scholarly journals Stories About Russians in the English-Language Media: Construction of National-Civiс Identity

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 585-607
Author(s):  
Anna Sumskaya ◽  
Pavel Sumskoy
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Memory ◽  
English Language ◽  
Civic Identity ◽  
Cultural Model ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Communicative Behavior ◽  
Media Construction ◽  
The Media ◽  
Foreign Media ◽  
The Cold War

The “Russian threat”, popularized by many foreign media sources, actualized a request to continue the study of the national-civic identity of Russians. The study is based on the communicative behavior of subjects in the media and in the collective cultural memory. The article is dedicated to the detection of the repertoire of identifications, the construction of the discursive identity of Russians by the subjects of communication in the English-language media space. The identification was carried out in the course of the analysis of speech statements, the subjective positions of the communicators, reflecting the formed collective communicative and cultural memory. On the basis of the structural-semiotic approach, the concept of cultural memory by J. and A. Assmann and the Russian cultural model built by M. Bergelson, English-language texts about Russia and Russians were analyzed. The system of text-generating practices and codes of journalistic discourse formed by E.V. Chepkina, the network principle of organization of discursive identity introduced by L.V. Enina, the concept of plotting by V.Ya. Propp and the types of K. Booker's stories were used to detect the identities of Russians in journalistic discourse. Basing their research on the analysis of 22 journalistic stories, the authors come to the following conclusion: domestic and foreign authors use similar facts in their stories about Russians, but in the end they formulate opposite positions and construct different meanings. What is recognized as “a norm” by Russian communicators, causes confusion among foreign authors. This is a reflection of the previously assigned communicative behavior during the Cold War era, low-contextual cultural traditions and the national cultural memory of foreign actors. Most likely, this distinction is now used by political communicators to support intentionally organized “information confrontations”. Foreign journalists admit that one-dimensional “formalized patterns” are not applicable to understanding the identity of Russians. In the analyzed texts, the authors, first of all, translate or search for a “Soviet” and “traditional” cultural model (according to M. Bergelson). Perhaps, this is important for the implementation of the “adjustment” of Russians in the current geopolitical situation, and, moreover, it helps to broadcast what has proved to be a successful “defensive position” for centuries. At the same time, both domestic and foreign journalists identify the character of a Russian as of a “Hero” in the process of “Searching and finding a goal”.

The media construction of family history: An analysis of “Who do you think you are?”

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Lunt
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Family History ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
Personal Traits ◽  
Media Construction ◽  
Tv Program ◽  
The Media ◽  
Cultural Intermediaries

AbstractGenealogy, once a specialized research practice, is increasingly a common social practice enabled by digitization and cultural intermediaries that support the construction of family histories. The idea of finding out about oneself through an exploration of the character and lives of ancestors is a growing social practice reflected in popular culture. Tracing one’s personal traits through past family members and extending the sense of family and identity back in time potentially enriches personal identity and link personal, social and cultural memory. In this paper, an episode of the popular BBC TV program

Impact of Social Media on English Language: A Review

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Dr. Neha Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
English Language ◽  
Major Influence ◽  
International Level ◽  
Class Society ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Media ◽  
Subsequent Rise

Language being a potent vehicle of transmitting cultural values, norms and beliefs remains a central factor in determining the status of any nation. India is a multilingual country which tends to encourage people to use English at national and international level. Basically English in India owes its presence to the British but its subsequent rise is not fully attributable to the British. It has now become the language of wider communication which is now spoken by large number of people all over the world. It is influenced by many factors such as class, society, developments in science and technology etc. However the major influence on English language is and has been the media.

Foreign Media Exposure and Perceptions of Americans in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Singapore

1997 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 738-756 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Willnat ◽  
Zhou He ◽  
Hao Xiaoming
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Media Exposure ◽  
Media Impact ◽  
Local Media ◽  
The Media ◽  
Foreign Media ◽  
Media Channels ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

This study examines the relationship between foreign media exposure and stereotypical perceptions of and feelings toward Americans in Hong Kong, Shenzhen (China), and Singapore. In line with previous studies, it finds that foreign TV consumption is related to negative stereotypical perceptions of and feelings toward Americans among all tested subjects. However, it also finds that different types of foreign media, such as newspaper, radio, video, and movies, exhibit very distinct and different relationships with perceptions of Americans by subjects from China and Singapore. It suggests that in studies of foreign media impact, attention should be given to specific foreign media channels, the actual content of the media, the impact of local media, the stages at which other cultures encounter the Western culture, and the cultural context of each society.

English in Slovenia: status, functions, and features

English Today ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 28-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Špela MeŽek
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Bloc ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
World Language ◽  
Slovene Language ◽  
Science And Education ◽  
The Media ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Education Science ◽  
Second World

ABSTRACTSlovenia, like many former Eastern bloc countries, is now coming to terms with the increasing popularity of English.Today English is the most widely used foreign language in Europe. It is used in business, education, science, the media, advertisements, music, graffiti, and in many other places, although its greatest use can be found in commerce, culture, science and education (Phillipson, 2003). The presence of English is felt more in some parts of Europe than in others, however. In the Scandinavian countries, for example, English manifests itself in all parts of society and the knowledge of English is so high that some consider it a second language (McArthur, 1996). In Eastern Europe, the acquisition and use of English has traditionally not been as widespread, although in recent years, the picture has changed greatly, as English has become more and more popular in what were formerly Eastern bloc countries.In many ways Slovenia has been following the trends in other Central and Eastern European countries. The influence of English has been growing since the Second World War and in particular after the end of the Cold War. Its influence has intensified even more after Slovenia became an independent country. Today, Slovenes feel both cautious and enthusiastic about English. There is extensive legislation to protect the Slovene language, while at the same time there is a ‘certain enthusiasm for both “western” ideas and the world language, English’ (Schlick, 2003: 4).

Book Reviews: Women and Politics in New Zealand, Voters' Vengeance: The 1990 Election in New Zealand and the Fate of the Fourth Labour Government, The Domestic Bases of Grand Strategy, The Politics of the Training Market: From Manpower Services Commission to Training and Enterprise Councils, Public Policy and the Nature of the New Right, Managing the United Kingdom: An Introduction to its Political Economy and Public Policy, Citizenship and Employment: Investigating Post-Industrial Options, Government by the Market? The Politics of Public Choice, Responsive Regulation: Transcending the Deregulation Debate, Regulatory Politics in Transition, The Politics of Regulation: A Comparative Perspective, Brother Number One: A Political Biography of Pol Pot, The Tragedy of Cambodian History: Politics, War and Revolution since 1945, Welfare States and Working Mothers, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States, Japan and the United States: Global Dimensions of Economic Power, Political Dynamics in Contemporary Japan, Japan's Foreign Policy after the Cold War: Coping with Change, Soviet Studies Guide, Directory of Russian MPs, Mikhail Gorbachev and the End of Soviet Power, Red Sunset: The Failure of Soviet Politics, Six Years that Shook the World: Perestroika — The Impossible Project, The Politics of Transition: Shaping a Post-Soviet Future, Democracy and Decision: The Pure Theory of Electoral Preference, Probabilistic Voting Theory, Contested Closets: The Politics and Ethics of Outing, Queer in America: Sex, the Media, and the Closets of Power

1994 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 717-730
Author(s):  
Preston King ◽  
Marco Cesa ◽  
Martin Rhodes ◽  
Stephen Wilks ◽  
Christopher Tremewan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
The United States ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Mikhail Gorbachev ◽  
Political Biography ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Regulatory Politics

Constructing the myth of protest masculinity in Chinese English language news media

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yating Yu ◽  
Mark Nartey
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
English Language ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Social Harmony ◽  
Chinese Media ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
News Reports ◽  
The Media

Although the Chinese media’s construction of unmarried citizens as ‘leftover’ has incited much controversy, little research attention has been given to the ways ‘leftover men’ are represented in discourse. To fill this gap, this study performs a critical discourse analysis of 65 English language news reports in Chinese media to investigate the predominant gendered discourses underlying representations of leftover men and the discursive strategies used to construct their identities. The findings show that the media perpetuate a myth of ‘protest masculinity’ by suggesting that poor, single men may become a threat to social harmony due to the shortage of marriageable women in China. Leftover men are represented as poor men, troublemakers and victims via discursive processes that include referential, predicational and aggregation strategies as well as metaphor. This study sheds light on the issues and concerns of a marginalised group whose predicament has not been given much attention in the literature.

A comparison of degree intensifiers across English corpora: Is it ‘flagrant’, ‘blatant’, or ‘sheer’ audacity?

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 74-92
Author(s):  
Julija Korostenskienė ◽  
◽  
Lina Bikelienė
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
English Language ◽  
Academic English ◽  
News Values ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Grammatical Relations ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
The Media ◽  
Present World ◽  
Linguistic Means

Due to its free-adjoining nature, the category of adjuncts is generally viewed as somewhat peripheral to the forefront of grammatical relations. Meanwhile, given the significance of the media in the present world and the ever-growing prevalence of the notion of news values, outlining the criteria conducive to a message becoming news and including values such as negativity, superlativeness, prominence, timeliness, proximity, etc. (Bednarek, Caple 2014), the broad range of linguistic means encoding intensification, thereby foregrounding a given phenomenon, presents a considerable interest. In this corpus study, we focus on three adjectival emphasisers, flagrant, blatant, and sheer, and examine their use in adjective + noun collocations across a variety of English corpora on the Sketch Engine tool (Kilgarriff et al. 2014) in the academic and the news registers: the “British Academic Written English Corpus”, the “Cambridge Academic English Corpus”, the “English Language Newspapers Corpus”, the “Brexit WR Corpus”, and the “English Timestamped JSI Corpus 2020–10”. We also consider the nominal element the adjectives in question collocate with, seeking to provide an account as to their differences in English. The findings of the study may have implications both for language classrooms and for more specialized fields, such as media studies.

Illiberal deliberation: Communist regime travel controls as state capacity in everyday world politics

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-233
Author(s):  
Astrid Hedin
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
The West ◽  
Democratic Reform ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Totalitarian Regimes

Much social theory takes for granted that transnational people-to-people dialogue is inherently liberal in process and content – a haven of everyday authenticity that shelters ideas of human rights and democratic reform. In contrast, this contribution shows how communist regimes built and institutionalised an encompassing administrative state capacity to control and shape micro-level professional contacts with the West. This extensive but secret system of coercion, which was brought to light only with the opening of former communist regime archives, set a markedly illiberal framework for everyday East–West deliberations during the Cold War. Effectively, the travel cadre system may not only have delayed the demise of Soviet bloc communism, by isolating the population from Western influences. It was also intended to serve as a vehicle for the discursive influence of Soviet type regimes on the West. The article provides one of the first and most detailed English language maps of the administrative routines of a communist regime travel cadre system, based on the East German example. Furthermore, drawing on social mechanisms methodology, the article sets up a micro-level ‘how it could work’ scheme over how travel cadre systems can be understood as a state capacity, unique to totalitarian regimes, to help sway political discourse in open societies.

A Feminist Critique of Representations of Potentially Coerced Women

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Barlow
Keyword(s):  
Male Partner ◽  
Media Representation ◽  
Feminist Critique ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
Potential Influence ◽  
Women's Representation ◽  
Women’S Representation ◽  
Media Construction ◽  
The Media ◽  
Offending Behaviour

This chapter discusses the media construction of women co-offenders and their relationship with their male partner/ co-offender, using the case/ court file material as a comparative tool. It particularly considers the ways in which the women’s representation served to minimise and discredit their perspectives and defence, particularly in relation to the potential influence of their relationship with their male partner on their offending behaviour. It also considers the ways in which the women’s suggestions of coercion or coercive techniques (at varying levels) by their male partner were constructed, particularly in media discourse. In doing so, the chapter is divided into a number of key themes, such as ‘bad women’ and ‘equally bad or worse’. It is important to note that the themes apply to the women at varying levels and the extent to which they were evident in the women’s legal and media representation will be discussed.

scholarly journals Becoming Global Citizens through Bilingualism: English Learning in the Lives of University Students in China

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yangguang Chen
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
World Language ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Global Citizens ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
The World ◽  
English Classroom ◽  
L1 And L2

The ongoing globalisation has led to a tremendous expansion of the English language. With China striving to become part of the world economy since the late 1970's, there has been a great emphasis placed on the education of young people to become a world citizen with fluent English. “Being a global citizen” is having strong interests in global issues, cultivating the understanding and appreciation of diverse values, and enhancing country's competitiveness. All this however needs to be realized through communication in English, the world language. Improving communicative competence among Chinese learners of English depends on how English is learnt in the FL classroom and how it gets practiced outside the classroom. Data drawn from English corners, English clubs and English church all show that those informal learning settings have a complentary role to play especially when the formal English classroom is found having various deficits. Data also confirm that informal settings offer the opportunity to close the gap between L1 and L2 learning processes, and nurtutre learners' communicative competence through social intercourse and intercultural exchanges. Moreover, EFL learning is inherently intercultural, which facilitate cross cultural perspectives through bilingualism and bridges over the indigenous cultural traditions and the western democratic values.

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