The article deals with the informativeness of the media text in relation to the representation of language dynamic chronological processes. A “dictionary” approach is applied, which is based on the comparison of the language material of modern media with the representation of outdated and neological vocabulary and phraseology in modern Russian language dictionaries of different types. The article describes the functions of outdated vocabulary (traditionally distinguished historicisms and archaisms) and neologisms in the language of modern media, as well as the redistribution of vocabulary between active and passive language stock reflected in the media text. Promptly reacting to all extralinguistic changes, the media text is a source of neologisms in the language, a polygon for using the vocabulary of different epochs in actual meanings and with modern connotations, also it sensitively responds to the process of updating outdated vocabulary in the modern language and demonstrates the redistribution of words and expressions between active and passive language stock. As a result of the analysis of the vocabulary of different chronological layers in comparison of media language materials with lexicographic data, the conclusion is made that when reflecting dynamic chronological processes, the “media text dictionary” should be an interaction and be carried out in both directions. On the one hand, dictionaries of modern Russian draw information about the real functioning of the vocabulary of the passive reserve from the media texts. On the other hand, the use of dictionaries by journalists and knowledge of the conditions for using both outdated vocabulary and emerging neologisms is necessary to avoid speech errors and to achieve the goal of competently using this part of the passive stock of the Russian language.