scholarly journals Cognitive-Discursive Study of Migration Discourse (Based on English-Language Media Texts)

Discourse ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 104-118
Author(s):  
N. V. Stepanova

Introduction. This article is a fragment of a study on migration discourse. The migration discourse uses a persuasive strategy implemented by means of evaluation information strategy. Evaluation information strategy is carried out mainly through persuasive tactics, which are introduced into the text thanks to the cognitive metaphor. Metaphor allows to compare economic and political concepts with simple and visible images. The construction of conceptual integration schemes makes it possible to track the process of forming a particular image and, consequently, implementing a persuasive strategy in a media text. In modern research, the mechanism of intertextuality can be analyzed in terms of conceptual integration, since intertextual references make a connection with background knowledge.Methodology and sources. The material for the study was articles in English published in American periodicals: https://www.nytimes.com, https://www.washingtonpost.com, as well as on the website https://edition.cnn.com. At the first stage of the study, articles were considered at the text level with the identification of lexical, syntactic and stylistic aspects of the functioning of the discourse. At the second stage (discourse as a discursive practice), examples of intertextuality were investigated, including the depth layer of intertext – cognitive one. The essence of the third stage of work with media texts was the search for interconnection and mutual influence of discourse and social practice. At this stage of the study, the focus of attention was shifted from the media text itself to the socio-political situation in the context of which this text was generated. At each level, an attempt was made to determine which of the means contribute to the realization of the persuasive strategy in the media text and how it is carried out.Results and discussion. The phenomenon of migration is examined in media texts as objectively as possible, both the pros and cons of the migration process are given. The evaluation strategy and related tactics are mainly aimed at describing the actions of politicians. Discrediting tactics directed against Trump are adjacent to Biden’s positive representation tactics and, thus, we-they polarization (we-Biden, they-Trump) through linguistic means, as well as cognitive metaphor is performed. In the articles reviewed, lexemes from the migration and militaristic discourse are often found, and vocabulary describing the events of the coronavirus pandemic period and the accompanying economic crisis are widespread. From the viewpoint of intertextual references, a high percentage of numerals and proper names, which give the impression of the authority of the material, might be of particular interest. The cognitive layer of intertext is widely represented by a conceptual metaphor. Some metaphors discussed in the article participate in the representation of migration and the migration crisis, other metaphors contribute to understanding political and economical processes and phenomena directly or indirectly related to migration. Metaphor-disease, metaphor-natural phenomenon and commoditymaterial metaphor were the most common in the studied body of texts.Conclusion. The migration discourse studied is explicitly related to politics, to issues of power and influence. The persuasive strategy contributes to the construction of images of politicians: Trump is introduced through the mistakes that he made as president of the United States, as well as his inadequate and sometimes cruel actions against migrants, Biden is represented through social problems that he needs to solve performing the role of the president elect. Obviously, the migration issue is a key factor, a test task, which Biden will have to work on immediately after coming to power.

Politics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chengxin Pan ◽  
Benjamin Isakhan ◽  
Zim Nwokora

The relationship between Chinese soft power and Chinese media has been a focus of a growing body of literature. Challenging a resource-based conception of soft power and a transmission view of communication that inform much of the debate, this article adopts a discursive approach to soft power and media communication. It argues that their relationship is not just a matter of resource transmission, but one of discursive construction, which begs the questions of what mediated discursive practices are at play in soft power construction and how. Addressing these oft-neglected questions, we identify a typology of three soft-power discursive practices: charm offensive, Othering offensive, and defensive denial. Focusing on the little-understood practice of Othering offensive, we illustrate its presence in Chinese media through a critical discourse analysis of China Daily’s framing of Donald Trump and the United States, and argue that the Othering offensive in Chinese media that portrays Trump’s America as a dysfunctional and declining Other serves to construct a Chinese self as more responsible, dynamic, and attractive. Adding a missing discursive dimension to the study of soft power and the media, this study has both scholarly and practical implications for analysing a nation’s soft power strategy.


2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Navarro ◽  
Adélli Bortolon Bazza

A partir de uma série enunciativa composta de textos veiculados na mídia, analisa-se o processo de subjetivação do chamado novo idoso. A articulação das memórias ali presentes aponta a objetivação de um idoso ativo social, financeira e sexualmente. Essa prática discursiva emerge de uma rede de poderes que, de um lado, busca gerir os corpos dessa faixa crescente da população e, de outro, promove uma injunção à adoção de tal padrão pelos sujeitos que são expostos a esses enunciados.PALAVRAS-CHAVE : Idoso. Mídia. Subjetivação.ABSTRACT From an enunciative series composed by texts conveyed in the media, we propose to analyze the process of subjectivation of called the new elderly. The articulation of memories present pointing the objectification of an elderly active socially, financially and sexually. This discursive practice emerges from a network of powers, on the one hand, it seeks to manage the bodies that range from increasing population and, on the other, promotes an injunction the adoption of such a pattern of subjects who are exposed to these statements.KEYWORDS: Elderly, Media. Subjectivation.


2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 70-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Gallagher

Public opinion in the United States and elsewhere celebrated the liberation of Afghan women following the defeat of the Taliban government. The United States promised to stay in Afghanistan and foster security, economic development, and human rights for all, especially women. After years of funding various anti- Soviet Mujahidin warlords, the United States had agreed to help reconstruct the country once before in 1992, when the Soviet-backed government fell, but had lost interest when the warlords began to fight among themselves. This time, however, it was going to be different. To date, however, conditions have not improved for most Afghan women and reconstruction has barely begun. How did this happen? This article explores media presentations of Afghan women and then compares them with recent reports from human rights organizations and other eyewitness accounts. It argues that the media depictions were built on earlier conceptions of Muslim societies and allowed us to adopt a romantic view that disguised or covered up the more complex historical context of Afghan history and American involvement in it. We allowed ourselves to believe that Afghans were exotic characters who were modernizing or progressing toward a western way of life, despite the temporary setback imposed by the Taliban government. In Afghanistan, however, there was a new trope: the feminist Afghan woman activist. Images of prominent Afghan women sans burqa were much favored by the mass media and American policymakers. The result, however, was not a new focus on funding feminist political organizations or making women’s rights a foreign policy priority; rather, it was an unwillingness to fulfill obligations incurred during decades of American-funded mujahidin warfare, to face the existence of deteriorating conditions for women, resumed opium cultivation, and a resurgent Taliban, or to commit to a multilateral approach that would bring in the funds and expertise needed to sustain a long-term process of reconstruction.


Author(s):  
Yochai Benkler ◽  
Robert Faris ◽  
Hal Roberts

This chapter presents the book’s macrolevel findings about the architecture of political communication and the news media ecosystem in the United States from 2015 to 2018. Two million stories published during the 2016 presidential election campaign are analyzed, along with another 1.9 million stories about Donald Trump’s presidency during his first year. The chapter examines patterns of interlinking between online media sources to understand the relations of authority and credibility among publishers, as well as the media sharing practices of Twitter and Facebook users to elucidate social media attention patterns. The data and mapping reveal not only a profoundly polarized media landscape but stark asymmetry: the right is more insular, skewed towards the extreme, and set apart from the more integrated media ecosystem of the center, center-left, and left.


Author(s):  
K.E. Goldschmitt

Bossa Mundo chronicles how Brazilian music has been central to Brazil’s national brand in the United States and the United Kingdom since the late 1950s. Scholarly texts on Brazilian popular music generally focus on questions of music and national identity, and when they discuss the music’s international popularity, they keep the artists, recordings, and live performances as the focus, ignoring the process of transnational mediation. This book fills a major gap in Brazilian music studies by analyzing the consequences of moments when Brazilian music was popular in Anglophone markets, with a focus on the media industries. With subject matter as varied as jazz, film music, dance fads, DJ/remix culture, and new models of musical distribution, the book demonstrates how the mediation of Brazilian music in an increasingly crowded transnational marketplace has had lasting consequences for the creative output celebrated by Brazil as part of its national brand. Through a discussion of the political meaning of mass-mediated music in chronologically organized chapters, the book shifts the scholarly focus on the music’s transnational popularity from the scholarly framework of representing Otherness to broader considerations of a media environment where listeners and intermediaries often have differing priorities. The book provides a new model for studying music from culturally rich countries in the Global South where local governments often leverage stereotypes in their national branding project.


Author(s):  
Michael X. Delli Carpini ◽  
Bruce A. Williams

The media landscape of countries across the globe is changing in profound ways that are of relevance to the study and practice of political campaigns and elections. This chapter uses the concept of media regimes to put these changes in historical context and describe the major drivers that lead to a regime’s formation, institutionalization, and dissolution. It then turns to a more detailed examination of the causes and qualities of what is arguably a new media regime that has formed in the United States; the extent to which this phenomenon has or is occurring (albeit in different ways) elsewhere; and how the conduct of campaigns and elections are changing as a result. The chapter concludes with thoughts on the implications of the changing media landscape for the study and practice of campaigns and elections specifically, and democratic politics more generally.


Book Reviews: Women and Politics in New Zealand, Voters' Vengeance: The 1990 Election in New Zealand and the Fate of the Fourth Labour Government, The Domestic Bases of Grand Strategy, The Politics of the Training Market: From Manpower Services Commission to Training and Enterprise Councils, Public Policy and the Nature of the New Right, Managing the United Kingdom: An Introduction to its Political Economy and Public Policy, Citizenship and Employment: Investigating Post-Industrial Options, Government by the Market? The Politics of Public Choice, Responsive Regulation: Transcending the Deregulation Debate, Regulatory Politics in Transition, The Politics of Regulation: A Comparative Perspective, Brother Number One: A Political Biography of Pol Pot, The Tragedy of Cambodian History: Politics, War and Revolution since 1945, Welfare States and Working Mothers, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States, Japan and the United States: Global Dimensions of Economic Power, Political Dynamics in Contemporary Japan, Japan's Foreign Policy after the Cold War: Coping with Change, Soviet Studies Guide, Directory of Russian MPs, Mikhail Gorbachev and the End of Soviet Power, Red Sunset: The Failure of Soviet Politics, Six Years that Shook the World: Perestroika — The Impossible Project, The Politics of Transition: Shaping a Post-Soviet Future, Democracy and Decision: The Pure Theory of Electoral Preference, Probabilistic Voting Theory, Contested Closets: The Politics and Ethics of Outing, Queer in America: Sex, the Media, and the Closets of Power

1994 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 717-730
Author(s):  
Preston King ◽  
Marco Cesa ◽  
Martin Rhodes ◽  
Stephen Wilks ◽  
Christopher Tremewan ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaohua Dai ◽  
Anandita Arora ◽  
Jianbin Shen ◽  
Hong Jiang ◽  
Li Li

Introduction Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a complex vascular disease that causes more than 10,000 deaths each year in the United States. Extensive studies have been performed in search of pharmaceutical treatment but surgical repair still remains the most effective treatment. TGF-β signaling is an important mechanism in the pathogenesis of aneurysms; however, there is debate as to whether its role is protective or destructive. Smad3 is a major intracellular mediator of the canonical pathway of TGF-β signaling. Hypothesis We hypothesize that Smad3-mediated TGF-β signal pathway plays important roles in the pathogenesis of AAA. Methods To test this hypothesis, we analyze the effects of loss of Smad3 on aneurysm formation in the calcium chloride induced AAA model using Smad3 knockout mice. Results Three weeks after calcium chloride treatment, the abdominal aorta displayed increased dilation, forming aneurysms. Histology and immunohistochemistry analyses show increased cell proliferation and enhanced inflammatory cell infiltration in the media and adventitia of the vessel wall. This was accompanied by elastic fibers degradation, increased MMPs expression and reduced expression of smooth muscle markers. Further analysis showed that the expression and nuclear localization of Smad2 and Smad4 was significantly increased. Conclusions These results demonstrate that Smad3-mediated TGF-β signaling plays a protective role in the pathogenesis of AAA and Smad2/Smad4 upregulation is not sufficient to compensate for the loss of Smad3 in this experimental model.


ASJ. ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (46) ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
E. Zvonova ◽  
I. Vakula ◽  
N. Pestereva

The study of ethnocultural and age characteristics of the advertising messages’ perception by potential consumers is extremely relevant and practically significant in the context of active international trading and industrial relations. While perception is a cycle guided and organized by a cognitive schema, the final image includes a person’s knowledge of the world. This determines the importance of studying the factors that determine the specifics of creating an image. The authors of this article consider the perception of advertising as a process of generating a meaning, which in the context of intercultural communication reveals cultural characteristics that are potentially important when choosing a strategy of behavior. The empirical study involved 100 people living in the United States and Russia. The research methods revealed differences in the assessment of values in both groups. Further research aimed at studying the specifics of advertising media texts showed that in the perception of advertising, not age differences, but the cultural aspect plays the leading role. The visual appeal of the commercial, the semantic and imaginative transparency, the positive attitude towards the main characters do not affect the desire of potential consumers of the American and Russian sample groups to purchase the advertised product. The research showed that studying the perception of advertising media texts allows you to obtain additional information about the representatives of different cultures. A cultural artifact actualizes specific features and allows you to model the idea of the overall integrity of the phenomenon under study.


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