Structural Elements of Political News Texts and Comments from Children Target Group

Abstract

Modern online media offer online news magazines with commenting options for children from 8 to 12 years old. This paper features children's comments in their relation to the structure of a French-language political news text designed as Inverted pyramid. Children's comments to political news aimed at their age group are a new and unexplored scientific object. The research relied on the concept of cognitive constructivism of moral consciousness and involved such methods as content and intent analyses. Children proved to be active readers of political news: they expressed their opinions on the information presented in such structural elements as Lead, Body, Background, and Tail. The greatest response was triggered by Background, which narrates the facts that influenced the news event. Children usually reacted to information about victims of political events, political protesters, descriptions of life situations they can associate with, and events of global significance.