Reader’s comment as a genre of the modern Russian blog sphere

Abstract

The paper deals with reader comments to blogs in Runet treated as a speech genre. The relevance of the topic lies in the fact that blogging is a common practice of public discussion concerning vital or interesting problems of present day life in Russia. The topics analyzed include social problems, historical issues, literature, ecology and technological progress. The aim of the article is to describe the types of comments to blogs. The constitutive impetus of the comments is the desire to keep free intercommunication with people who share the common interest. The commentators specify and correct the information, show their attitude to it and exercise their self-expression. Their reactions are mainly evaluating the facts reported in the blog, supporting or criticizing the blogger and demonstrating their Ego. The communicative distance usually corresponds to a colloquial mode of speech. However, the comments show that their authors often keep a professional level of knowledge of the facts spoken about. They demonstrate their interest when discussing the facts and various shades of irony when characterizing themselves.