Abstract:

The news page in university sites seeks to perform both the informative and persuasive functions and is intended for both internal communication and a larger audience. The study aims to compare the language means that Russian and British universities use to produce responsible behaviour on the part of the students and staff, to present accurate information on how universities stand on the issues of the coronavirus and vaccination, and to uphold the perceived credibility of educational institutions by reinforcing public health advice.

To describe the linguistic features of the statements and news about the pandemic and vaccination the discourse analysis is applied. The paper focuses on the language-centred engagement/detachment traits by examining the choice of vocabulary (the use of terminology, complex wording), pronouns, negation, grammar (passive voice), syntax (sentence length and complexity), sources of evidence, external links, metaphors, and argumentation, if relevant. The study concludes that the approach to presenting information varies quite considerably in most aspects and tries to account for it.

Keywords:

Vaccination discourse, public discourse, university discourse, engagement strategies.