Laughter As The Instrument Of Delegitimization Of An Election Campaign Of 2018

Abstract

In the article forms of laughable delegitimization of the official pre-election media discourse in the news content of the Internet media "The Real Lentach" are considered. The authors came to the conclusion that the process of delegitimization reproduces national and political peculiarities of thinking. Thus, the main vector of using the principles of laughable culture is associated with a decrease in the status of a participant in the election campaign, the destruction of the authority of a politician, as well as with the derationalization of the actions and acts of the subjects of electoral procedures. Based on the theory of legitimization / delegitimization, the authors analyzed the key strategies for deconstructing the official election discourse of news content in Internet media. The leading strategy is the delegitimization of the status or authority of a participant in the election process, the main semantic opposition is the confrontation of the personalized image of the president and the oppositionist. On the second line is the removal of legitimacy through the destruction of rational arguments, the expediency of the actions of the candidates. In general, delegitimization strategies reflect the structure official electoral discourse, but with a modified semantic modality. To a lesser extent, strategies are used to delegitimize values and explanatory stories.

Keywords: Laughing culturenewselectionsInternet discoursedelegitimizationmemes

Introduction

In his article "Humorous society", published in the collection "Era of emptiness. Essay on modern individualism" Lipovetsky (2001) notes that in the era of humorous postmodern society laughter disappears, loses its sacred meaning. The question arises about the content of laughter in a situation of total irony, the status of tradition. However, it is the various forms of funny that determine the modus of mass communication texts in the online environment, in many ways form the media image of a particular sphere of public consciousness, and thus construct a cognitive model that determines the perception of social reality. Discourse practices can lose touch with referents, actualizing only the game aspect of the funny. As noted by Kasimov (2012), laughter becomes a necessary attribute of the communicative component of culture, as "electronic communication is the most progressive expression of "games between people", which are the essence of post-industrial society" (p. 68).

In the modern Russian-language media discourse, the existence of two ideologically opposed poles has clearly emerged. On the one hand, the media expressing an official point of view on the main issues of the information picture, on the other hand, the media focused on the expression of an alternative position that does not coincide with the official one. However, the differences are also related to the reception of the modus funny by different actors of the information field. In the first case, there is a taboo on everything "funny" in the representation of public information, in the second – the forms of laughter receive the status of a conventionally defined norm. In this sense, there is a clear polarization in the representation of electoral discourse in different types of media.

Problem Statement

The news content of such Internet media as "The Real Lentach", forms a pre-election media discourse which is unambiguously opposed to a pre-election discourse in respect of laughter use as bases for creation of concrete texts. It is the ridiculous beginning that becomes a sign of the pre-election media discourse of alternative media. The ridiculous beginning, on the one hand, becomes a typical practice, which is ambiguously perceived by different types of audience and the media focused on the official point of view of the elections in Russia. So, we can say the existence of opposition sentiments and their representation in the discourse of some Internet media. This reveals the problem of using the funny in the formation of news content of Internet media, its correlation with the news content of Pro-state media.

Research Questions

There is a question associated with the thesis, which was expressed by Lipovetsky (2001): can laughter in the modern socio-cultural situation have a higher purpose (not entertainment and self-reflection). On the other hand, there is an open question about the existence of ways to Express an alternative point of view within the framework of the pre-election media discourse and, conversely, the degradation of the laughing culture.

Purpose of the Study

The aim of our study was the analysis of news content about the election of the President of the Russian Federation 2018 submitted to the community Internet media "The Real Lentech", which will allow us to determine the function of laughable elements in the creation of certain texts, and the expression of alternative political views to the polls to determine the semantics of the laughter, his socio-critical potential. An important issue is the delegitimization of the official public discourse on elections as a manifestation of social and political activity.

Research Methods

As a method of research we used multimodal discourse analysis, so it allowed to interpret the principles of laughable culture used in the news content of Internet media in the representation of electoral discourse, within the framework of current text-generating practices, popular forms of mass communication. When using the method of multimodal discourse analysis, we relied on the article by Zagidullina (2019) "Multimodality: on the question of terminological certainty", which provides an overview of the main research points of view, analysis tools. The author emphasizes: "It should be noted that multimodal discourse analysis and its varieties (for example, critical multimodal discourse analysis) are aimed at interpreting communicative practices in terms of identifying meanings that elude the analysis of certain aspects of communication (for example, expressed only in the form of recording verbal exchange)" (Zagidullina, 2019, p. 184).

Findings

The empirical base of the study was the news reports in the group "The Real Lentach" from January to September 2018 (in the framework of the study supported by the Russian science Foundation, № 18-18-00007). The dates were determined in connection with the election campaign and presidential elections of the Russian Federation (18 March 2018) and regional elections (September 2018). In the case included 73 texts.

It was found that most of the reports are cartoons, the plot of which is based on the ironic and sarcastic play on real events or facts of the election campaign, on a conscious violation of stereotypes of the official public election media discourse. These are examples of political satirical cartoons that use various precedent phenomena (quotes, memes, photos, "gifs", videos) and Express a critical attitude to the official discourse. The basic premise here is the destruction of the values and norms of this official discourse.

In the first position on the frequency of use are memes built on delegitimization of status, authority, on the violation of conventions on the social role of politics (35 of 73). The main topics here can be called the reduction of the image of the President as a political subject, his ironic personalization and marginalization. On the other hand, reduction of the exposed image of the opposition, Navalny, Sobchak, and others. This opposition encounters a semantic boundary, which describes the political landscape: the confrontation of the President and the few opposition members. Thus, the first example (Figure 01 ) demonstrates a person who embodies the Supreme power, should equally respect all citizens as violating social behavior, as a cynic, because he performs an obscene gesture expressing contempt.

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The second example (Figure 02 ) leads to a decrease in the opposition politician, violating the opinion of his independence. ATM behind the hero in a ridiculous key plays this status.

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In second place are memes that use the technique of destruction of rationalization of actions or statements (23). Thus, in the news, the rationality of the campaign participants ' behavior is destroyed through the creation of absurdity or absurdity of what is happening (Figure 03 ).

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All judgments on the appropriateness of procedures and activities are presented as a travested situation. Example number three derides and leads to delegitimization an explanation about need of censorship during the election period, about rationality an act of the supervising agency behind cinema products devoted to Stalin.

Less popular are memes based on the ridiculous representation of mismatches of values (10) and the creation of explanatory stories (5). In the situation of the value gap, violations of liberal-democratic values are primarily played out in a ridiculous way, irony over the majority is presented as an ideological concept in the pre-election media discourse. Figure 04 presents an ironic comment on propaganda based on xenophobia against minorities. In the last place are memes that tell stories about prohibitions and incentives within the existing cultural paradigm. In this segment, the principle of seriality is used, typical news areironically beaten reports of violations of procedures and technologies for the preparation of elections and voting. Figure 05 is based on ironic advice on the design of voting places.

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The results of the monitoring show that delegitimizing the official pre-election media discourse, news reports are based on beating the initial messages. About this tradition, the creation of a satirical version of messages from the official election media discourse, writes Piata (2016), analyzing texts in social networks, ridiculing participants in the election campaign in Greece. On the other hand, we see the reproduction of the features of the political, wider – national mentality. Thus, in the traditionalist types of society, the main role is played by the leader, authority, therefore, the media with the status of official and Internet media actively use legitimization/delegitimization through an appeal to the status of the subject of the election campaign, to authority. The second position, which is occupied by memes built on the destruction of rationalization, is related, in our opinion, to the orientation of the media image of V. V. Putin and D. A. Medvedev on the logical-rational behavior, that is, to explain, demonstrating professionalism (the practice laid down during the transition of power from Yeltsin to Putin). The lesser popularity of memes based on playing with the value gap and explaining stories is explained by the value crisis in modern Russian society and distrust of public statements.

However, radical delegitimization discredits the very concept of elections, that is, certain areas of political communication become a source of comic, humorous. There is a phenomenon of "humorous society" (Lipovetsky, 2001), the news about the elections will be read/viewed only when it is funny, only then will cause a desire to comment.

Conclusion

Thus, a pre-election media discourse of independent media in the news content of Internet media was formed, in which a ridiculous form of information presentation comes to the fore. On the one hand, it is a way to broadcast the opinions of dissenting social groups, their moods, the manifestation of social activity, on the other hand, the effective use of the trend, to be funny, to show a sense of humor, that is, a purely pragmatic function.

Acknowledgments

Prepared by Vasilii Fedorov part of the article (50% of the text), was written with the support of RSF, 18-18-00007

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