прагматика и медиа дискурс / Mikhalkova_pragmatics_of_invective_some_corrections

99). S. Korkonosenko in (Корконосенко 2004) suggests to, first of all, divide the spheres of mass media impact into economical, political, spiritual-ideological and social, and then to appoint each of them their own role: productive-economical, regulating, spiritual-ideological, informative-communicative.

A successful realization of these aims will demand technologies for attracting a mass consumer. N. Vakurova and L. Moskovkin give the following factors for this attraction (or “Eight Reasons Why Your TV Is On When You’re Not Even Watching It”):

An interesting plot with a social-historical value of a prototypical event or a popular drama;

Harmony in production’s composition;

Emotional message in relating socially important information;

The host’s (moderator’s), newsmaker of actor’s (star’s) image;

Showiness of actors’ play;

Beauty and luxury of the interior and landscapes in the unreachable virtual life;

Aesthetics and logics of editing, changes of views, topics, plotlines, etc.;

An active disturber of a sexual image, emotions of fear or disgust and any other disturbers, that can bring the audience to paroxysm or emotional affectation: information on an exotic natural disaster, forbidden pornography or jokes (Вакурова, Московкин 1997).

This classification put the aesthetic values among the most influencing. On the other hand, aesthetic pleasure is not even among the first aims. It serves only to give a change to the simplified content, which can be accepted with joy, if the informational field in this environment is too monotonous. But it can also be rejected as too sophisticated for this audience. It finally leads to the cognitive apathy, when the low tempo of complication and development of storylines cause the audience to change their learning demands for simpler schemes, which also blunts keenness of their perception. Nowadays, to satisfy the natural instincts and cause an emotional outcome or a quick psychic reaction, the mass media producers

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have to use more and more fastidious methods and means, find unbroken taboos, push the principles, which shows most clearly in the entertaining genres (TVshows, series, games).

All types of discourse, including mass media, have a content or, as I. Kasavin puts it, a theme as a slice of context in which it develops (Касавин 2008: 367). What defines the content of the mass media discourse? Judging by the mass media production goals, a great impact on the content should be done out of the need to manipulate the consciousness of the masses.

The word “manipulation” originates from the Latin manipulus “a handful” (its connection with the English word manual is clear, as the word means “done by hand” like in the phrase “hand-work”). The primary meaning of this word in Russian includes hand control of some engine or mechanism (Пчелкина 1987: 293). It is also connected with conjuring and machinations. The modern meaning has passed into a more abstract sphere: “Способы социального воздействия на людей при помощи различных средств (экономических, политических,

социальных, массовой информации) с целью навязывания им определенных идей, ценностей, форм поведения и т. д.”30 (Социологический словарь). And also: “…коммуникативное воздействие, которое ведет к актуализации у объекта воздействия определенных мотивационных состояний (а вместе с тем и чувств, аттитюдов, стереотипов), побуждающих его к поведению,

желательному (выгодному) для субъекта воздействия” 31 (Зинченко 2005: 274).

From the point of view of the pragmatics of language manipulation is a necessary constituent of any speech act, that is hidden in the illocutive force and shows in the perlocutionary effect, as any addresser starts communication with a certain aim (illocutive force) and any communications somehow influences the addressee (perlocution). There exists a number of professions, that use

30/Ways of social impact onto people with the help of different means (economical, political, social, broadcasting), enforcing onto them certain ideas, values, forms of behavior, etc./

31/…a communicative impact, that leads to the actualization of the object’s motivational states (and together with it – feelings, attitudes, stereotypes), that induce him or her to conduct in the way, desirable (advantageous) for the subject of impact./

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manipulation as a means of production: sellers, journalists, image-makers. All of them are directly or indirectly connected with the mass media production.

The main features of mass media manipulation were researched by I. M. Dzyaloshiskiy (Дзялошинский 2004), T. V. Naumenko (Науменко 2003), and others. All of them mention the following features. The manipulation in mass media presupposes some outer stimulus, that captures the object’s attention, and a hidden stimulus, that brings an object to such action which the object would not normally accomplish, but the manipulator demands it. If the object deciphers or learns about the hidden stimulus, the manipulation is ruined. That is why it is important that the manipulator has a certain level of professionalism. In case of ads the buyer should be motivated by the outer stimulus, because it dictates him or her to be healthy, young, rich, beautiful, etc. But as any ads is a thingism propaganda, its aim is never to give good advice, but to sell things quickly and profitably. To make the outer message more imposing and to better hide the inner motivation, a number of media technologies has been invented that influence the mass media discourse at all levels. These means are polymodal, i.e. they employ verbal and non-verbal semiotic systems to code the message.

Among all the effects that mass media manipulation brings onto audience one is particularly harmful: cognitive stereotypization. A play with stereotypes helps to cover a larger community, appealing to each and every and none at all. A well-chosen stereotype in a good environment, where the addressee is hidden behind the retranslating device and seems to be a grey and indecipherable mass of individuals, will find a key to the hearts of majority.

The term ‘social stereotype’ was introduced by Walter Lippmann, who first mentioned it in a number of articles and later in 1922 published a book “Public Opinion”. He wrote: “For the most part we do not first see, and then define, we define first and then see. In the great blooming, buzzing confusion of the outer world we pick out what our culture has already defined for us, and we tend to perceive that which we have picked out in the form stereotyped for us by our culture” (Lippmann 1922). In Lippmann’s understanding a cultural stereotype is an

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image, fixed in the culture, which the bearer of this culture will project on any new phenomenon that he or she comes across32. This image precedes, and often even hides, the new, so that a human does not have to spend energy on the cognition of the new. Lippmann notes that in the culture with a tendency to visualize things stereotyped newspaper cartoons fasten swift in the consciousness of people and their views become even more hard and steadfast. Naturally, in the modern society, where the visualization has reached enormous proportions, stereotypes have seized a large place in human consciousness.

Stereotypization of media content presupposes that the addressee of a verbal, visual or sound message is not a particular person, an individual, but a stereotyped image of “one from a crowd”. In this case multiple is replaced by singular, which leads to a change in the type of coding. This results in the change of pragmatic means of coding: the addresser models his or her behavior so as to become a similar indiscreet unity for the addressee. Here the cognitive field offers particular stereotypes for every kind of context (i.e. a newsmaker should be formally dressed and sound confident, the host of a TV-show should be talkative and amiable, etc.). The addresser can go up and down the scale within one stereotype, but should never be out of the limits.

At the same time most people (listeners, readers, viewers) understand that they are addressed via stereotypes, but nevertheless they put up with this situation and continue to consume the information. This paradox might be a result of the tendency to economize psychic energy in the society of exceeding communication, when one is put in such circumstances, where he or she has to constantly participate in it (being attracted by bright images and appealing invocations). And, on the other hand, this very paradox demands from the mass media to offer an illusion of cognition, when the audience does not feel an excess of stereotyped content.

32 See similar definitions in Encyclopedia “Krugosvet”: http://www.krugosvet.ru/articles/123/1012384/1012384a1.html , and Hutchinson’s Encyclopedia: http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0006460.html .

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This cognition is mainly characterized by ideological lining on the grounds that mass media belong either to the state (and then they have to fulfill state orders, which will entail ideological support of governmental institutes) or to private media holdings (and have to be capitalized via major operations, that also entail ideological support of the sponsoring organizations). In both cases we deal with forms of control and manipulation of the mass consciousness to fulfill the major ideological task of integrating the maximum number of people into one social grouping that is characterized by common behavior, be it a consumer (buying the same things), a civilian (voting for the same party), or a national (following the same traditions). The side effects of this process (consuming surplus, intolerance for out-groups, drive for money or status) are counted as minor33.

Let us see now, how mass culture, mass consciousness manipulation, and the play with stereotypes can influence the mass media discourse in the comedy TVshows. The function of such shows is predominantly entertainment; “comedy” also means that they should make the audience laugh (i.e. cause a certain psychophysiologic reaction). The psycho-physiological specifics of laughter, as a reaction to an acute emotional stimulus, condition the following mass media technologies, employed in comedy TV-shows:

33 In their book C. Wilson and F. Gutiérrez describe the stereotypization of mass media content in the US mass media in case of racial minorities: “The portrayal of racial minorities… has been to a large extent, supported by a system of advertising which requires the media to cater to the perceived attitudes and prejudices of the white majority and that also reinforces such images in its own commercial messages… Over the years, advertisers have employed Latin spitfires such as Chiquita Banana, black mammies such as Aunt Jemima, and noble savages such as the Santa Fe Railroad’s Super Chief to pitch their products to a predominantly white audience” (Wilson, Gutiérrez 1985: 113-114).

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The genre of comedy TV-show is a most representative genre of entertainment. It borrows the carnival side of the folklore holiday traditions (depending on the sub-type of comedy TV-show – masks, costumes, food and drinks, invocations, adult-oriented character, night timing). But if the folklore

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culture made carnival laughter sacred, allowed only on certain days, the modern culture sells it twenty four hours a day – on demand, which makes it a usual pastime and forces comedians to be funnier, shrewder and more successful, which means that more taboos will be broken and more stimuli will be given for energy reliefs.

§ 2.3. COMEDY GENRES ON MODERN AMERICAN

AND RUSSIAN TELEVISION

In relation to comedy TV-shows modern mass media can be characterized by a whole system of comic genres: vaudeville, stand-up show, variety show, sketch show, etc.

The genre of stand-up show emerged in the USA in the second half of the XIX c. Mark Twain is said to be its founder. In 1880s he travelled around the country with a funny lectures, containing humorous observations on social and domestic matters 34 . On the other hand, stand-up is commonly referred to professional stage acting: concert halls, theatres and circuses used to offer short routines in the intermissions. In the XX c. many humorists like Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Bob Hope started their career with theatrical vaudeville. In 1950-1960s they host their own radio programs. Each program began with humorous monologues, which “were topical, characterized by ad-libs and discussions about anything from the latest films to a missing birthday”35. The rest of the program included skits, dialogues and a musical part. As a result the initial merge between two genres – stand-up show and vaudeville – and absence of comedians, who specialized only in stand-up routines led to a confusion in terminology, that was complicated by the fact that stand-up was at the same time a theatrical and a mass media genre. The first researcher to give a strict and definition to stand-up comedy was Lawrence E. Mintz. In 1985 in his work “Stand-up Comedy as Social and Cultural Mediation” he noted that such definition was hard to give, because it seldom comes in a clear

34http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain

35http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand-up_comedy

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form – when a single person speaks in front of an audience and no props, costumes, music, etc. are added to the routine. Nevertheless, he added that “…our definition should stress relative directness of artist/audience communication and the proportional importance of comic behavior and comic dialogue versus the development of plot and situation” (ed. Walker 1998: 193).

The fusion of stage and television genres resulted in a paradox: the comedian can stand on a stage (stand-up originates from the phrasal verb “to stand up – to perform standing in front of an audience”, thus presupposing a certain posture), but he or she can even be hidden from the audience, for example behind props. In a later work Mintz underlines the necessity of a live performance, where there is a direct contact between the artist and the audience, so that the artist has to keep in mind the actual context within this very studio, when the jokes are “either directed at the comic persona or directed by the persona at others or at social issues and topic familiar to the audience” (ed. Charney 2005: 575).

Unlike Mintz, Robert Stebbins, who studied this genre in Canada (where it is quite as popular as in the USA) thinks that the key factor is not the format and means (from stage, on the TV or radio), but the verbal content, which as he says “is the essence of stand-up comedy” (Stebbins 1990: 5). This content is composed of different kinds of jokes, that form the canvas of the routine: “The comedian usually recites a fast-paced succession of humorous stories, short jokes (called bits), and one-liners, typically called a monologue, routine or act”36.

What will condition the pragmatics of the comic situation in the TV version of stand-up? When in the beginning of the XX c. stand-up left the big stages of concert halls, it found its niche in small night clubs, and the distance between the audience and the speaker became very short. That gave an effect of nearly intimate closeness between the participants of communication, though the society is still an opponent for the comedian, if he or she wants to attack social matters. Consequently the audience feels more relaxed to reply at some remarks, express a more natural and individual reaction to some jokes or even try to win over the

36 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand-up_comedy

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speaker by joking back. The comedian is obliged by this intimacy of communication to reply to the audience and participate in the joking game, which also means that the comedian should be good at improvising and feel the attitudes. This creates a tension of a game, making the performance more problematic. The television borrows this genre, losing agonistic tension. There is a channel, that separates the actual audience from the actual speaker, and the audience presented at the studio is only the virtual equivalent of the antagonist. The reaction of the viewers always bears a more individual character, but the comedian cannot work with it. Probably, this separation made the format “fall out of fashion”37. Now in bits and stretches it is present in other formats.

A sketch show is a genre, that also rose from vaudeville and variety. This format allows more opportunities – especially on TV, that offers props, costumes, special visual and sound effects. A sketch show does not limit the performer with a stage field. It allows the comedian an extended choice of objects and topics for joking and gives means to realize his or her creativity. The Wikipedia definition mentions such features of a sketch show as length – 5 to 10 minutes, number of performers – a group of comic actors, time format – live or recorded broadcast, preparation – rehearsed or improvised sketches”38.

The most renowned British sketch-show is “Monty Python”. With its emergence on TV the genre became popular in 1970-1980s. A characteristic feature of this show is the unity of style, topics and personages. The texts are based on narrative humor (a series of rehearsed sketches, united deictically and thematically). At the same time in America “contemporary sketch comedy is largely an outgrowth of the improvisational comedy scene, that flourished during the 1970s”39, which means that unlike the British tradition in the US the emphasis was put on live improvisation. This fact draws American sketch-show closer to the format of stand-up.

37http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand-up_comedy

38http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sketch_show

39http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sketch_show

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It is then very logical that “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) – a popular American sketch show – follows the American tradition of live broadcast, and, thus, “the show has had its ups and downs, but it has never lost its slightly desperate edge” (Gates 2000: 236). SNL is a weekly 90-minute TV-show. The first program was broadcasted on the 11th of October, 1975. For more than 30 years the broadcast has been scheduled for 22:30, from 8H studio in “30 Rockefeller Plaza”. Owing to the work of its producer Lorne Michaels and starring of such actors as John Belushi, Bill Murray, Danny de Vito, Christopher Walken, Steve Martin, SNL became unusually popular in the States and abroad. In Russia it was partially broadcasted in 2000s on the MTV channel.

SNL presents a mixture of genres: on the one hand, it is a variety show (or vaudeville), on the other, it is a sketch show. From vaudeville it borrows bright costumes and rich props. Each sketch is performed by one or more actors, and usually it is made in form of a parody to another genre of mass media or of the mass culture. The most common genres are ads, newsreels, political debates or addresses, TV series (fantastic, detective, documental, historical), musical performances, etc. There are even series of sketches with their own humorous characters that pass through several episodes (like “Samurai’s Night” or “The Blues Brothers”). The props, which can be various, are always stylized to create the atmosphere of parody. The props can even be undone during the performance, like in “The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise” (Season 1, Episode 22). The audience in the studio also has an important function: it creates the atmosphere of success by reaction of laughter at punch-lines and by clapping at entrances and exits.

A comparison of two genres – sketch and stand-up show – highlights a cardinal difference in the means of production of television humor. As J. Eshleman and K. Neuendorf write, “…there are at least two ways in which mass media content can participate in this process: 1) by providing the audience member vicarious participation in a humor interaction by showing or describing social joking behavior (e. g., the content of many television sitcoms) and 2) by building

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