Abstract: The subject of this research is the structure of the social media category in Russian linguistic consciousness. In his research Klyuev pays attention to the components of the social media category (subconcepts of social networks and messengers and their particular examples), their conceptual content and semantic cognitive links. The purpose of the research is to analyze semantics of linguistic units that nominate the social media category, their cognitive interpretation and to define how these units relate in practical use. The research material involved data from the Russian National Corpus. The main research method used by the author for his conceptual analysis was the computer-based content analysis of cases when the expression 'social media' have been used in the Russian National Corpus followed by their cognitive interpretation. The novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the author makes a first attempt to provide a systemic description of conceptual relations between components of the social media category in Russian linguistic consciousness. The mai nconclusions of the author is that there is a certain initial stage in the development of the (sub) concepts in Russian linguistic consciousenss as well as the obvious semantic relationship between nominations that objectify (sub) concepts and cognitive relationship between these (sub) concepts in the minds of users. 

Abstract:  The subject of this research is the structure of the social media concept in Russian linguistic consciousness. The purpose of this research is to present the structure of the social media concept from the point of view of cognitive interpretation of linguistic units that comprise the nominative area thereof. According to the author of the article, social media is the phenomenon that is interesting not only for basic users but also professional researchers and specialists of different spheres (marking, journalism, philology, communication, etc.). The research method used by the author for his research was the comparative analysis of professional literature and results of psycholinguistic experiment. Experimental material has been collected by using the method of direct interpretation of words in a form of a network survey. The results of the research have demonstrated that the social medial concept refers to the categorial type of conceptual structures and the key classification features of social media are people, communication and Internet resource. Nominations that denote these features comprise the core of the concept categorial structure. Bright cognitive features also include the 'network' feature that acts as a prototype for the social media category which has been proved by other researchers.