Search for an Ideological Conception and the Semantics of Ideologeme

The article considers the semantic shifts referred to the meanings of such ideologemes as “empire”, “civilization”, “globalization” attested in media texts when a new ideological conception is being explored. The ideas of L. M. Maydanova, N. A. Kupina, N. I. Klushina provided the methodological basis for this study. The research leads to the conclusion that the official mass media often use the term “empire” towards Russia. They develop the rhetoric of “a powerful state”, “capable of defending and maintaining its sovereignty and interests”, “a powerful state as a specific way to survive for Russia’s citizens”, “a people’s empire which has much commitment to the demographics and the well-being of the population”. In order to achieve this goal, the state “plans to re-explore its territory, i.e. to build new modern cities behind the Urals”, “to develop its own industries”. “The people’s empire” is set against “the liberal Western empire” which has delegated its monitoring role to “the progressive communities” spreading terror among the dissenters. At the core of Russia as “the people’s empire”, there are traditional values of a distinct Russian civilization based on orthodoxy. Previously regarded as a flawless model, Western society is now presented as something completely odd for Russian mentality. Characteristic features of Russian civilization include “the tendency to consolidate in case of difficulty”, “value of family” and “fraternal feelings towards other ethnicities”. The semantic of “globalization” ideologeme includes the following meanings: “transnational corporations’ ambition for world domination” that implies “blurring national, cultural, political borders”, “transforming people into depersonalized perfect consumers”, “utilizing unwanted majority”, “destroying nation states through hybrid warfare”. The opposition of globalization is a strong nation state defending its sovereignty and interests. This state is able to get its region under control. Thus, there is another tendency countervailing globalization; it is regionalization, which is understood as the division of the world into macro regions, each headed by a major power responsible for reducing tensions and maintaining peace. Supposedly, the “globalization” ideologeme will soon be replaced by a new ideologeme of “macroregionalization”.