COMMUNICATION MEDIATORS: THE COGNITIVE AND PRAGMASTYLISTIC ASPECT OF TROPES IN MODERN MASS MEDIA DISCOURSE G.V. Zashchitina Department of the English language Correspondence faculty Moscow State Linguistic University Ostozhenka str., 38, Moscow, Russia, 119034 The paper focuses on the communicative aspect, stylistics and pragmatics of lexical tropes in mass media discourse, primarily in the press. <...> The cognitive aspect of tropes in modern non-literary discourse is discussed to show that they are not merely expressive means of the language but complex cognitive structures which can either affirm our schematic knowledge or bring substantial changes to it. <...> By having an insight into some aspects of cognitive metaphor theory we look upon the cases when new or alternative knowledge structures function as source domains and discuss the way in which individual authors, using both conventional and unconventional conceptual metaphors can change the role that mass media audience take in interpreting texts thus giving mass media tropes a chance to influence and mold social practice. <...> It is a deep-rooted, widespread belief that nowadays mass media can no longer be treated as merely a tool providing communities with news coverage, forecasts and random analysts’ opinions but as a powerful means of communication since the primal aim and motto of modern mass media discourse is to get across to tremendously large and quickly growing groups of addressees across the globe bringing them all kind of knowledge, norms and values. <...> It will not be an exaggeration to claim that nowadays it is the informative media that monopolized the right to mold public opinion and is often held responsible for setting a tyranny of “objective coverage” of the news and “fairness” of journalistic opinion. <...> But in fact the “objectivity” criterion of mass media discourse has been repeatedly given a series of severe blows, thus quite frequently the media coverage of all events from G20 summits to showbiz gossip alike are often served up as neutral, objective while reflecting the interest of certain segments of communities as well as subjective interests of the individuals including journalists and reporters as the latter may have their own pragmatic aims they want to achieve getting across to their <...>