Intertextuality in Russian media headlines: cognitive and cultural aspects

Background. This article examines intertextuality as a cognitive mechanism for meaning-making in the contemporary media landscape. The relevance of this study stems from the growing role of media texts in shaping interpretations of social reality and in organizing collective perceptions of events. In the context of the high semiotic density of media communication, intertextual references function not only as a stylistic device but also as a tool for activating the recipient’s background knowledge, cultural memory, and associative scenarios. Purpose. To identify the cognitive functions of intertextuality in media texts and to systematize the mechanisms of its realization in contemporary Russian media discourse. Materials and methods. The study employs methods of theoretical analysis, as well as discursive, cognitive, and semantic analysis of media texts. The research material consists of headlines from contemporary Russian media, selected using a comprehensive sampling method from the publications Kommersant, Gazeta.ru, and Chelninskie Izvestia for the period September – December 2025. Results. Based on a comparison of types of media representation and levels of cultural context, an analytical model for describing intertextuality is proposed. Empirical analysis showed that the mechanism of reconstruction dominates in the studied corpus, and the most frequent levels of semantic organization are the connotative and associative levels. It is concluded that intertextuality in the contemporary media space serves the function of cognitive modeling of reality and ensures the controlled involvement of the audience in the interpretation of events.