Daoism and Dao in Modern Russian Media Discourse

The article considers the representation of the ideas of Daoism and one of its key concepts of DAO in the Russian information space: in the discourse of social networks, communication on forums, on the websites of traditional media. The accounts of VKontakte communities, newspaper articles, and publications on Internet resources with the words Daoism and Dao in their names have been analyzed using content analysis methods. It has been established that such VKontakte communities unite more than 500 thousand people. There are subscribers in accounts claiming the subject of “Philosophy”, while the connection of the posted content with Daoism can only be indirect. It is shown that communities with components of Daoism and Dao in their names are also engaged in sales, promoting the idea of a healthy lifestyle, discussing gender relations, etc. The main geographical account labels have been identified: the most popular regions are Moscow and St. Petersburg. Linguistic analysis of the use of the Daoism nomination shows its scientific character, while combinations with the word Dao are characterized by a high degree of metaphor. The author comes to the conclusion that Russians, referring to the religious and philosophical concepts of “Daoism” and “Dao”, banalize them when discussing problems of everyday life, health, interpersonal relationships, and also use the Daoism and Dao nominations to commercialize accounts.

Daoism, Dao, oriental spiritual practices, media discourse, online communities