Linguistic means of forming the image of the head of a foreign state in the American media (based on the material of The New York Times)

Korotkevich Dar'ya Olegovna ORCID: 0009-0001-2453-4934 Assistant Lecturer, Department of English Philology, Institute of Foreign Languages, Moscow City Pedagogical University 105064, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, lane Small State-owned, 5B korotkevichdo@mgpu.ru

Introduction

            The image of a political leader in print media plays a key role in shaping public opinion and influences the political discourse of the media, which are one of the most important tools for creating and transforming the image of a political leader in a given period of time ^{[4, p.195]}. The formation of the media image of a political leader depends on many factors, ranging from the media strategy of the politician himself, the political orientation of journalists and editors, and ending with a conscious choice of the language units used. The media image influences public opinion, stereotypes, emotional reactions and political decisions, and the researchers note the presence of "a bias towards negativity, in which negative news affects the popularity of politicians, while positive news has no effect" ('a negativity bias in which negative news affects the popularity of politicians, where positive news does not make a difference’) ^[12]. Last but not least, the media image influences elections, determining the attractiveness and credibility of potential political candidates.

            A full-fledged study of the linguistic means of forming the media image of a political leader is impossible without understanding the socio-political context of the period of his rule. Elected in 2018 with a promise to liberalize his country's economy, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro began to lose popularity from the first months of his rule, and by the end of his presidential term, 45% of respondents noted that they "do not approve of how Jair Bolsonaro copes with his job as president" ('disapprove of the way Jair Bolsonaro is handling his job as president’) (Statista. The official website [Electronic resource]. URL: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1027308/approval-brazilian-president-bolsonaro/). With his beliefs and statements that belong to the right-wing populist spectrum, Bolsonaro has attracted both approval and criticism in Brazil. During his election campaign, Jair Bolsonaro promised to make radical changes in Brazilian politics and liberalize the economy, implement tough anti-corruption measures and reduce crime, but his presidency was widely criticized for "policies contrary to human rights in various areas, including indigenous peoples' rights, women's rights, the rights of persons with disabilities and freedom of expression". (‘policies contrary to human rights in various areas, including indigenous peoples' rights, women's rights, the rights of those with disabilities and freedom of expression') (Reuters. The official website [Electronic resource]. URL: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/human-rights-watch-says-bolsonaro-threat-democracy-brazil-report-2022-01-13/?rpc=401&). During the first two years of Bolsonaro's rule, Brazil faced problems such as extensive wildfires, the threat of destruction of the Amazon rain forest, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, which negatively affected the Brazilian economy and health system. The measures expected but not taken by President Bolsonaro to overcome these difficulties have severely affected not only his popularity among the population, but also his international image in the media.

            The image of state leaders in the media became the subject of interest to modern researchers: L. G. Vinnichenko and E. I. Petrova studied the media representation of the image of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz ^[3], E. V. Kablukov studied the practices of constructing the image of Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Putin in the discourse of Soviet and Russian media ^[9], the subject of the study was the reflection of the activities of Russian political leaders and China in the national media ^[10]. The media image of a political leader is an integral part of modern politics and has a significant impact on the political situation in the country. Latin American countries have certain specifics of political systems: the long history of populist leaders is closely linked to the significant influence of the media on presidential elections, and the image of the Brazilian president in newspapers has an impact on public opinion and the perception of his political activities by the newspaper readership.

            The period of President Bolsonaro's rule and his political figure are reflected in a number of modern linguistic studies: authoritarian populism as a performance method is analyzed ^[8], populism in the communicative strategy of Jair Bolsonaro ^[11], the role of social networks and memes as tools of political struggle of this period ^[13]. The statements of the president were mainly the subject of research, and the linguistic image of Jair Bolsonaro created by the American media has not been studied to a significant extent.

Research material and methodology

            Within the framework of this study, using a cognitive approach, the initial stage of analysis was performed — the study of the linguistic representation of a foreign state in the media ^{[6, p. 57]}. The researchers note that "the cognitive component is a meaningful filling of identity, knowledge and representation," and the application of this approach allows us to reveal the relationship between the lexical units used by the authors of the articles and the political ideology of the publication ^{[2, p.34]}. Moreover, at the present stage of the development of linguistics, language is interpreted as "a universal cognitive mechanism, which implies the study of ways to objectify knowledge about the world around a person, ideas about his place in this world and relationships with him" ^{[7, C.5]}. In this work, we rely on the concept of "cognitive matrix" proposed by N. N. Boldyrev, where the core of the matrix is the object of thinking — Brazil, and its periphery is composed of cognitive contexts, with the help of which the "meanings of linguistic units and phenomena" are revealed ^{[1, p. 64]}. The research material was the texts of The New York Times newspaper for 2019, dedicated to Brazil. Their number amounted to 176 articles with a total volume of 17,8835 words. The corpus analysis of the texts was performed using the Wmatrix computer program, with the help of which, based on the frequency of use and semantic connection of lexical units, the main lexical and semantic fields (LSF) formed around the core of the cognitive matrix Brazil were identified ^{[6, C. 57]}. The structure of the Personal Names LSP was analyzed as one of the most extensive in the composition of the studied cognitive matrix, its core was established — the lexical unit (LE) Bolsonaro. Further, using concordance analysis, the contexts of the linguistic implementation of the Personal Names LSP core were investigated, and the main typical arguments implemented on the pages of The New York Times in relation to the former president of Brazil were identified. Thus, the problem solved in this article is the study of the interrelationships between the components of the Personal Names LSP as a model of representation of knowledge about the leader of a foreign state, as well as the analysis of the main contextual implementations of the core of this LSP in order to identify the linguistic means of forming the image of the leader of a foreign state.

The lexical and semantic field of Personal Names as a model for representing knowledge about the leader of a foreign state

            The results of a computer analysis of the texts of articles by The New York Times in 2019, when Jair Bolsonaro had just assumed the post of president of Brazil, revealed 167 LSPs formed around the core of the Brazil matrix [Ibid.]. Based on them, the program identified 21 lexical and semantic fields with the highest frequency of their constituent lexical units, the most voluminous of which was the Personal Names LSP, numbering 793 lexemes with a total frequency of 2,634 units. This lexical and semantic field is formed by units semantically related to the names of people, mainly politicians: their number is 420 units, or 52% of the total number of synonyms. Thus, the Personal Names LSP in The New York Times in 2019 reflects knowledge about people who took direct or indirect part in various events in Brazilian life, mainly political events. Based on the frequency of use, the core of this LSP was identified — the Bolsonaro unit, semantically referring to the name of President Jair Bolsonaro. The frequency of its use amounted to a total of 496 cases, which is 19% of all lexical units (LE) that make up this LSP.

            Further, the analysis of the composition of Personal Names LSP based on the principle of frequency allowed us to identify the units forming the nearest and far periphery. It was found that the nearest periphery consists of the following high-frequency units found in the texts of four or more articles on Brazil: Trump (199), Macron (99), Silva (59), Maduro (50), Moro (47), Temer (44). Tokens of this level are divided into two groups based on their integral feature:

a) Personal names of foreign political figures (Trump, Macron, Maduro). The mention of tokens with the integral sign "foreign politician" forms knowledge about Brazil's international contacts. These names can be divided into 2 categories based on their referent: "politicians criticizing Bolsonara" (Macron, Maduro) and "politicians supporting Bolsonara" (Trump). The contextual correlation of LE Bolsonaro with the names of politicians who do not support the actions of J. Bolsonaro forms the idea of the president as a politician who is criticized by the world community. It is important to note that the only LE related to the supporter of J. Bolsonaro — Trump — whose linguistic representation in The New York Times is not positive (Sumarokova, 2020).

b) Personal names of Brazilian political figures (Silva, Moro, Temer). The mention of lexemes with the integral sign "Brazilian politician" allows you to form a judgment about the views and trends inherent in the Brazilian political arena. These names can also be divided into 2 categories: "politicians who criticize/are opponents of Bolsonaro" (Silva, Temer) and "politicians who support Bolsonara" (Moro). As in the previous case, this group is dominated by units belonging to politicians who do not support J. Bolsonaro. Thus, the analysis of the composition of the immediate periphery of the Personal Names LSP revealed the predominance of lexical units related to political figures who do not support President Bolsonara. The contextual correlation of LE Bolsonaro with the names of politicians who do not support his actions contributes to the formation of the image of the president as a politician who is significantly criticized.

            The far periphery is formed by 775 lexemes, the frequency of use of which is less than 10 cases in the text under study, occurring in less than three articles. The analysis of the names that make up the far periphery of the Personal Names LSP made it possible to identify the presence of an "entry" connection based on the commonality of these. The tokens of this field are grouped into several families (Fig. 1/ Fig.1):

a) Personal names of Brazilian politicians (227 lexemes, or 28.63% of all lexemes that make up Personal Names) — In the studied material, these names are divided into two main categories: "politicians supporting Bolsonara" and "politicians criticizing Bolsonara", where the second category is more quantitatively expressed (60% of personal names names from all those belonging to this group). The contextual correlation of the lexemes of this group with LE Bolsonaro forms the idea of the president as a political leader, who is significantly criticized by political opponents;

b) Personal names of foreign politicians (193 lexemes — 24.34%) — In the structure of this group, there is a pattern highlighted in group a — most of the names refer to foreign figures who do not support the actions of J. Bolsonaro. The contextual connection with LE Bolsonaro, as well as the high frequency of names of this type, form the idea of the president as occupying an important place in the world political arena, but widely criticized;

c) Personal names of public activists in Brazil (95 tokens — 11.98%) — by analogy with previous groups, in this case, the names of activists criticizing the president prevail on the pages of The New York Times. The contextual connection of the core of the studied LSP — the Bolsonaro lexeme — with this group forms the image of Jair Bolsonaro as a politician who finds rather a negative response from the active part of the civilian population

d) Personal names of Brazilian scientists (78 lexemes — 9.84%) — these names were found in the texts of articles mainly from the position of specialists who gave an assessment/ comment on the events that took place, mainly fires in the Amazon jungle. The contextual connection with LE Bolsonaro forms the image of a politician whose actions are criticized by the academic community.

e) Personal names of representatives of various professions (75 tokens - 9.46%);

f) Personal names of Brazilian businessmen (38 tokens — 4.79%);

g) Personal names of Brazilian citizens who witnessed any events (17 tokens - 2.14%)

h) Personal names of foreign pop and film stars (13 tokens — 1.64%);

i) Personal names of representatives of the clergy of Brazil (10 lexemes — 1.26%);

j) Personal names of victims of crimes/natural disasters (9 tokens — 1.13%);

k) Personal names of criminals/persons under suspicion (7 tokens — 0.88%);

l) Personal names of popular Brazilian bloggers (7 tokens — 0.88%)

m) Personal names of foreign businessmen (6 tokens — 0.76%);

            An analysis of the most numerous groups of lexical units identified as part of the far periphery of the Personal Names LSP suggests a rather negative political bias of The New York Times in constructing the image of the president: of the 775 LE forming the far periphery, 420 (54.19%) are the names of Brazilian and foreign politicians, while the most numerous groups Most of the names contextually associated with LE Bolsonaro refer to persons who do not support the policy of J. Bolsonaro.

            In addition to the lexical units that make up the immediate and far periphery of the Personal Names LSP, we have identified 11 lexemes with a relatively high level of frequency of use (from 10 to 50 cases of use), however, their occurrence in articles is expressed by low indicators and is limited by the materials of 1-2 articles: Ibrahim (30), Fl?vio Bolsonaro (22), Veiga (22), Greenwald (21), Miranda (17), Eduardo Bolsonaro (16), Mr. Morales (15), Ms. Franco (14), Guaid? (13), Wyllys (11), DiCaprio (10). In this case, as well as in the composition of the far periphery of the analyzed LSP, there is a similar grouping of lexical units by integral families:

a) Personal names of Brazilian politicians (Fl?vio Bolsonaro, Miranda, Eduardo Bolsonaro) — in this group, 2 out of 3 LE belong to Bolsonaro's sons, their names are mentioned in connection with their family's suspicions of bribery. The contextual connection with LE Bolsonaro forms the image of a politician related to corruption;

b) Personal names of foreign politicians (Morales, Guaid ?) — these names refer to Venezuelan politicians and appear in connection with descriptions of the 2019 political crisis in this country. There is no direct contextual connection with LE Bolsonaro, however, in this context, Brazilian politics is criticized, J. Bolsonaro is implicated, thereby forming the image of a politician who receives disapproval from the heads of neighboring states;

c) Personal names of criminals/persons under suspicion (Ibrahim, Veiga) — there is no direct contextual connection with LE Bolsonaro in this group, however, the mention of Brazil in connection with crime and drug trafficking issues leaves a negative imprint on the image of the president of this country, the name of the president is not mentioned;

d) Personal names of victims of crime/natural disasters (Ms.Franco) — this unit refers to the name of a woman killed by drug traffickers. As in the previous group, there is no direct contextual connection with LE Bolsonaro, but the mention of Brazil in connection with crime and drug trafficking issues leaves a negative imprint on the image of the president of this country;

e) Personal names of Brazilian social activists (Greenwald, Wyllys) — these names refer to the fighters for minority rights, who widely criticized J. Bolsonara for lack of tolerance, and also expressed fears for their lives. The contextual connection with LE Bolsonaro forms the image of a politician who is intolerant of minorities and dangerous to them;

f) Personal names of foreign pop and film stars (DiCaprio) — the name of Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio is found in articles about fires in the Amazon jungle in connection with his large donation to combat the elements. Contextual communication with LE Bolsonaro is carried out in cases telling about the actor's accusation of financing forest fires by President Bolsonaro. The image of a populist politician capable of making loud but groundless statements is being formed.

            The analysis of the highlighted "border zone" showed that the names that make up this zone in the Personal Names LSP refer mainly to individuals who do not support the policy of J. Bolsonaro. The presence of a contextual connection of LE Bolsonaro in groups a, e, f (6 lexemes) directly related to politics contributes to the construction of a negative image of the president.

            Thus, the trend towards political bias can be traced at all levels of Personal Names LSP. The lexical units that make up the core of this LSP, its immediate and far periphery, as well as the "transitional" zone between them, relate mainly to the cognitive context of politics, since they have political figures from Brazil and foreign countries as their referents. In the structure of the core of this LSP, based on the frequency of use and the level of occurrence in the texts of articles, we identified 1 LE (Bolsonaro), thus 100% of the composition of the core of the Personal Names LSP belongs to the cognitive context of the politician. The nearest periphery consists of 6 lexical units, all of them relate to political figures, that is, 100% of the composition of the near periphery of the Personal Names LSP also refers to the cognitive context of a politician. The analysis of the "transition zone" highlighted by us showed that seven of the eleven lexical units that make up it relate to the personality of politicians and politically active public activists, which is equal to 63.64% of the total number of LE "transition zone". Among the tokens that make up the far zone of the studied LSP, the majority of units (54.19%) belong to the figures of politicians. The formation of a negative image of a politician within the framework of Personal Names is due to the prevailing contextual links with units related to persons who do not support J. Bolsonaro. The extensive connection of lexical units of Personal Names with the cognitive context of a politician, as well as the construction of a negative image of J. Bolsonaro, can largely be explained by the political orientation of the analyzed publication. The New York Times, one of the most popular and influential American media outlets, is a large-format publication with a "left-wing" (democratic) bias and is unlikely to express support for center-right politician Jair Bolsonar.

Concordance of the core of the LSP Personal Names as a tool for researching the linguistic image of the leader of a foreign state in the media

            The analysis of the contextual implementation of the Personal Names core of the Bolsonaro lexical unit by examining its concordance made it possible to identify the main typical arguments, "semantically and pragmatically representing a descriptive construction of identity, <...> linguistic construction of the political present and future" ^{[5, C. 1518]}. Based on the number of relevant contexts, three leading groups of typical arguments were identified, within which LE Bolsonaro gets an implementation :

1) "Bolsonaro advocates the disappearance of forests." Based on the study of the contextual connections of LE Bolsonaro, 127 cases of linguistic implementation of this argument were identified, which makes it possible to consider it dominant in the articles of The New York Times for 2019 addressed to J. Bolsonaro. All of them are related to the extensive fires in the Amazon jungle in 2019 and the actions of J. Bolsonaro in relation to them:

- ‘Many environmentalists directly blame Mr. Bolsonaro for the increase in deforestation, citing his firing of key officials at the main environmental regulator, IBAMA, and his refusal to endorse anti-logging operations. The analysis of the concordance of LE Bolsonaro in this example allows us to identify lexical units that emphasize the actions of J. Bolsonaro, which are not aimed at improving the situation with raging forest fires, as well as accusations by environmentalists of reducing forests. The lexemes blame, firing, refusal, used in direct combination with the Bolsonaro unit or the pronoun him/his, referring to the figure of a politician and lexemes related to environmental issues (environmentalists, key officials at the main environmental regulator, to endorse anti-logging operations) imply the idea that J. Bolsonaro is responsible for the reduction of Amazon forests and his actions are not aimed at further improving the situation.

- ‘It soon became clear that Brazil stood to lose heavily if Mr. Bolsonaro did not take action to protect the forest: European leaders said they might walk away from a trade deal struck in June and calls to boycott Brazilian products were gaining traction on social media. Mr. Bolsonaro felt compelled to dispatch the military to put out blazes.’ — the phrases if ... did not take action, felt compelled used in combination with LE Bolsonaro emphasize the necessity of the measures taken by the president to extinguish raging forest fires. The analysis of the concordance of the lexemes Brazil, European leaders, also acting as agents in this context, identifies the units by which the idea is implied that the actions were taken by J. Bolsonaro only out of fear of losing economically advantageous partners: stay to lose mightily, they might walk away from a trade deal.

2) "Bolsonaro is an ultra—right populist." The study of the contextual connections of LE Bolsonaro revealed 34 cases of linguistic implementation of this argument:

- ‘Mr. Macron has emerged as one of the world leaders most critical of Mr. Bolsonaro, a far-right populist and climate change skeptic, who has been accused of encouraging deforestation. The analysis of the concordance of LE Bolsonaro allows us to identify the far—right populist lexeme, used in direct combination with the core of the Personal Names LSP and explicitly denoting the political views of J. Bolsonaro.In this case, there is an intersection with the previous argument "Bolsonaro advocates the disappearance of forests" through LE climate change skeptic, as well as the concordance of the pronoun who, referring to J. Bolsonaro — LE has been accused of encouraging deforestation.

- ‘During his campaign for the presidency, Mr. Bolsonaro, a right-wing populist, committed to making major changes to the Mais Medicos program, an initiative begun in 2013 when a leftist government was in power. Brazil paid millions of dollars a month to Cuba for the doctors, making them a vital export for the islands coffers. But most of the money went directly to Cubas Communist government, an arrangement Mr. Bolsonaro warned he would change. Our Cuban brothers will be freed, Mr. Bolsonaro said in an official campaign proposal presented to electoral authorities. Their families will be allowed to migrate to Brazil. And, if they pass the revalidation, they will begin to receivethe entire amount thatwas being robbed by the Cuban dictators! Two weeks after Mr. Bolsonaro won the presidency in October, Cuba ordered all its doctors out.’ — in this case, the analysis of the concordance of LE Bolsonaro again allows us to single out the unit a right-wing populist, explicating the data on Bolsonaro as a right-wing populist leader. The verbs of saying warned (he would change), said (they will be freed, will be allowed, will begin to receive) reinforce this argument, implying that these loud statements were false, which is a typical feature of populism. This idea is confirmed in the last sentence by the concordance of LE Cuba — ordered all its doctors out. This phrase implies the idea of the collapse of J. Bolsonaro's promises, since Cuba recalled its doctors from Brazil immediately after J. Bolsonaro took office as president, without giving him the opportunity to start implementing his promises.

3) "Bolsonaro does not support the rights of Brazil's indigenous peoples." The analysis of contextual connections by LE Bolsonaro revealed 13 cases of linguistic implementation of this argument.

- ‘…Mr. Rodrigues, who belongs to an opposition party, said Mr. Bolsonaro’s views on indigenous territories and the rights of native communities had put the descendants of Brazil’s originalinhabitantsinmortaldanger.’ — in this example of the contextual implementation of LE Bolsonaro, concordance analysis allows us to conclude that with the help of the lexemes had put <...> the original inhabitants in mortal danger, the reader is informed that Bolsonaro's policy contradicts the interests of the indigenous population of Brazil.

- ‘Since the nationalist former army captain took office in January, deforestation has increased dramatically across Brazil, including in indigenous territories. Mr. Bolsonaro has pledged to make it easier for industries to gain access to protected areas, arguing that native communities are in control of unreasonably vast areas that contain enormous wealth.’ — the analysis of the concordance of LE Bolsonaro in this example shows that with the help of units to make it easier for industries to gain access to protected areas, the idea of Bolsonaro's actions contrary to the interests of the indigenous population of Brazil is replicated. In this context, a reference is found to the typical argument "Bolsonaro advocates the disappearance of forests" by using the units deforestation has increased, as well as to the argument "Bolsonaro is an ultra—right populist" through the lexemes nationalist former army captain used to describe the figure of the president.

Conclusions

A study of the linguistic means forming the image of President Jair Bolsonaro in The New York Times newspaper, performed by analyzing the structure of the lexico-semantic field Personal Names, allowed us to establish that the image of this politician within the framework of the Personal Names LSP is formed through contextual connections of the core of this field — LE Bolsonaro — with the lexemes that make up the structure of this field, and also by forming typical arguments in which LE Bolsonaro gets a language implementation. The analysis of the structure of the studied LSP showed that at each of its levels there is a predominance of connection with the cognitive context of the politician, while most of the lexemes that make up the structure of the Personal Names LSP at each of its levels relate to persons who do not support the policies of Jair Bolsonaro. It was found that the grouping of lexical units according to the type of connection "occurrence" based on the type of activity of the referent is typical for both onyms of the far periphery and onyms of the transition zone. The analysis of the contextual implementation of LE Bolsonaro by examining its concordance allowed us to identify the leading typical arguments implemented around  LE Bolsonaro in the framework of the studied LSP: 1) "Bolsonaro advocates the disappearance of forests"; 2) "Bolsonaro is an ultra—right populist"; 3) "Bolsonaro does not support the rights of indigenous peoples of Brazil." The results of the study allow us to conclude that the contextual connections built between the core of the Personal Names LSP and the lexemes that make up its periphery and transition zone, as well as the negative nature of the typical arguments implemented, largely form a negative image of J. Bolsonaro in The New York Times.