Higher institute of languages gabes MA of english : Media and Journalism

The role of linguistic choices and distinctive practices in shaping public opinion

Submitted by Salma Fessi

Course teacher : Ezzedine Saidi

© December 2018
 Introduction

In today’s world media aims to reach the largest group of audience using different

visual, audio-visual, written and other means to create and shape public opinion. For that

objective, it utilizes linguistic devices and a multitude of practices that vary depending on the

context.This paper t will explain the interplay between media and public opinion. It will also

explore the linguistic choices and their relation with shaping public opinion and the use of

various practices for the same objective.

1. The Dialectic Relationship Between Media And Public Opinion :

The word media reveals its ultimate role. It establishes a link between the audience

and the world through the processes of production, distribution and consumption. Hence, it

contributes in a way or another in the creation or at least shaping of public opinion.

(Fairclaugh, 1995) According to the American sociologist Charles Horton Cooley public

opinion is : « a process of interaction and mutual influence rather than a state of broad

agreement. » https://www.britannica.com/topic/public-opinion. It is therefore created by the

mass reception and understanding of news and how people use them to inform one another

and end up by producing feedbacks. Media propagates on a daily basis news that alert us to

the events and changes in the environement that are beyond our immediate experience. In

Will Roger and Walter Lippmann’s day, it is said that : « the daily newspaper was the

principle source of information about public affairs. » https://books.google.tn/books?

id=hMxrVxROkHEC&pg=PA1&hl=fr&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

Through their day by day selection and display of the news, editors and news directors

focus our attention and influence our perceptions of what are the most important issues of the

day (ibid). Most importantly, the repetition of topics day after day in social media is a very

powerful tool to pass messages. The public can decide wether an issue is crucial or not by
noticing the emphasis of media on that issue. Only few matters concern them more than

others. After receiving feedback from the audience, media decides whether the news is worth

spreading or not. . This emphasises the interplay between the two. McComb and his research

partner Donald L. Shaw tested and confirmed the hypothesis that the news media have a

major influence on which issues the public considers important (ibid). They demonstrated that

the audiences often judge the importance of a news item based on how frequently and

prominently it is covered by the media. Galtung and Ruge (1965) specified 12 news values

that determine the worthiness of a news. These values are frequency, threshold, unambiguity,

meaningfulness, consonance, unexpectedness, continuity, composition, reference to elite

peoples, reference to elite nations, personification, and negativity. These criteria are precised

by the audience and in relation with their daily issues and concerns.

2. Linguistic Choices and Shaping Public Opinion

Media focuses basically on the use of specific language to attract the attention of its

audience. Its choice of linguistic devices helps with the establishment of a general idea about

a topic whether it is positive or negative. For example, one word can be used differently and

connotes a variety of meanings in a number of contexts depending on the intention of the

producer.Mainly, there is a prevailing use of figures of speech such as metaphor, metonymy,

hyperbole and speech acts. Tv for instance combines language with music, visual images and

other semiotic tools to encode a message to the audience. Van Dijk speaks about the use of

‘Us’ versus ‘Them’ ideology when talking about terrorismin in US media. The ‘Us’ is

considered the ‘in group’ : a peaceful, freedom loving nation and the ‘Them’ is considered

the ‘out group’ : the enemy of peace and the lovers of chaos, death and terror. Accordingly,

they build a positive self representation by reinforcing the ‘us’ figure and belittling the ‘them’

(Van Dijk, 2005). This discourse has been long considered a constant tool to maintain the

good image of US in opposition to the image of ‘others’.

choosing to describe an individual (or a group) as one thing or as another can serve many

different psychological, social or political purposes ». Usually, people tend to focus primarily

on the first phrase or word they hear or read about an issue or a topic so titles and names leave

an impression in the mind of the audience. For instance in this headline : « Why women need

their girlfriends ? », some might think that the topic would be talking about homosexuality

because of the common connotation of the word ‘girlfriend’ which is a crucial matter

nowadays so t hey feel eager to read further about the subject. Instead, they discover that the

article explores the importance of relationships between friends in everyday life

https://buzzsumo.com/blog/top-30-huffington-post-most-shared-headlines-why-they-went-

viral/.

Another linguistic device of paramount importance used by media in many contexts

suggested by Simpson (1993 : 47) which is modality. The word ‘ may’ for example is used

frequently in media texts to emphasize the uncertainty of the piece of news presented. In

crimes’ news, presenters on tv or writers of articles use this word when talking about a

suspect in a given case saying : « Mr or Mrs X may be involved in this crime ». As such, they

avoid judgements and unproven accusations. This tool gives the audience an opportunity to

think about the possible interpretations that can be issued from the piece of news. In addition

to that, Fairclough suggests that presuppositions in sentences trigger meanings ( Fairclough :

1995). For example USCIS (U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services) wrote as a headline :

« America no longer A ‘Nation Of Immigrants’ ». The phrase ‘ no longer ’ presupposes that

America used to be a ‘Nation of Immigrants’ and that it is not anymore for given reasons.

This statement implies that America does not protect and grant the rights of immigrants

anymore which reflects Trump’s new segregational policy.

nation-of-immigrants-uscis-says

The word ‘well’ also is used frequently in mediatised speeches. The use of this word

in different positions achieves different actions: `well` prefacing a response to a W-H question

is a hedging device that indexes indirectness. (Schegloff and Lerner, 1999; Mullany, 1999,

Clayman and Heritage, 2004)

3. Distinctive Practices Used in Shaping Public Opinion :

3.1 Ideological Practices

Social institutions contain diverse ‘Ideological discursive formation’ (IDF) that are

associated with each ‘ speech commnity’. Every speech community has its own discourse

norms and by analogy its own ‘ ideological norms’. There is usually one dominant IDF in

every institution. Institutional subjects are constructed in « subject positions whose

ideological underpinnings they may be unaware of ». This is due to the dominant IDF ability

to ‘ naturalize ideologies as to gain acceptance as « non-ideological common sense ».

The main goal of critical discourse analysis is to ‘denaturalize’ these ideologies.

Denaturalization aims at showing how ‘’ social structures determine properties of discourse

and how discourse in turn determines social structures’’ (Fairclough, 1995, p.27). For CDA,

Ideologies and their practices can be distant and dissociated to a variant degree, from their

particular social base and interest that originated them : they can be naturalized and delivered

as commensensial and not ideological (ibid)

Besides, media is no longer a mere means of reporting and covering political events

that occur in different places and contexts (Fairclough, 1995). It does not just broadcast

political events happening elsewhere, but also has started to generate its own political events,

that range from interviews to debates, It is within those programs that different ideological
practices has begun to be performed and carried : broadcasting companies and channels create

its own political programs to execrcise its own power and ideological practices (ibid).

3.2 Assertion of power through language In Media

A discursive practice in foucauldian terms is "the process through which [dominant]

reality comes into being". He explains how power produces docile bodies when it is

propagated. Media on the one hand revalues ordinary life and its practices and, on the other

hand it devalues public and demagogic practices. Consequently, media is positioning the “

chatty, conversational, entaitaining and political discourse in an increasingly dominant

position in the order of broadcast political discourse and the order of political discourse more

generally. (Fairclough : 1994) For example, when Britain was fighting the second World

War, its government employed a patriotic discourse of Britain and Britishness in public

communications in order to unify the people of the nation. The government needed people

from all social and economic classes to think of themselves as fighting for the war. It

encouraged also broadcasting propaganda films that promote for the British character with a

set of British values. This mediatized propaganda excluded feelings of inequality among

social classes and boosted the sense of patriotism and unity.

Conclusion

The role of media is to introduce the realities to people and to provide them with a

somehow easier access to the facts of things that occur around them. This process is

maintained bylinguistic equipments and various practices that enable it to relate with

audiences’ mental abilities and shape their perception towards the tackled issues.
 References

Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical Discourse Analysis : The Critical Study Of

Language, United State of America : Longman Group

Galtung, J. and Ruge, M. (1965) 'The structure of foreign news: The presentation

of the Congo, Cuba and Cyprus crises in four Norwegian newspapers', Journal of

Peace Research.

Schegloff, E & Lerner, G (1999). Well-Prefaced Responses to Wh-Questions

Van Dijk, T (2005) Racism and Discourse in Spain and Latin America.

Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Reisigl, M & Wodak, Ruth (2001) Discourse and Discrimination : London,

Routledge.

Simpson, P (1993) Language, Ideology, and Point of View : London Taylor &
Francis

https://www.britannica.com/topic/public-opinion

https://books.google.tn/books?

id=hMxrVxROkHEC&pg=PA1&hl=fr&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q

&f=false

https://buzzsumo.com/blog/top-30-huffington-post-most-shared-headlines-why-

they-went-viral/.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/22/588097749/america-no-

longer-a-nation-of-immigrants-uscis-says