The 2020-2021 Belarusian civil protest combined not only traditional methods of disobedience, but also forms of digital counteracting, broadened the concept of information space and in many ways transformed it. Throughout the protests, media space was not only been freed from regime control but also significantly influenced independent media. As a result of this evolution, so-called citizen media with their own language and unique narrative strategies emerged from an oppressed, subjugated and intimidated journalism. The new language is informative and brief (telegram language), capacious, sharp, but not vulgar, skillfully operating with facts and half-facts. In many ways, it was the language of these new forms of media that triggered a reaction of civic resistance and radical counteraction by the authorities. The article focuses not only on the use of language tools for presenting information, but also on how and why the language of Telegram channels became dominant in the public opinion of Belarusian society after the elections on August 9, 2020.
Image credit: Maks Samasiuk