Демократизация содержания текстов масс-медиа (на материале вторичной номинации Беларуси и белорусов)

The article deals with the process of democratization in Belarusian press texts. The author points to the tendency towards democratization in the Belarusian language in comparison with Russian and draws some conclusions. Firstly, the attitude to spelling norms has changed, which is proved by parallel existence of two spelling traditions. Secondly, democratization of the content of journalistic texts is observed not in domination of non-standard vocabulary, typical of Russian, but in specific ‘semantic innovations’, metaphors with negative connotations. Secondary nomination of Belarus and Belarusians in private mass media is in the focus of the author’s attention.