THE INTERACTION OF PERSUASIVE AND PRAGMATIC STRATEGIES IN FAKE NEWS ON ENGLISH-LANGUAGE SOCIAL MEDIA, NEWS, AND BLOGS (PILOT STUDY)

The aim of the pilot study is to investigate persuasive methods in fake news, with a particular focus on their basic taxonomy and identification of the pragmatic mechanisms, such as conversational implicatures, which operate in examples with a persuasive character. A preliminary analysis of English-language social media and English-language blogs and news shows the use of similar techniques of persuasiveness, with a significantly higher occurrence of emotionally charged language in social media. Possibly, the differences in usage stem from the characteristics of the analyzed genres. Our qualitative analysis shows that there is a certain correlation between flouting the Maxim of Quantity and the techniques of Appeal to popularity, values, authority, Attack on reputation (all subcategories except name-calling), as well as Manipulative formulations (exaggerations).