The thesis clarified the status, role and levels of the phenomenon of student periodicals in the social communication system. The specifics of the work of the editorial offices of student periodicals were determined, and it was established that the editorial and publishing process of student periodicals is aimed at meeting the information needs of the student society, creating an information product that affects the behavior and outlook of the young generation of student readers and creates conditions for revealing the potential of the personality of modern students, their acquisition necessary self-development skills in the rapidly changing circumstances of the 21st century.
The thesis summarizes and characterizes the principles of developing a communicatively effective student periodicals: the ability of student editors to interest the reader in thematic content, to adapt the thematic content of publications to the industry orientation or to modern realities, to attract the reader’s attention with design, artistic and technical design, to offer non-standard ways of composing space, font design, combine visualization tools, use the potential of social networks to establish communication with readers and apply the practices of communicative interaction with them, in particular with the help of visualization, media technology of comics, changing the principle of presenting information using different formats of structuring news, publishing narratives.
The publishing culture of student periodicals was studied on the example of the characteristics of the thematic content and artistic and technical design of student periodicals of Ukraine in the 90s of the 20th – the first quarter of the 21st century. It has been established that the thematic range of student periodicals does not always cover only current events, events in higher education institutions, the educational process, leisure time, cultural and creative activities of students, success stories of scientific and pedagogical workers and students, their life stories with elements of advice and recommendations for solving various problems, typical for the entire students, but also the most relevant and operational information from those fields of knowledge in which the higher education establishment trains future specialists. In addition, during the pandemic of 2019–2021 and the Russian-Ukrainian war of 2022, the editorial teams of student periodicals adapted the thematic direction of publications to modern realities, presenting publications aimed at overcoming the alarming information vortex, preventing information overload, preserving and strengthening psychological health of readers.
It was found that the design of student periodicals is based on the refusal of the young generation of media professionals to avoid stereotypes, visual stamps, and the search for new creative graphic ideas. The student periodicals is focused on meeting the needs and preferences of the youth readership with a clip-like mindset, which motivates the editors of student periodicals to improve the graphic concept and optimize work on design, to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of visualization tools.
The communicative-intentional potential of the texts of student periodicals was investigated by the method of intent analysis and a free associative experiment. Contextual-interpretive analysis of texts and a free associative experiment, intentional monitoring proved the presence of communicative-intentional potential in the texts of student periodicals, that is, the ability to influence readers based on the selection of the optimal thematic content of the periodicals, the use of means of expression for headlines, ensuring a logical connection between content materials and its title, maintenance of associative unity during the selection of linguistic means and formulation of titles in accordance with the subject of publications.
It has been stated that the editors of student periodicals strive to attract and retain the attention of the target audience. And that is why such tools of influence on the reader of student periodicals are used, such as: language means of expressing headlines, memes, storytelling, advertising, media convergence, contests, raffles and polls.
As a result of the thesis, the typology of student periodicals and recommendations for the participants of student editorial offices regarding the creation of a successful design and optimal thematic content of student periodicals of various typological groups were improved. The typology of authors, editors, readers of student periodicals and their functional responsibilities, communicative roles, data on the current level of popularity and demand for student periodicals were further developed.
