The article deals with the analysis of semantic compression application in popular English talk shows. The purpose of this paper is to define language compression, to outline the expediency of its use in English media discourse, to name ways of compression implementation in popular talk shows and to consider the level of influence of principle of linguistic efforts economy on achieving communicative goals between interlocutors. Basic information on the concept of linguistic compression and features of its use at different language levels, in particular phonetic, morphological, lexical, semantic and syntactic is presented. Linguistic compression is used in oral and written discourse, in formal and informal texts. The text gives valuable information on the structure and characteristics of media discourse, its grammatical, lexical and phonetic features. The article focuses on a detailed analysis of the main linguistic means that serve to reduce the symbolic structure of language, which leads to the brevity of expression, contains the data on key properties of linguistic compression that help make the text more concise. Special attention is paid to the phonetic methods of linguistic compression in English talk shows: it is manifested through such means as reduction, assimilation, loss, fusion and other processes. Among the syntactic means of compression, such methods used for linguistic efforts economy as contamination, segmentation and parceling, ellipse, univerbation, abbreviation, composite words, inclusion and use of foreign words or components are analyzed. The article points out the importance of adequate transfer of information with preservation of expressive nuances and observance of stylistic language norms. The article is of interest for further researches on the topic of linguistic efforts economy in oral and written speech styles, can be used in researches in linguistics, lexicology, phonetics.