The area might be considered quite theoretically and practically developed but I would like to claim that a very important aspect has been neglected, namely the “Time of Culture” of a particular discourse. <...> The questions raised in my article pertain to the practical necessity of this new category of discourse analysis and the serious philosophic and linguistic background to the problem when the concepts of Zeitgeist by Hegel, the context of culture by Malinowski and the fi eld by Halliday are used as a framework for the introduction of the new term. <...> This article explores the aftermath of a number of events – the Newtown carnage at the Sandy Hook Elementary school in the USA, the fi nical crisis of 2008, the arrest of the famous whistleblower Julian Assange and the search for April Jones in an attempt to analyse how the changing semiotic landscape alters the interpretants of signs and shifts values. <...> The essay argues that a new Time of Culture paves the way for a new discourse model and key signs which refl ect the new intentionality and mentality of the general public. <...> The wide scope of the article should not only appeal to linguists interested in discourse studies and pragmatics, but also to scholars and students in other scientifi c disciplines – PR studies, sociology, economics, cultural studies. <...> A discursive profi le of the ‘Time of Culture’ is built through examination of American and British electronic media data. <...> Introduction My impetus for writing this article came from an observation of semiotic activity: riding on the wave of a major, or even minor, event, there is usually a fl urry of media articles. <...> These texts which are specifi c to a particular situation, prompt a change in the semiotic environment and usher in a period during which the focus © Siberian Federal University. <...> All rights reserved * Corresponding author E-mail address: yanasmirnova@hotmail.com # 1738 # of culture (culture as a semiotised reality in Jury M. Lotman’s understanding zeitgeist, discourse analysis, fi eld, chronotope, intentionality, interpretant, Julian Assange, the Era of Austerity, Barack Obama, the NRA, the Connecticut school shooting, April Jones, zombie. (Lotman 1990)) will be targeted at the event itself or its aftermath. <...> For example, at a certain period of time in December of 2010, semiotic activity of the British media discourse concentrated on the arrest of Julian Assange <...>