Lingua-cultural strata of modern American social media: Precedent phenomena in anti-Trump discourse

Abstract

Modern media discourse abounds in linguistic units with cultural value including precedent phenomena that fulfil different functions and are employed to achieve particular political goals. Multi-modal (creolized) media texts making use of precedent phenomena as efficient tools of encoding meaning are of special interest. The goal of the study is to identify the role of the precedent phenomena of the English lingua-culture in the production and organization of discourse in the politically engaged network segment of modern American media. The focus is on anti-Trump discourse. The material spans the period from June, 2019 to November, 2020 and comprises 250 sampled examples, mostly multi-modal texts, including Facebook and Twitter posts by anti-Trump communities, political cartoons and memes, and random instances of Internet communication. The research methods applied in this study were critical discourse analysis and multi-modal critical analysis complemented by lingua-cultural method, stylistic analysis, and sampling. The author systematizes the repertoire of the precedent phenomena of the “anti-Trump discourse”, singles out their classes and types, identifies the spheres-sources of the precedent phenomena, and describes their cognitive and discursive functions, as well as the conditions and mechanisms for the actualization of the precedent phenomena in media discourse (thematic repertoire, extralinguistic and linguistic discursive strategies). The study argues that precedent phenomena affect the production and organization of discourse and possess significant potential for influencing mass audiences and molding public opinion. The study concludes that the use of precedent phenomena was an effective vehicle of digital activism and helped to achieve the political goals of American opposition organizations in the 2019-2020 pre-election period.