The article deals with the study of cognitive methods of representing the modus category of tonality on the material of contemporary English and French publicistic discourse. The authors examine both extralinguistic and linguistic mechanisms of anxious tonality representation. Much attention is paid to the following extralinguistic mechanisms that influence the readers` perception of information and represent anxious tonality in English and French publicistic discourse: choosing and editing material at the front page, graphic emphasizing, supply or lack of photos or illustrations. The article also proves that anxious tonality can be represented by emotionally colored lexis, quotation and conceptual metaphors on the linguistic level.