Internet Comments as Delegitimization-Driven Discourse (a Case Study of the Fox News Materials on the Political Actions of the U.S. President Joe Biden)
https://doi.org/10.21603/2078-8975-2021-23-3-826-836
Abstract
The article introduces delegitimization as a macro-strategy of non-professional political discourse. The author studied comments on the site of the American Fox News to analyze the strategy of rational pessimism chosen by its readers as recipients of political news about the new president of the United States Joe Biden. The delegitimization discourse in the genre of Internet comments to political news proved to combine rational text production, emotional message, and an appeal to universal values. The strategy of rational pessimism manifested itself in the ideologies of the crises of democracy and presidential power. These cognitive-discursive units were actualized by both the broad extralinguistic context, i.e. the current political situation, and the immediate context, i.e. the publication aimed at discrediting Biden’s policy. The commentators' arguments about problems in the sphere of politics, economics, and business determined the interdiscursive nature of communication. While expressing pessimistic moods and negative attitude to the political actions of the U.S.President and the Democratic Party, the commentators appealed to the value categories of personal and state security.
Supporting agencies: The study was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research within the framework of scientific project No. 19-012-00522.
References
1. Levshenko Yu. I. Political discourse in mass media and power legitimization in social-political changes context. Istoricheskie, filosofskie, politicheskie i iuridicheskie nauki, kulturologiia i iskusstvovedenie. Voprosy teorii i praktiki, 2012, (3-1): 111–115. (In Russ.)
2. Sheygal E. I. Semiotics of political discourse. Dr. Philol. Sci. Diss. Volgograd, 2000, 431. (In Russ.)
3. Kondratyeva O. N., Ignatova Yu. S. Strategies for the mediatization of legal concepts in Russian mass media of XXI century (concept LEGITIMACY). Nauchnyi dialog, 2021, (3): 69–85. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2021-3-69-85
4. Fetzer A., Weizman E. Political discourse as mediated and public discourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 2006, 38(2): 143–153.
5. Bozhenkova N. A., Bozhenkova R. K, Bozhenkova A. M. Modern political discourse: verbal exemplification of tactical and strategic preferences. Vestnik Rossiiskogo universiteta druzhby narodov. Seriia: Russkii i inostrannye iazyki i metodika ikh prepodavaniia, 2017, 15(3): 255–284. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22363/2313-2264-2017-15-3-255-284
6. Golyanskaya V. A., Melnik N. V. Strategies and tactics of political manipulation in the media. Filologiya i chelovek, 2019, (3): 29–41. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.14258/filichel(2019)3-03
7. Chudinov A. P. Political linguistics. Moscow: Flinta; Nauka, 2018, 255. (In Russ.)
8. Dankova N. S., Dubrovskaya T. V. Axiology of genres in professional communities on the Internet. Nauchnye vedomosti Belgorodskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriia: Gumanitarnye nauki, 2019, 38(4): 551–561. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.18413/2075-4574-2019-38-4-551-561
9. Yergaliyeva S. Z., Melnik N. V., Zhumabekova B. K., Yergaliyev K. S., Omarov N. R. Personal linguistic parametrization of text generation of the Internet comments. XLinguae, 2018, 11(3): 2–15. https://doi.org/10.18355/XL.2018.11.03.01
10. Melnik N. V., Saveleva I. V. Intentional profile of an addressee of political discourse (based on the Internet commentaries). Russian Language Abroad, 2019, (4): 10–18. (In Russ.)
11. Golev N. D., Kim L. G., Saveleva I. V. Variability of news interpretation in political discourse (a case study of the Internet materials covering the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympic Games). Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities and Social Sciences, 2021, 14(4): 568–583. https://doi.org/10.17516/1997-1370-0743
12. Van Dijk T. А. Discourse – Cognition – Society: Current state and prospects of the socio-cognitive approach to discourse. Contemporary Studies in Critical Discourse Analysis, eds. Hart C., Cap P. London: Bloomsbury, 2014, 121–146.
13. Van Dijk T. A. Discourse and power. Representation of dominance in language and communication. Moscow: Librokom, 2013, 344. (In Russ.)
14. Fairclough N. The dialectics of discourse. Textus, 2001, 14(2): 231–242.
15. Jørgensen M. V., Phillips L. J. Discourse analysis as theory and method. Kharkov: Gumanitarnyi vektor, 2008, 352. (In Russ.)
16. Foucault M. Archeology of knowledge. Kiev: Nika-Tsentr, 1996, 208. (In Russ.)
17. Mikhaleva O. L. Political discourse: specifics of manipulative influence. Moscow: LIBROKOM, 2009, 256. (In Russ.)
18. Gribacheva N. V., Dias D., Dorskaia A. A., Dorskii A. Iu., Kolmogorova A. V., Kozatchina A. V., Konkka O., Kossov V., Palacios González D., Rol-Arandjelovic S., Saqqa Carazo M., Snegireva Ch. V. The discourse of legitimation: language and politics in the era of global challenges. Krasnoyarsk: Sib. feder. un-t, 2019, 216. (In Russ.)
19. Leeuwen T. van. Legitimation in discourse and communication. Discourse & Communication, 2007, 1(1): 91–112. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481307071986
20. Apressyan R. G. On the value component of the legitimacy of power. Political and philosophical yearbook, ed. Pantin I. K. Moscow: Institut filosofii RAN, 2012, iss. 5, 33–48. (In Russ.)
21. Chilton P. Analysing political discourse. Theory and practice. London: Routledge, 2004, 241.
22. Cap P. Towards the proximization model of the analysis of legitimization in political discourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 2008, 40(1): 17–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2007.10.002
23. Chilton P., Schäffner Ch. Politics as text and talk: analytic approaches to political discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2002, 257. https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.4
24. Wieczorek A. E. Legitimisation and proximisation values in the discourse of historic change. Lodz Papers in Pragmatics, 2008, 4(2): 263–275. https://doi.org/10.2478/v10016-008-0005-3
25. Mishin A. A. The principle of separation of powers in the U.S. constitutional mechanism. Moscow: Nauka, 1984, 190. (In Russ.)
Review
For citations:
Saveleva I.V. Internet Comments as Delegitimization-Driven Discourse (a Case Study of the Fox News Materials on the Political Actions of the U.S. President Joe Biden). The Bulletin of Kemerovo State University. 2021;23(3):826-836. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.21603/2078-8975-2021-23-3-826-836
Views:
540
Email this article 