NETWORK MEDICAL DISCOURSE AS AN INNOVATIVE FORM OF PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION

The article examines professional communication of medical workers with consumers and other specialists of the medical industry over the Internet. The study was based on the descriptive method, including involved observation, the method of communicative- pragmatic analysis of discourse, and discourse analysis, through which communication was examined from different perspectives. Communication participants as well as speech strategies and tactics were also analyzed. The study made it possible to describe communicative-pragmatic features, determine the specifics of communicative interaction in network medical discourse and identify its main strategies and tactics.The analyzed material has shown that it is not always possible to clearly and unambiguously identify a specific speech strategy in professional communication. Merging and interpenetration of speech strategies is a characteristic feature of network medical discourse. We should not forget that the human body is a complex system: diseases of one organ are often accompanied by dysfunctions of other organs. Therefore, in order to avoid mistakes, it is important to take into account all the three strategies: (1) treating, (2) diagnosing and (3) recommending. It should be noted that the study of communicative-pragmatic features will significantly expand the theoretical understanding of the network discourse structure and obtain reliable data to compile modern dictionaries on relevant topics.