IMAGES OF SLAVIC PEOPLE IN MEDIA COVERAGE OF BREXIT

IMAGES OF SLAVIC PEOPLE IN MEDIA COVERAGE OF BREXIT

Author:  S.L. Kushneruk

Affiliation:  Chelyabinsk State University

Abstract:  The author takes up a cognitive-discursive approach to the analysis of images of the Slavs against the backdrop of Brexit procedure.
The objective of the paper is to examine mechanisms of media portrayal of the Western, Eastern and Southern Slavic national groups in the British media in the context of a political process. The term ‘discourse-world of Brexit’ is introduced to denote a conceptually complex discourse-level structure, serving as a background, against which national images of the Slavs are silhouetted.
The author argues that media images of the Slavs are organized by frames, which enable media managers to negatively or neutrally evaluate members and non-members of the European Union, and systematizes media frames structuring the national images. Examples from the News on the Web corpus are used to prove that images of the Slavs are discursively constrained and biased.
The analysis of the examples shows that in the context of Brexit, the images of the Eastern Slavs are mostly negativized which, presumably, may be explained by the increased role of Russia in the contemporary world.
The results of the research might present interest to discourse analysts for further investigation of prejudices to national ingroups and outgroups in the media.

Keywords:  media representation, discourse-world, media discourse, mass communication, British media, Slavs, Brexit.

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Acknowledgments:  The research was funded by RFBR and Chelyabinsk Region, project number 20-412-740004.

For citation:  Kushneruk, S. L. (2021). Images of Slavic people in media coverage of Brexit. Voprosy Kognitivnoy Lingvistiki, 2, 99-110. (In Russ.).

Pages:  99-110