How Websites of Educational Institutions Create the Virtual Author: News Headlines on University Website

Abstract

Internet sites are tools of communication that require a comprehensive study of all aspects, e.g., that of the virtual author who carries out communicative intentions through Internet discourse. A virtual author is a collective figure represented in the discourse of a company website. The authors modelled a virtual author as a collective representative of an educational institution that promotes a positive image of this institution while informing about its agenda and activities. The analysis involved 50 news headlines published on the official website of the Kuzbass Institute of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in 2022-2023. The methods of content and intent analyses made it possible to identify the units of the propositional frame, such as a) participants of events, i.e., subjects; b) predicates that characterize the participants and indicate the type of the event; c) chronotope. The virtual author of the news content appeared to be the Institute as a collective person that expresses their communicative intentions by informing the audience, thus shaping a positive image. As a subject, the virtual author reported news about the object, i.e., the Institution, and implemented the communicative intentions, i.e., to inform and promote a positive image. Each subject was part of the university staff: We are Together; We are a Team; We Participate in Important Events; We have Socially Significant Partners; We are the Best; We Support the City, the Region, and the Country, etc. The communicative intention to create an image of a successful university determined the choice of lexical units used in the propositional frame to explicate the objective mode and implicate the subjective one.