December 4. Opening session 5 pm, room 233
Keynote speaker
Andrew Wiget. ‘Make Love Not War'”: Imagining and Building Peace in American Culture
Professor Emeritus, New Mexico State University, Albuquerque, USA
Adjunct Professor, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
Section 1. Journalism
Coordinator: Professor Irina Arkhangelskaya (Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia aib@sandy.ru)
- Bouchev Alexander
Tver State University, Russia
American Mass Media on Interreligious Communication across the Globe
The report illustrates the global media discourse on religious issues after event in Paris in the early 2015. Of interest is the approach of critical discourse analysis which is connected with interpretation of stereotyped and axiological elements in the discourse under scrutiny. The author discusses the problem of interreligious communication in the multicultural society. The analyzed example considers characteristics of global mass media political discourse describing Egyptian politics in 2013. Special attention is paid to the need of elaborating cognitive techniques of comprehension of global mass media discourse, and the peculiarities of political discourse shedding light upon nominations and assessments are being analyzed. The author shows stereotyped expressions, axiological connotations of terms and as generic features of political discourse. The paradigm approaches to discourse interpretation in politics are also studied. Of interest are the conclusions about the rhetoric and linguistics characteristics of analyzed discourse. The report suggests changes in the sphere of cultural education.
2. Nikolai Zykov
Journalism Department
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
Adaptation of immigrants into American society in the covering of the Voice of America
One of the main tasks of the international broadcaster Voice of America is to inform the foreign audience about the social processes in the United States. Interethnic conflicts recently caused serious tensions in society. They were covered openly and frankly. But in in other areas, such as the adaption of immigrants, including the Russian-speaking, things were peaceful. There has been interesting trend.
3. Zagvozdkina Ekaterina
Journalism Department
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
The Times They Are A’Changing:
Collision of values in American society on the representation of
The Beat Generation in the US mainstream media of the 1950s – 1960s
In the 1960s the American society underwent serious changes and became more liberal in its morals and values. The aim is to examine those changes through the representation of the Beat Generation subculture in the media: what Time and Life magazines wrote on the beats, including the most famous of them: poet Allen Ginsberg, writers Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, at the end of the 50s, when the movement became famous (after the release of Kerouac’s On the Road in 1957 and the birth of the term «beatnik». We have chosen Time and Life as our empirical basis as in that period they had the largest and widest audience in the USA. That is why, we suppose, these magazines expressed the opinion of the average American reader – therefore through the changes in Time and Life we can trace not only changes in journalists’ opinions, but in America itself throughout the decade. Texts are analyzed both directly through the epithets and comparisons, and via context, stories concerning them and attitude towards their works.
4. Ksenia Omelchenko
Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia
American Propaganda During the War in Iraq
During military conflicts media becomes a traditional way to implement the foreign policy of any state. This announcement leads to the term «propaganda», and includes spread of views, news, arguments, facts, and ‘fakes’ to form public opinion or idea.
We reviewed the techniques of American propaganda during the war in Iraq in the early years of the war.
During the first week of the war, American networks and British BBC or Canadian CBS showed two different wars. The United States news ignored the Arab victims, anti-war and anti-American protests, the discontent of citizens and the negative aspects of the war, while these topics were covered in Canada and the UK, and in the Arab countries the conflict was broadcast as the invasion in Iraq and the coup attempt.
In 2003, the brutality of the Iraqi people against the Pentagon was shown in the documentary drama “Saving Private Lynch” on NBS with the main character – Jessica Lynch – was tortured as one of the first prisoners of the war.
Direct propaganda has been broadcast on the television station «Al-Hurra», «Radio Sawa» in the magazine «Hai», which were created in 2004 by producer of «Voice of America» in opposition to «Al Jazeera».
The role of mass media in boosting as well as solving the conflict is under consideration.
5. Tarasevich Sophia
Publishing House «Kommersant», Moscow, Russia
Conciliatory Rhetoric: Hide-and-seek or Search for a Compromise?
Nowadays attention of American and Russian politicians is attracted to three main world conflicts: Syria, Ukraine and Iran. Talking about the military operation against ISIS in Syria, the process of arrangement in Ukraine and searching for a compromise on Iranian nuclear program, they often use conciliatory rhetoric and encourage solving contradictions peacefully. We are interested in analysis of not just contemporary American and Russian politicians’ rhetoric, but also in the forms of communication with public they use. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs started to use actively the form of briefing, previously commonly used by the US State Department. Politicians, ambassadors, and diplomats in Moscow and Washington also do not forget about a powerful tool for promulgating their rhetoric in public – social networks, .Twitter being one of them. Conciliatory mood often recedes when politicians give a speech in front of the inner audience as candidates during election debates. The presentation is based on empirical data collected during April-October 2015: news messages from news agencies Reuters, AP, AFP, TASS, RIA Novosti, Interfax and other media. It also includes the results of social media monitoring (Facebook and Twitter) and official data of Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the US State Department.