DISCURSIVE MECHANISM OF MANIPULATION IN ENGLISH MASS MEDIA SOURCES

The article addresses some of the manipulation strategies used in English mass media sources, based on the mechanism of discursive programming identified by the author earlier in her research. According to the above mechanism, some elements of discourse predetermine (“program”) others. On the basis of the mechanism of discursive programming in the considered material two main ways of realization of manipulative influence on the audience are revealed: holding its attention and creating a discursive effect promoting a certain point of view. The discursive programming aimed at holding the audience’s attention is implemented by gradually filling the slots of an already activated frame (e. g., YOUNG VICTIM OF VIOLENCE). The other manipulation strategy involves the creation of a discursive effect that the author in her previous works calls lacrimatory. The latter is based on the discursive programming of cultural concepts evoking the empathy of the audience (e. g., CHILD or SOMEONE HELPLESS) on the one hand and the frame TRAGIC EVENT – on the other, with the ‘empathic’ and the ‘tragic’ frames sharing the same terminals. The author believes that the above manipulation strategies in English mass media discourse are mutually complementary.