Mental Models of the Russian–Ukrainian War: A Popular Science Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.28925/2412-2491.2026.2611Keywords:
Russian–Ukrainian War, cognitive-discursive analysis, communication, mental model, popular science discourseAbstract
The article addresses the specificity of mental modeling of the Russian-Ukrainian War based on articles from the English popular science media platform The Conversation. A triangulation model for the study of popular science discourse is proposed, conceptualizing it as a complex integrative cognitive-communicative-semiotic formation aimed at popularizing specialized scientific knowledge for a broad non-professional audience and constructing recipients’ mental models for its comprehension. The mental structuring of the events of the Russian-Ukrainian War is carried out through a landscape model, which represents war experience as a multidimensional cognitive space integrating the landscapes of actions, reflections, emotions, and bodily-physiological experience, verbalized through linguistic and discursive means at both micro- and macro-levels. The action landscape models the glocal dynamics of the conflict; the reflective landscape objectifies the analysis of military-political decisions and the features of their individual and collective interpretation; the emotional landscape represents affective responses to wartime events; the bodily-physiological landscape reflects the transformation of cognitive risk assessments into states of anxiety and tension. All landscapes are verbalized through the prism of political, psychological, economic, media, and historical discourses, integrating into a unified transdiscursive configuration.
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ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL
1. Horncastle, J. (2025, December 7). Donald Trump’s Ukraine peace deal would leave the country vulnerable to future Russian attacks. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/donald trumps ukraine peace deal would leave the country vulnerable to future russian attacks 270556
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Copyright (c) 2026 Natalya Izotova
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