of a child. The media image of a child is created by the frame terminals of the “child” prototype; skillful handling of this media image makes it possible to model public opinion and direct the vector of assessment of the events described. The work analyses cases of contextual use of lexical representatives of this media image when describing military events in Syria and Ukraine. The study is aimed at describing the ways in which texts in the media, in particular the press, influences the population’s opinion, which indicates functioning of the media as the fourth estate. The research material comprises more than 4,000 contexts from the British newspaper “The Guardian” (2017-2023). The study allows to identify the following patterns: 1) the media image of a child often becomes a lever for determining the evaluative vector of the reader’s attitude to the events described; 2) the media image of a child is an axiological means of manipulating the audience’s opinion; 3) describing the military events in Syria, the key frames for using this media image are “life support of the child” and “social status of the child”; 4) describing military events in Ukraine, the corresponding basic frames are “the social status of the child” and “the emotional state of the child”, the main problems covered by the British newspaper are the adoption of children by Russians and their deportation to the Russian Federation.