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Reference:
Bykova E.V., Gavra D.P., Baikova I.A. Metaphorical nominations of national leaders of the past as a phenomenon of actual political communication // Litera. 2024. № 3. DOI: 10.25136/2409-8698.2024.3.70145 EDN: LALEKT URL: https://en.nbpublish.com'library_read_article.php?id=70145
Metaphorical nominations of national leaders of the past as a phenomenon of actual political communication
Bykova Elena Vladimirovna
ORCID: 0000-0003-3842-8419 Professor, Department of Public Relations in Business, St. Petersburg State University 199034, Russia, Saint Petersburg, nab. University, 7-9, office 704
Q bykova2april@gmail.com Gavra Dmitrii Petrovich
ORCID: 0000-0002-6536-9277 Doctor of Sociology
Doctor of Sociological Sciences, Professor, St. Petersburg State University 199034, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Univsrsitetskaya str., 7-9, office 704
El bykova2april@gmail.com
Baikova Irina Aleksandrovna
ORCID: 0009-0003-7538-7174 PhD in Politics
Associate Professor, St. Petersburg State University 199034, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Universitetska^a str., 7-9, office 704
Q bykova2april@gmail.com
Article was published in rubric "Journalism"
DOI:
10.25136/2409-8698.2024.3.70145
EDN:
LALEKT
Received:
16-03-2024
Abstract: The article is devoted to the analysis of the metaphorical nomination of the subject as an instrument of deep-datified mediatization of a political incident of a special nature - the death/departure from active politics of a political leader on a national scale. The theoretical basis is the theory of deep mediatization, the cognitive theory of metaphor and the sociology of memory. The authors prove that the analysis of the metaphorical nominations of outstanding statesmen who left this world makes it possible to identify the public's attitude to the current state of political problematization and the structural profile of current political conflicts. Media texts and user-generated content in foreign English-language media were selected as empirical material for analysis. The resulting dataset is analyzed on the basis of the theory of metaphor in political discourse. The article shows that the death/departure from active politics of a political leader of the distant or relatively close past acts as a significant information event that generates the actualization of the political discursive field in a datatized online environment. English-language online media or online versions of traditional media were selected by the monitoring method in the system Semanticforce.ai : Associated Press, Bloomberg News, Reuters for the period 08.30.2022 - 09.10.2022. A total of 12320 texts were taken into account. By means of lexical and semantic analysis, the nominations were selected from the texts and their classification into lexical and thematic groups was carried out. As a result of the study, it is shown that the death/departure from active politics of a political leader of the distant or relatively close past acts as a significant information event that generates the actualization of the political discursive field in a datatized online environment. - English-speaking online media assess the personality of Mikhail Gorbachev in a generally positive way: one of a kind, democrat, peacemaker, etc. - The thematic group of lexemes with the meaning of paradoxicity and inconsistency in English-speaking media is one of the most representative in the analyzed media discourse. - The paradoxical nature of personality assessment is linked to the counter-predictive assessment of Mikhail Gorbachev's activities during his presidency in European and Russian politics.
Keywords:
metaphor, nominations, national leader, political communication, big data, mediatization, sociology of memory, political conflict, political discourse, online
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Peer Review
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The vector highway of the world assessment is the most interesting. Language captures all the changes that occur in the space of society. Therefore, the identification and analysis of mobile, flexible forms of objectification of reality is necessary. The subject of the research of the reviewed article is the metaphorical nominations of national leaders of the past, in particular, the author dwells on the figure of Mikhail Gorbachev as the last leader of the Soviet era. The methodology of the research is syncretic: "the theoretical foundations of the research are the theory of deep datified mediatization, philosophical concepts of social perception of death in the society of the spectacle and philological theories of metaphor and labeling." The purpose of the study is to analyze Mikhail Gorbachev's nominations and metaphors, which appeared in the media and social networks of the United States and Great Britain after the news of his death in August 2022. The material is quite interestingly combined; however, in my opinion, the effect of the dialogue could have been more textured. The problematic path of work has a basis, verification is done in the comparison mode: "among the information occasions with the potential for mediatization, incidents with celebrities, national leaders, statesmen, idols of show business, culture and sports can be rightfully attributed. A famous person is always the object of attention, personal attitude, and evaluation. And a notable incident with her is an object of mediatization. A special type of object of datified mediatization is the death of a leader, an outstanding personality who was in the past the object of universal attention. Especially if this leader has done a lot for his country, the sphere of a certain activity, or was very popular. Queen Elizabeth II, musical idol Michael Jackson, poet and actor Vladimir Vysotsky, Princess Diana, politician Henry Kissinger, US President J. Kennedy ? this list can go on...". I think
that the relevance of the topic is obvious, while the problem can be considered further, with a more complex immersion in metadata. The scientific novelty lies in the consolidation into a common database of news data from August - October 2022, where the name of M.S. Gorbachev is mentioned: "as empirical material, the authors of the article selected by the monitoring method in the system Semanticforce.ai English-language full-text online media or online versions of traditional media with the largest audiences. Among them, in particular, in the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, Reuters, etc. for the period 08.30.2022 ? 09.10.2022. The criterion for selecting the material is the mention of the fact of the death of the President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev in the title, lead or in the body of the text. Both media texts and related user comments under the publication were included in the solid sample. A total of 12320 text units were taken into account. By means of lexical and semantic analysis from the texts selected by the system Semanticforce.ai The nominations of M. Gorbachev's personality were selected and their classification by lexical and thematic groups was carried out." The variants of the hypotheses that the researcher is trying to prove are distant: "Hypothesis 1. The general vector of assessing the personality of Mikhail Gorbachev in English-language media and comments from users of English-language social networks has a positive orientation. Hypothesis 2. One of the leading lines in assessing the personality of Mikhail Gorbachev is associated with fixing the inconsistency of this historical figure. Hypothesis 3. The English-speaking media could not help but take advantage of this information occasion to comment on the current attitude of Russia and Russians towards the deceased leader of the past." The material has proper logical coherence, the format of scientific research is maintained throughout the narrative. The style correlates with the scientific type itself: "the results of the study generally confirmed all three hypotheses. First of all, as expected, the nominations of the first President of the USSR with a positive connotation are orders of magnitude more than the nominations with a negative connotation. The latter are generally absent in media texts, whereas less than 2% of them were identified in individual posts and comments on media texts. At the same time, the analysis of these comments suggests that their authors are former citizens of the USSR who experienced difficulties associated with its collapse. But for an unambiguous conclusion about this, the statistical parameters of the sample are not enough," or "social construction in media discourse is formed by stereotyping mass consciousness through metaphorization, assigning labels when nominating certain events or subjects. Metaphor as a communicative packaging becomes a tool for launching mediatization when the representation becomes no less significant than the event itself. "In many cases, a metaphor allows you to convey information in a more convenient form for the addressee <...> With the help of a metaphor, the corresponding phenomenon is brought under the category, which makes it possible to better define the essence of this phenomenon and express one's attitude towards it," etc. Citations are given throughout the body of the text; the illustrative background is sufficient: "Examples: • UN chief Antonio Guterres praised Gorbachev as "a one-of-a-kind statesman who changed the course of history" and "did more than any other individual to bring about the peaceful end of the Cold War". Gorbachev became one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, gathering global accolades for his role in reducing the threat of a nuclear apocalypse and in freeing millions of people in his country and beyond from Soviet oppression. Mikhail Gorbachev, the man who changed the world. • tribute to Gorbachev as a historic figure. • Gorbachev as a man who left " an enormous impact on the course of world history." etc . The conclusions relate to the main part of the work: "Here are the main results of an empirical study. English-speaking online media assess the personality of Mikhail Gorbachev in a generally positive way: one of a kind, democrat, peacemaker, etc. The thematic group of lexemes with the meaning of paradoxicity and inconsistency in English-speaking media is one of the most representative
in the analyzed media discourse. The paradoxical nature of personality assessment is linked to a counter-predictive assessment of Mikhail Gorbachev's activities during his presidency in European and Russian politics...". The material can be used in the study of humanitarian disciplines. The text does not need special editing; the topic has been disclosed, the purpose of the study has been achieved. I recommend the article "Metaphorical nominations of national leaders of the past as a phenomenon of current political communication" for publication in the magazine "Litera".
