Metaphorical nominations of national leaders of the past as a phenomenon of actual political communication

Bykova Elena Vladimirovna ORCID: 0000-0003-3842-8419 Professor, Department of Public Relations in Business, St. Petersburg State University 199034, Russia, Saint Petersburg, nab. University, 7-9, office 704 bykova2april@gmail.com Gavra Dmitrii Petrovich ORCID: 0000-0002-6536-9277 Doctor of Sociology Doctor of Sociological Sciences, Professor, St. Petersburg State University 199034, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Universitetskaya str., 7-9, office 704 bykova2april@gmail.com

Baikova Irina Aleksandrovna ORCID: 0009-0003-7538-7174 PhD in Politics Associate Professor, St. Petersburg State University 199034, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Universitetskaya str., 7-9, office 704 bykova2april@gmail.com

Introduction

In modern society, which is at the stage of datified digitalization ^{[1, 2]}, any event (incident) of great public importance acquires the potential for rapid mediatization and transformation into top phenomena of the political agenda ^{[3, 4]}. Accordingly, information events with the potential for great attention from influencers or significant social groups fall into the funnel of mediatization ^{[5, 6]}. Not only big media and opinion leaders are drawn into this funnel, but also ordinary netizens, digital citizens (netizens) who react to an event with mediatization potential, comment on it, make reposts and further unwind the spiral of event mediatization ^{[2, 7]}. The analysis of both the mediatization spiral itself and the nominations of the actors involved in the mediatized incident allows the researcher to obtain information not only about the characteristics of these actors themselves, but also, more importantly, about the characteristics of the audience that is included in the mediatization process. And more broadly, the situation and socio–political climate in a particular location or country.

Incidents involving celebrities, national leaders, statesmen, idols of show business, culture and sports can be rightfully attributed to the number of informational occasions with the potential for mediatization. A famous person is always the object of attention, personal attitude, and evaluation. And the notable incident with her is the object of mediatization. A special type of object of datified mediatization is the death of a leader, an outstanding personality who was in the past the object of universal attention. Especially if this leader has done a lot for his country, the sphere of a certain activity, or was very popular. Queen Elizabeth II, musical idol Michael Jackson, poet and actor Vladimir Vysotsky, Princess Diana, politician Henry Kissinger, US President John F. Kennedy ? the list goes on. The death and funeral of every notable leader has generated waves of mediatization. People discuss, comment, express their attitude to the event and personality. At the same time, it is very important and interesting to analyze the nominations and metaphors that netizens use to name/ designate the deceased. The way people nominate a person, what metaphors they use, provides important information about the nature of current public attitudes, as well as about the characteristics of society, about its unity and division, about structure, problematization, etc.

The object discussed in this article was Mikhail Gorbachev, the first and last President of the USSR, in many ways the architect of the modern contradictory world. His not very long, less than seven years in power generated tremendous changes both in the geopolitical structure of the world and in the destinies of tens of millions of people in the former USSR and abroad. Therefore, the death of Mikhail Gorbachev could not but cause a massive response and a kind of emotional storm.

The purpose of the study is to analyze the nominations and metaphors of Mikhail Gorbachev, which appeared in the media and social networks of the United States and Great Britain after the news of his death in August 2022.

The theoretical framework of the study

The theoretical foundations of the research are the theory of deep datified mediatization, philosophical concepts of the social perception of death in the society of the spectacle and philological theories of metaphor and labeling.

The concept of deep mediatization is currently one of the most authoritative and widely discussed in social media theory ^[5]. The primary definition of this phenomenon was given by N. Couldry and A. Hepp: "Deep mediatization is an advanced stage of the process during which all elements of our social world are inextricably linked with digital media and the underlying infrastructure" ^{[2, p.7]} In this formulation, it is important to postulate the universality of the connection of all elements of the social a world with a mediatized digital world that penetrates into all pores of both social and individual practices of an ordinary person. We see the methodological innovation of the formula of deep mediatization in the fact that, based on the figurative approach and the concept of mediatized worlds ^[5], it does not reduce the complexity of the ongoing changes to the pervasive influence of mass media and social network logic. On the contrary, it forces us to pay attention to the downside of the ongoing processes – the growing dependence of everyday practices – both professional and everyday – on communication devices and platforms closed on them.

Sociology and social anthropology of death have as their subject the relationship of the interaction of dying, death itself and grief with the elements of society and the perception by various social groups of the fact of inevitable death ^{[8, 9]}..She explores both micro and macro levels of interaction; from the relationship of death to individuals to its process in society ^[10]. The main thesis here is that death in human society is a product of social construction ^[11]. Accordingly, at the present stage, death can be considered a product of a datified mediatized social construction.

Social construction in the media discourse is formed through the stereotyping of mass consciousness through metaphorization, the assignment of labels when nominating certain events or subjects. Metaphor as a communicative packaging becomes a tool for launching mediatization when the representation becomes no less significant than the event itself. "In many cases, a metaphor allows you to convey information in a more convenient form for the addressee <...> With the help of a metaphor, the corresponding phenomenon is brought under the category, which allows you to better define the essence of this phenomenon and express your attitude towards it" ^{[12, p. 19]}. A metaphor forms a certain emotional state, since "the most fundamental cultural values are consistent with the metaphorical structure of the basic concepts of a given culture" ^{[13, p.404]}. Metaphors in political media discourse often have a high aggressive potential and become labels. A label is "a brief negative evaluative characteristic of a person or phenomenon that tends to persist and discredits this person (phenomenon) in the public consciousness. ... A label refers to those who do not share the speaker's position and, therefore, are her enemy" ^[14]", The label forms the habit of perceiving a certain political phenomenon or subject through a negative image that originally belongs to the label. Labels are perceived as mocking or derogatory nicknames, but over time they can acquire a new shade, become symbolic names (The Iron Lady, Uncle Joe, Gorby). An important property of the label is its mobilization function: separation according to the principle of friend/foe ^[15].

Material analysis

As an empirical material, the authors of the article selected the monitoring method in the system Semanticforce.ai English-language full-text online media or online versions of traditional media with the largest audiences. Among them, in particular, in the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, Reuters, etc. for the period 08.30.2022 ? 09.10.2022. The criterion for selecting the material is the mention of the fact of the death of the President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev in the title, lead or in the body of the text. Both media texts and related user comments under the publication were included in the solid sample. A total of 12320 text units were taken into account. By means of lexical and semantic analysis from texts selected by the system Semanticforce.ai The nominations of M. Gorbachev's personality were selected and their classification by lexical and thematic groups was carried out. It has been revealed that messages about the death of the former Soviet leader in news agencies and in classical media, as a rule, are focused on the semantics of fact and therefore do not contain evaluative connotations, unlike comments from users of social networks who expressed an assessment of the activities of the Soviet leader in the form of a metaphor with a positive or negative meaning without semitones (see about this: Gavra D. P., Bykova E. V. The past as a reflection of the political present: M. S. Gorbachev in posthumous comments of the Russian online audience // Scientific Notes of the Novgorod State University. 2023. 6 (51) 550-562).

Hypotheses

Hypothesis 1. The general vector of evaluation of M. Gorbachev's personality in English-language media and comments from users of English-language social networks has a positive orientation.

Hypothesis 2. One of the leading lines in assessing the personality of Mikhail Gorbachev is associated with fixing the inconsistency of this historical figure.

Hypothesis 3. The English-speaking media could not help but take advantage of this information occasion to comment on the current attitude of Russia and Russians towards the deceased leader of the past.

The results of the study generally confirmed all three hypotheses. First of all, as one would expect, the nominations of the first President of the USSR with a positive connotation are orders of magnitude more than the nominations with a negative connotation. The latter are generally absent in media texts, whereas less than 2% of them were identified in individual posts and comments on media texts. At the same time, the analysis of these comments suggests that their authors are former citizens of the USSR who experienced difficulties associated with its collapse. But for an unambiguous conclusion about this, the statistical parameters of the sample are not enough.

We have identified the main thematic groups of M. Gorbachev's positive nominations in descending order of frequency of representation in the sample. Let's give a description of each of them.

1. The thematic group is a historical figure, an outstanding/ great man who changed the world – overall: 42%.

Examples:

·        UN chief Antonio Guterres praised Gorbachev as “a one-of-a-kind statesman who changed the course of history” and “did more than any other individual to bring about the peaceful end of the Cold War”.

·        Gorbachev became one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, gathering global accolades for his role in reducing the threat of a nuclear apocalypse and in freeing millions of people in his country and beyond from Soviet oppression.

·        Mikhail Gorbachev, the man who changed the world.

·        tribute to Gorbachev as a historic figure.

·        Gorbachev as a man who left ” an enormous impact on the course of world history.”

·        Mikhail Gorbachev — a world leader who helped end the Cold War

·        World hails 'one-of-a-kind' ex-Soviet leader Gorbachev

2. Thematic group – fighter for peace, freedom, democracy, human rights: 24%.

Examples:

·        A true man of peace’: what the papers say about the death of Mikhail Gorbachev.

·        Mikhail Gorbachev, Last Soviet Leader who Opened Russia's Doors to the World.

·        The greatest democrat Russia ever had.

·        Give a chance, give freedom and ruin the country.

·        Gorbachev ‘the Peacemaker’

·        Gorbachev leaves behind legacy of mutual respect for humankind

3. Thematic group – "a person who deserves respect for specific achievements (unification of Germany, withdrawal of troops from Eastern Europe, disarmament, etc.)": 14%.

Examples:

·        Won the Nobel peace prize in 1990 for his efforts to end the arms race with the United States/

·        Gorbachev remembered fondly in Germany for enabling unity/

·        Liberated Eastern Europe.

4. The thematic group "an idealist, a man who believed in a better future, a leader who trusted the West" - 9%.

Examples:

·        His “romantic” view of the West.

·        Romantic.

·        His idealistic view of the West.

5. The thematic group "not like other Soviet leaders ? just a good man, a husband, a man who loved and protected his wife": 7%.

Examples:

·        Uniquely among Soviet leaders, Gorbachev made no secret of his warm and supportive relationship with his wife Raisa.

·        Gorbachev’s marriage, like his politics, broke the mold.

·        From Pizza Hut to the free press: Gorbachev's years after power.

Hypothesis 2 has also been confirmed: in second place in frequency after various kinds of positive connotations is the assessment of Mikhail Gorbachev as a controversial personality.

Examples:

·        The Good, The Bad And The Gray.

·        A hero or a pariah? How Gorbachev's legacy continues to divide Russia & the West

·        This was Gorbachev’s paradox: loved and loathed for a process that he set in motion

·        Expats from Soviet Union honor and criticize the end of Mikhail Gorbachev.

·        Former Ukraine President says nation is ‘ambivalent’ about death of pro-invasion Gorbachev

The third hypothesis was also confirmed as a result of processing empirical material. The English-language media paid a lot of attention to the Russian reaction to the death of the first President of the USSR. At the same time, the emphasis is on the fact that both the Russian government and Russian public opinion assess Mikhail Gorbachev as an ambivalent, contradictory figure. And in this context, the difference between the Western, broadly positive perception of this politician and the contradictory, but rather negative, attitude towards her in Russia is implicitly or explicitly emphasized.

Examples:

·        Kremlin offers mixed view of Gorbachev’s historic role

·        The Kremlin’s ambivalence was reflected in the uncertainty about funeral arrangements

·        Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described Gorbachev as an “extraordinary” statesman who will “always remain in the country’s history”

·        Russians divided over Gorbachev legacy

·        Russians’ bitterness over the Soviet collapse also manifested itself in their feelings – in many cases ambivalence or outright disgust -- about Gorbachev himself.

·        At home, Gorbachev remained a controversial figure and had a difficult relationship with Putin.

·        The ambiguities in how Gorbachev viewed Russia’s course in the world today are mirrored by ambiguity within Russia itself over how to regard the Soviet era that Gorbachev did so much to bring to a close.

Separately, it should be noted a fairly significant array of media texts that convince the English-speaking reader that in modern Russia Mikhail Gorbachev and his legacy are treated rather negatively and even with hatred

Examples:

·        but was “widely hated” by Russians who resented their loss of superpower status and a collapse in living standards.

·        but Russian media reported that Gorbachev won’t be given that honor.

·        but described his reforms as poorly planned and held him responsible for failing to safeguard the country’s interests in dialogue with the West.

·        Disdained by Putin, Gorbachev walked a tightrope to defend his legacy

Conclusions

Here are the main results of an empirical study.

- English-speaking online media assess the personality of Mikhail Gorbachev in a generally positive way: one of a kind, democrat, peacemaker, etc.

- The thematic group of lexemes with the meaning of paradoxicity and inconsistency in English-language media is one of the most representative in the analyzed media discourse.

- The paradoxical nature of personality assessment is linked to the counter-predictive assessment of Mikhail Gorbachev's activities during his presidency in European and Russian politics;

- Even semantic fields similar in subject matter in the assessment of Mikhail Gorbachev's activities acquire different evaluativeness in Russian and European discourse, which is a positive assessment for European media, and in Russian discourse can be assessed as weakness and short-sightedness.

Thus, we see how the death of a politician of the distant, almost 35-year-old past in a society experiencing deep, datified mediatization gave rise to a mediatization spiral that turned this event into a phenomenon of topical political communication and allowed many political actors to solve current and strategic political tasks.