Cultural codes in the modern media discourse of the USA

Abstract

The article deals with the concept of Cultural Codes, which has not been fully
determined by the present time. On the basis of the modern scientific data the article makes an attempt
to give a definition of “Cultural codes” ,a cultural phenomenon, spreading widely in human societies and
communities, and define its main characteristics and functions. In the main part of the article the author
tries to apply theory to practice and describe the cultural codes in the American modern media discourse
and media critical discourse, where the cultural codes as parts of symbols and culturally grounded concepts
are embodied by metaphorical or polysemantic units of language.