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Эсхатология как медиатический конструкт: теоретико-обобщающий анализ языковых и визуальных практик
Abstract: The subject of this study is eschatology as a media construct in the contemporary communicative space. This theoretical analysis encompasses the linguistic, narrative, and visual mechanisms through which eschatological motifs migrate from religious discourse to the secular information field, where they are reinterpreted and adapted to the logic of modern media. Particular attention is paid to the vocabulary of utmost limitation, irreversibility, and finality; narrative scenarios of catastrophe, warning, judgment, and historical milestones; and persistent visual images of destruction, emptiness, and crisis. The role of eschatological semantics in creating notions of the end of the previous order, the point of no return, threat, and symbolic renewal is examined. The aim of the study is to identify the mechanisms by which this construct is formed and to determine the functions of linguistic, narrative, and visual means in its reproduction. Eschatology is studied not only as a religious and cultural phenomenon, but also as a way of media interpretation of events, enhancing their emotional and value perception. The research methodology combines medialinguistic, discursive, semiotic, multimodal, comparative-typological and hermeneutic approaches. The material is based on Russian scientific works from 2010-2025 on media discourse, polycode texts, mediatization of religion and eschatological motifs in visual culture. The study is of a theoretical and generalizing nature and does not imply the formation of an independent corpus of media texts. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the theoretical clarification of the concept of an eschatological media construct and the systematization of the linguistic, narrative and visual mechanisms of its formation. As a result of the systematization of scientific approaches, the main levels of formation of this construct are identified: linguistic, represented by the vocabulary of the limit, finality and irreversibility; A narrative, encompassing scenarios of catastrophe, warning, judgment, the collapse of the previous order, and possible renewal; and a visual, associated with images of destroyed space, a solitary figure, emptiness, fire, cracks, an unsettling dominant color, and the final countdown. It has been found that this construct moves freely between religious and secular media discourses, preserving the semantic structure of utmost limitation while shifting its confessional markers. It is concluded that media eschatology not only describes a crisis but also organizes its perception: it connects disparate facts into a unified narrative, enhances the audience's emotional mobilization, and provides a ready-made framework for interpreting events. Its stability is determined by its ability to simultaneously simplify complex processes, imbue them with symbolic finality, and transform a particular event into the perspective of a historical turning point.