The Migration Crisis as It Seems
16
DOI: 10.1515/abcsj-2016-0016
The Migration Crisis as It Seems:
Speech Manipulation Technology in US Internet Media
KSENIA NIKITINA
Ufa, Russia
Abstract
The following paper is devoted to the study of speech manipulation
technologies in US political media discourse. A number of web-based
articles have been taken under consideration for this study. They
demonstrate the problem arising from the refugee flow in Europe and
create a special “image” of the complicated European situation. It is
helpful to see how the situation appears in the Internet media since this
type of mass communication is most influential these days. While
considering a large amount of media texts, a special speech manipulation
technology has been revealed. This phenomenon demonstrates a distinct
structure and close interrelations of purposefully selected elements. Going
through a number of stages we can find out the technology of speech
manipulation – a system of using the aggregate of speech manipulation
instruments in order to purposefully guide the reality perception of the
mass audience. The external level of the texts enables us to take a
penetrating look at the internal intentions. This knowledge will help us not
to confuse the migration crisis as it is and the migration crisis as it seems.
Keywords: speech manipulation technologies, speech manipulation
instruments, political media discourse, US Internet media text
The current migration crisis exists not only in real European countries,
cities and towns. It is present in the information field as well. It is
highlighted by thousands of media and that is the main way most people
get the understanding of contemporary migration. Persons from all over
the world who live far away from Greece, Germany or the UK are aware
17 The Migration Crisis as It Seems
of the migration crisis, but they perceive the situation just in the way it is
represented in the media; they are not its direct participants. As it is
known, the map is not the thing mapped (A. Korzybski), but media maps
are the things that form the public opinion. Modern computerized life
supposes a vast area of linguistic attention: Internet texts are diversified
and attractive for a researcher. While working on this paper, Internet
media of various forms were made use of – electronic magazines,
electronic newsletters, news sites of traditional publications. An electronic
media text is a logical consequence of the printed media text and
possesses a significant manipulative potential. Like any other “ stretch of
language, either in speech or in writing, that is semantically and
pragmatically coherent in its real-world context” (Carter, McCarthy), a
web-based text of political media discourse realizes the intention of the
communication subject to influence the mass communication object in a
specific manner. The discourse in its turn refers to “the whole act of
communication involving production and comprehension, not necessarily
entirely verbal … The study of discourse, then, can involve matters like
context, background information or knowledge shared between a speaker
and hearer” (Bloor).
Theoretical Assumptions of Speech Manipulation Realization
The mass orientation of the political media discourse is closely
related to the manipulative potential with this type of discourse. We get
the prevailing part of our social and political knowledge and opinion
about the world from dozens of news messages every day (Dijk). This
information then projects on our model situations and further becomes
public opinion. Mass media are focused on orchestrating the opinion of
the reader (listener, viewer) in a special direction: “In the discursive sense
the power is realized in the necessity to make other people admit the
situation interpretation favourable for the speaker” (Шейгал 82). Mass media are
one of the main sources to distribute the messages influencing the public opinion.
In the process of communication, aims of discourse may be
achieved with the help of a whole system of various interconnected
manipulative means acting as one purposeful whole, i.e. with the help of a
technology. We define a speech manipulation technology as a system of
using the aggregate of speech manipulation instruments in order to
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purposefully guide the reality perception of the mass audience
(Никитина). We define speech manipulation instruments as diverse
language means used by the manipulator. The local task of the discourse
subject is the most effective achievement of the global aim – the struggle
for power. In the process of communication he/she makes a text. A speech
manipulation technology is a means that enables a communicant to
achieve the required aim in an optimal way. Let us explain this
assumption. In order to realize his/her intention the discourse subject may
use a non-optimal way of communication, for example, by inflating the
text with evaluative words negatively characterizing their opponent. Such
actions will break the secrecy principle – one of the main manipulative
postulates. Such hypothetic text saturated with negative information in the
denotative components of lexical units can hardly be called manipulative
since it will not be effective.
Manipulativeness is the fundamental feature of the political media
discourse. Manipulativeness comes out as the necessary condition to
achieve the intended result of the political media discourse, and it enables
the communication to be properly realized. As a matter of fact, speech
manipulation is a concealed influence on the mass audience with the help
of speech means aimed at guiding the perception of reality. One of the
main peculiarities of speech manipulation is its purposefulness. The aim
of speech manipulation is to ensure such behavior or perception of the
audience which is expected by the manipulator. In other words, it is the
guidance of the object’s relation towards real notions. Speech
manipulation in the political media discourse is a concealed influence.
The effectiveness of speech manipulation depends upon whether the
audience gets its scheme. From the viewpoint of the communicant, this
way of interaction is a professional righteous approach widely spread in
the modern society, where getting and distributing information is the way
of living. Speech manipulation is often realized in the mass media. Its
subject deals with speech means, the systemic use of which generates
speech manipulation technologies.
Speech manipulation technologies agree with all principles of
speech manipulation. The implicit character of speech manipulation and
effectivity demands prevent technologies under consideration from being
explicit. The information on the surface level can differ from that on the
deep level. The communicative task that can be solved with the help of
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speech manipulation technologies is the optimization of the process of
information transmission in the political media discourse.
The usage of speech manipulation instruments can indicate speech
manipulation technologies in the political media discourse. These
instruments form a special system. A system is “a group of devices or
artificial objects or an organization forming a network especially for
distributing something or serving a common purpose” (Meriam-Webster
Online Dictionary). A system acts as a whole facing any outer conditions
and performs a unified function. Together with the nucleus of the speech
manipulation technology, the entirety of speech manipulation instruments
act within the discourse to obtain its aim. They can be revealed in political
mass discourse texts. Nevertheless, the subject of the discourse
manipulates the conceptual text information thus solving his/her task and
achieving his/her aim. The implicit message of a text may be rendered so
as to determine “us” and “them,” to evaluate the matter of communication,
to ridicule or ennoble it, to tell the genuine truth to the reader, etc.
In this essay we consider the realization of the speech manipulation
technology “good/bad” in different electronic media. Choosing articles
connected with one and the same topic, it is convenient to demonstrate the
functional peculiarities of the named linguistic phenomenon. While
working with the text material, it is necessary to follow a certain
procedure of analysis. During the first stage, the content conceptual
information is to be found out (Galperin). Thus the content conceptual
information of a part of the texts of the named thematic range may be
interpreted as “Migration restrictive measures in Europe are bad.” It is
necessary to note that the content conceptual information gives
opportunity for various interpretations and even demands diverse
explanations. During the second stage, the nucleus of the content
conceptual information is revealed – that part which is invariant for a
large amount of texts. Considering texts of the chosen topic we can
discover the following invariant – the opposition “good/bad,” that is the
nucleus of the studied speech manipulation technology.
During the third stage of work, it is necessary to find systematically
important technology instruments and to reveal their role in making the
technological system. The whole text of an Internet media article serves to
realize the content conceptual information, but some speech manipulation
instruments are obligatory and relevant to solve the task and achieve the
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aim of the discourse. Forming a system of interrelated means, these
instruments are used in every text that realizes a certain speech
manipulation technology.
The speech manipulation technology “good/bad” is used to achieve
the local aim – to represent the matter of description as good or bad. The
nucleus of the content conceptual information is the axiological
opposition. It is surrounded by systematically important instruments, such
as evaluative lexis, secondary nomination, commentaries, words with
ideological connotation, words with expressive connotation, opposition
and/or contrast (figure 1). Other speech manipulation instruments are also
present in political media discourse texts demonstrating the named
technology, but they are not obligatory. Nevertheless, they make a
significant contribution to achieving the aim of communication (Никитина).