THE WORLD-MODELING POTENTIAL OF THE MEDIA CONCEPT "GLOBALITY" IN THE UNIVERSITY WEBSITE DISCOURSE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48371/PHILS.2025.2.77.016Keywords:
media concept, corpus analysis, media concept “globality”, discursive world-modeling, university website discourse, vectors of associative-semantic unfolding, sentiment analysis, verbal intensification, strategic positioningAbstract
This article examines world-modeling emerging from the activation of the media concept “globality” in university website discourse. The analysis aims to identify the world-modeling potential of “globality” by systematizing associative-semantic vectors and evaluative characteristics developed by its representatives.
The research advances scholarly understanding by revealing cognitive-discursive mechanisms behind the semantic evolution of “globality”. It demonstrates how constructing a “global university” image aligns with contemporary socio-cultural priorities in education, while its practical applications inform academic branding strategies to boost institutional competitiveness.
The analysis relies on a set of methods informed by the cognitive-discursive paradigm. The study employs lexicographic analysis and context-associative methods. A corpus-based approach was applied using Sketch Engine for automated text processing. Sentiment analysis combined qualitative methods with automated components, utilizing GroupDocs Sentiment Analysis and Sentiment Analysis tools. The empirical corpus comprises text data from the “Home,” “About the University,” and “Education/Study” pages of the official websites of 45 universities listed among the top 100 in the QS World University Rankings 2025.
The study reveals that the most frequent representative of the media concept “globality” is the lexeme global and its collocations. The concept’s implicational scope expands along four associative-semantic vectors: prestigiousness, diversity, cross-borderness, and versatility. Sentiment analysis confirms the predominance of positive connotations. The representatives of the media concept construct the image of a “global university” as an influential institution in the international educational space. These factors demonstrate its strong world-modeling potential. However, “globality” has yet to solidify as a cultural constant. Its functioning in media discourse is accompanied by an intensification of the meanings of its representatives, suggesting a deliberate effort to shape the target audience's perception of the current socio-cultural agenda in higher education.
Future research will focus on further exploring media concepts that shape universities' strategic positioning in the media space.
