SOME ASPECTS OF ONLINE DISCOURSE MANIPULATION ON SOCIAL MEDIA (THE CASE OF INSTAGRAM ENGLISH PRESENTATIONAL DISCOURSE OF PFIZER INC.)

The research is devoted to the analysis of the tools used in the presentation discourse of social networks of large commercial companies and organizations. The purpose of the article is to analyze genre and lexical features of the English-language online presentation discourse of the Instagram social network for manipulating the target audience. The English-language texts of Pfizer's publications on the company's official pages on the social network Instagram were taken as material for the analysis. The study uses the method of targeted sampling of material, the method of contextual description and descriptive method to identify and analyze priority ways of positive self-presentation of corporations. The results of the analysis of linguistic and paralinguistic tools used by Pfizer representatives on Instagram to manipulate the target audience revealed significant advantages of simultaneous use of verbal and nonverbal components to enhance the pragmatic effect of influencing the recipient through the use of creolized text in online communication. The complex nature of the hyper-genre of the virtual discourse of the Internet (hypertext, interactivity) is noted, contributing to the generation of genres and subgenres that function non-linearly in the social network. The English-language content published by Pfizer on Instagram is defined by the authors as repetitive (the image, video and audio sequence repeat the verbal text), excretory (visual material actualizes a certain aspect), integrative (the picture complements the text in the interests), pictorial-centric (the image occupies the main position). The importance of using a new type of communicative influence on the recipient without openly imposing goods and services, which occupies a leading position mainly in the discourse of Pfizer's social networks, is emphasized. Based on the study, a number of manipulative language tactics and lexico-stylistic techniques most characteristic of the English-language presentation discourse of the social network Instagram have been identified. The importance of the wide use of the possibility of presentation discourse of social networks is actualized, which allows representatives of companies to build trusting friendly relations with the clientele and form a special value system of interpersonal interaction with the target audience through the exploitation of the possibilities of multi-level communication of the Instagram network: personal/ institutionalized (organizational); verbal/ nonverbal. The article is prepared on the basis of the report at IV International Conference “Innovative Technologies and Creativity in Foreign Languages Research and Teaching”