Rhizomatic Nature of Digital Media News Headlines in Russian and Chinese

Lyu Bo Postgraduate Student, Department of General and Russian Linguistics, Faculty of Philology, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia Associate Professor, School of Foreign Languages, Hubei Minzu University Miklukho-Maklaya str., 6, Moscow, 117198, Russia 1042228094@pfur.ru Other publications by this author

Perfilieva Natalia Vladimirovna ORCID: 0000-0002-1018-809X PhD in Philology Associate-Professor, Department of General and Russian Linguistics, Faculty of Philology, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 6 Miklukho-Maklaya str., Moscow, 117198, Russia perfilyeva_nv@pfur.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction

Today's news headlines are a non-linear combination of texts, photo reports, graphs, audio, video, etc., supported by digital technologies, thanks to which these texts are active links on digital media sites. E.N. Peskova writes: "Such a structure of media communication leads to the interpenetration of stylistic, genre and linguistic features of the media" ^{[1, p. 28]}, which forms new relationships in the texts of news headlines such as: hypertextuality, heterogeneity, multiplicity, nonlinearity, decentralization, dynamism and confusion. All of these features are characteristic features of the rhizome in digital cyberspace.

The term rhizome (from French. R hizome ‘rhizome') was borrowed from botany by the French philosophers J. Deleuze and F. In 1976, in order to describe and interpret the phenomena of post-structuralism and postmodernism, which are characterized by complex interrelationships, lack of a single center and defined boundaries, heterogeneity, multiplicity, nonlinearity, openness, dynamism, etc., Scientists noted that the rhizome "is not made of units, but of dimensions, or rather, of moving directions. It has no beginning or end, but there is always a middle from which it grows and overflows. It constitutes linear sets with dimensions, without subject and object" ^{[2, p. 37]}. A rhizome is an arbitrary and non–linear multi-level education that represents a complex model of text organization in a digital environment. Scientist V. M. Sharkov believes that "rhizomatic logic works very well in a multidimensional world, it is ideal for multi-factor optimization and helps to combine the "non-conjugate", ensures the convergence of traditional sciences and spiritual precepts" ^[3].

In 1970, the French philosopher M. Foucault predicted: "Perhaps one day the present century will become known as the century of Deleuze" ^{[4, p. 885]}. As the era of big data, the Internet, artificial intelligence, and the metaverse has dawned, "digital technologies have revolutionized the way people connect with each other and created a digital network that can be expanded almost indefinitely. The reason why social change in the digital age is of fundamental importance is that digital technologies are changing people's behavior, reorganizing production methods and organizations, changing lifestyles, rebuilding social structures, and recreating social work mechanisms. Compared to an industrial society, a digital society has completely different communication methods, behavioral models, knowledge systems, value systems, and social structures" ^{[5, p. 88]}.

The process of formation of new rhizomatic models and rhizomorphic media is continuously underway. Effective rhizome analysis is becoming an important part of the research of scientific and humanitarian projects. A number of studies have been published that present the concept of rhizome in education, art, architecture, journalism, literature, sociology, and natural sciences.

The research methods are as follows: a continuous selection of news headlines, classification of selected units, linguistic description and commenting, functional and semantic analysis, comparative analysis, etc., allowing to develop and clarify the general patterns of rhizomatic news headlines of Russian and Chinese leading digital media.

The research material includes more than 1,000 international news headlines from Russian and Chinese leading digital media for 2024, selected from popular authoritative sources RIA Novosti (RF) and Reference News (PRC), which are among the largest international news agencies, the most quoted and leading online media in the world.

The results of a study of the rhizomatic nature of news headlines in Russian and Chinese digital media

The philosophical concept of a rhizome allows us to re-examine and present the interrelationships of the components and properties of a complex complex heading text in a multidimensional digital Internet. E. V. Pilyugina noted that "the conceptual image of the rhizome is more vague and complex than the cognitive spaces of discourse or narrative. It has more emotional and evaluative components, which are a kind of "additional dimensions"" ^{[6, p.76]}. This means that the rhizome concept allows us to comprehensively reveal the interrelationship of elements in the news headlines of digital media.

Zh. Deleuze and F. Guattari's book "A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia" identifies 6 main characteristics of the rhizome: 1) connection and 2) heterogeneity, 3) multiplicity and 4) a-signifying gap, 5) cartography and 6) decalcomania.

1) The principle of connection is that "any point of the rhizome can – and should – be connected to any other point of it" ^{[2, p. 12]}. In the complex of a news headline, each part, verbal and non-verbal, is connected in its own way to its other parts without a visible hierarchy and a single center. For example, the headline is .... ......“.......”.......... 'The survey shows that more than 60% of Japanese are "worried''About Trump' (21.12.2024, Reference News) is accompanied by a photo showing Trump speaking with a microphone.

It is not uncommon for a headline text to form a connection with other texts, since the digital context expands the facet of a news headline: it is not only intertextual, but also hypertextual, that is, "text in an external space in relation to another text" ^{[7, p. 34]}. According to Y. S. Kristeva, "any text is constructed as a mosaic of citations" ^{[8, p. 167]}. With this approach, there are such intertextual relationships as: citation, precedent, hypertextuality.

Let's consider the heading complex "Meaningful emptiness". Pushkov compared Trump and Harry with (14. 09. 2024, RIA Novosti), in which the direct quote meaningful emptiness refers to the words of the chairman of the Federation Council commission in the Telegram channel on information policy A.K. Pushkov. The expression meaningful emptiness is metaphorically associated with the causeless laughter of candidate K. Harris for the presidency of the United States.

The title is a hyperlink that leads to other sites: "Meaningful Emptiness". Pushkov compared Trump and Harris (14. 09. 2024, mos. news), "A meaningful void." Pushkov compared Trump and Harris (14. 09. 2024, ROME), Harris was called a meaningful void in comparison with Trump (14. 09. 2024, LENTA. RU), etc.

2) The principle of heterogeneity: in the rhizome, "each trait does not necessarily refer to a linguistic trait: semiotic links of any nature are connected here with extremely different ways of encoding" ^{[2, p. 12]}. Digital technologies give the text heterogeneous characteristics. As a rule, the complex headline of an online media news is not only verbal, but also non-verbal.

An analysis of the headlines of international news from the leading Russian and Chinese agencies RIA Novosti (RF) and Reference News (PRC) has shown that the headline complexes are heterogeneous and represent a synthesis of text, photo reports, video or audio sequences. For example, the headline Scholz was booed at the scene of the terrorist attack in Magdeburg (12/21/2024, RIA Novosti) is visualized by a small video in which Olaf Scholz is greeted by outraged people on Magdeburg Street. The micro-video adds information about the location of the terrorist attack. Let's give another example: the title of the 'The US Congress has approved "anti-Chinese" special funds. Exclusive' (13. 09. 2024, Reference News) consists of text and a photo of the US Capitol, a symbol of the American government and world hegemony.

The analysis confirmed that:

· the complex header consists of different structural units: text, video, photo, etc.;

· It is characterized by heterogeneity, fragmentation and discreteness;

· The compiled parts of the news headline complex perform several functions: decode, supplement information, and form a link with other texts.

Modern international news headlines are hybrid. All these heterogeneous parts of the headline complex give a multidimensional impression of an event or news.

3) The principle of multiple rhizomes is the absence of a single center. News headline complexes are heterogeneous, multidimensional, discrete, and open. According to J. Deleuze and F. According to Guattari, they have no single center, "no subject and no object, there are only definitions, quantities, measurements that can grow only when the multitude changes its nature" ^{[2, p. 14]}.

Consider the heading "Playing with fire". The United States is alarmed by Putin's statement about the conflict with NATO (09/13/2024, RIA Novosti).

Playing with Fire is a quote from American retired officer D. Davis on YouTube. The phraseology playing with fire has the meaning of "doing something extremely dangerous’ in both Western and Eastern linguistic cultures. The photo complements the image of danger and seriousness: Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks against a dark background. This phrase is actively used in headlines and becomes an element of hypertext, thereby forming complex rhizomatic connections.:

"Playing with fire": the United States reacted to Putin's words about NATO's involvement in the conflict in Ukraine (09/13/2024, Komsomolskaya Pravda);

Davis: The West is "playing with fire", preparing to allow Ukraine to strike deep into the Russian Federation (09/13/2024, Public News Service);

U.S. Officer Davis: The West is "playing with fire", preparing to allow strikes deep into the Russian Federation" (09/13/2024, Southern Federal District), etc.

The Chinese news media uses the same technique: 'The Russian Ambassador to the United States warns: don't play with fire!' (14. 09. 2024, Reference News) with a photo report by Ambassador A. I. Antonov;

俄警告美欧“不要玩火” 'Russia warns the United States and Europe "not to play with fire" (05/18/2024, Reference News).

The principle of connection and the principle of heterogeneity of news headlines contribute to the formation of an open plurality. According to J. Deleuze and F. Guattari, the complex of the news headline "exists only because of the external and in the external" ^{[2, p. 8]}. Thus, the news headline of digital media is a complex complex, the content of which is formed in a non-linear way. It is characterized by such rhizomatic properties as polymodality, heterogeneity, openness, intertextuality and multidimensionality.

4) The principle of the a-signifying gap:

Zh. Deleuze and F. Guattari writes: "The rhizome may be broken, destroyed in any place, but it resumes, following one or another of its lines, as well as following other lines" ^{[2, p. 16]}. In their opinion, rhizomatization occurs in homogeneous and heterogeneous contexts. This is often seen in news headlines that feature quotes, precedent phenomena, Internet memes, etc.

Consider the headline "It's going to get worse." The United States is preparing a new color revolution (08/21/2024, RIA Novosti).

First, the expression will be even worse is a quote from political scientist D. O. Denisov about the riots in Belgrade;

Secondly, the political term color revolution reminds readers of mass street protests and riots supported by foreign organizations in the post-Soviet space, in Asian and African countries, where the United States and the West are steadily striving to export their "democracy";

Thirdly, in the photo, the silhouette of a man with the US national flag on his back contrasts in close-up with the Ukrainian flag in the distance and the US Capitol in the background.

There is also the heading “颜色革命”. 'The Russian Secret Service: The United States is planning a "color revolution" in Georgia' (08/27/2024, Reference News), in which both the quote and the term color revolution are observed.

All these fragmentary information components form a complex of this news headline, and the information is an open nonlinear polymorphic rhizome.

5) The principle of cartography and 6) The principle of decalcomania.

Zh. Deleuze and F. Guattari introduced the terms cartography and decalcomania to denote the complex, dynamic and heterogeneous properties of the rhizome, which "does not obey any structural or generative model" ^{[9, p. 357]}. The multiplicity thus obtained is a symbolic feature of the rhizome. The principles of cartography and decalcomania determine the process of self-organization of rhizome sets and its autochthonous evolution.

According to B. C. Malakhov and V. P. Filatov, the rhizome is considered as a "branched root system with many "nodes"", which "is much better suited to the description of reality than the concept of structure, since it cancels the rigid hierarchy of individual elements", expressing the "super-complex interweaving" of components and the absence of a center and hierarchies ^{[10, p. 357]}. Hypertexts, precedent texts, Internet memes, keywords, etc., which are important components of a news headline, play an important role in rhizomaticity. Serving as significant nodes in rhizomorphic spaces, they are deterritorialized from the old environment, reterritorialized in a new context to conditionally form a new title text, randomly intertwined semantically with each other, refer to previous and future texts.

For example, the headline is "Bad news for Scholz." In the West, they started talking about the apocalypse in Germany (09/20/2024, RIA Novosti).

The quote "Bad news for Scholz" is taken from an article on the Politico website, reprinted by RIA Novosti. The biblical expression apocalypse is a precedent text from the New Testament that prophesies the "end of the world", here it means a complete collapse, a hopeless situation due to Scholz's rule. The photo shows Chancellor A. Scholz, whose hands and face convey nervous tension. The title is a synthesis of textual information and allegories interconnected in cyberspace.

Conclusions

As "a strategy and pattern of text generation in many modern communicative and discursive practices" ^{[11, p. 805]}, rhizomaticity is active in modern digital media communication texts, where "words, images, diagrams, audio and video are combined" ^{[12, p. 4]}. It brings spectacular and interactive forms of expression to news headlines, which in turn display multiple intertwined connections. The analysis made it possible to draw the following conclusions:

First, the digital header is often rhizotic, forming non-hierarchical and non-linear relationships;

Secondly, rhizomaticity is characteristic of polymodal news headlines at the level of expression and content;

Thirdly, verbal intertexts such as citations, precedents, hypertexts, Internet memes, and non-verbal texts such as photo reports, videos, which form semantic and informational multiplicity, play an important role in the rhizomatic nature of news headlines.;

Fourth, news headlines are often characterized by discreteness and fragmentation.;

Fifth, digital media is a key factor in spreading the rhizomatic nature of a news headline. In the digital context, the complex of a news headline becomes not only an act of utterance that communicates a communicative event, but also a material where the polysemanticism of content and expression leads to the constant filling of the headline text.

In conclusion, it is important to note that the analysis of the general patterns of rhizomatic news headlines in the digital environment allows us to understand the complexity and multiplicity of headline texts in modern cyberspace in terms of the interaction of heterogeneous texts. The study of the rhizomatic nature of digital media news headlines is an attempt to review the complex properties, interrelationships and interactions of the components of the news headline complex from the perspective of postmodernism.