Telegram discourse as product of digital ecosystem: visualization of format

The article focuses on the format of the Telegram discourse as a variety of digital communication. The objective of the paper is to work out a set of parameters for the analysis of the Telegram discourse from the perspective of formatting the content, taking into account both linguistic and extralinguistic factors of its functioning in the digital sphere. The methodology of the research draws on the provisions of Internet linguistics, Discourse analysis, Social semiotics, Media linguistics on the information formatting, functional varieties of speech, multimodality of discourse, and transformations of the digital textuality in the new technological environment. The Telegram discourse format is defined as a set of parameters that organizes its content and determines the discourse functioning in a virtual environment. To gain the objective, a case method has been applied. The sample contains 922 posts published by three Telegram channels on labor migration in the period from September to December 2023. The author argues that the Telegram discourse format is a broad notion encompassing different types of factors that provide formal and conceptual aspects of meaning construction. It is proved that the format of the Telegram discourse is polyparametric, which is made evident by the following: a) technical characteristics of the messenger contribute to a modular format of discourse; b) communication between telegrammers and subscribers reveal its dialogic nature; c) multimedia characteristics of the messenger explain the hypertextual format; d) the selection of semiotic modes contributes to the multimodal convergent format; e) the quality of the digital textuality enacts the ‘written-spoken’ format. The results of the research present interest for further development of the problems of discourse formatting in the context of virtual social practices.