COGNITIVE MECHANISMS OF MANIPULATIVE INFLUENCE IN MEDIA DISCOURSE

The article considers the manipulative influence on human consciousness in media discourse on the example of a liberal news publication. Identification of the cognitive mechanisms activated in that field made it possible to reveal the complex nature of manipulative influence. It sets out mechanisms for specification, opposition, grading, conceptual metonymy, metaphor and metaphtonymy as well as cases of interaction between the mechanisms of grading and conceptual metaphor, perspectivization and grading. Such a concept as bias towards members of another group is noted as an attitude of manipulative influence, which leads to the appearance of cognitive dissonance in them, has been defined as a setting for manipulative influence. Members of the same party are always assessed positively. It is concluded that manipulation as control and management of human consciousness is implemented indirectly, and can be explained through the cognitive mechanisms involved in these processes. The research has also proved that bias is interpreted as the polarization of evaluative knowledge in the form of an approving modality in relation to members of one’s own group and a negative modality in relation to members of another group. The prospect of the study lies in the possibility of applying the findings in analyzing the manipulative influence in other types of discourse and on the material of other languages.