The Language of Fear: Communicating Threat in Public Discourse

98 Pages·2017·3.083 MB·

by  Piotr Cap (auth.)

The Language of Fear
PiotrCap
The Language
of Fear
Communicating Threat in Public Discourse
PiotrCap
DepartmentofPragmatics
UniversityofŁódź
Łódź,Poland
ISBN978-1-137-59729-8 ISBN978-1-137-59731-1(eBook)
DOI10.1057/978-1-137-59731-1
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016952434
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C
ONTENTS
1 Cognitive, SocialandPsychological Issues ofPublic
DiscourseandThreat Communication 1
2 Proximization:A Threat-BasedModel ofPolicy
Legitimization 15
3 HealthDiscourse: The WaronCancer andBeyond 29
4 EnvironmentalDiscourse: Climate Change 41
5 TechnologicalDiscourse: Threats inthe Cyberspace 53
6 ImmigrationandAnti-migration Discourses: The Early
Rhetoricof Brexit 67
7 Conclusion 81
Bibliography 83
Index 89
v
L F
IST OF IGURES
Fig.1.1 Discoursespace(DS) 5
Fig.1.2 Dimensionsofdeixis 6
Fig.1.3 Eventslocatedonspatial,temporalandmodalaxes 7
Fig.2.1 Proximizationindiscoursespace(DS) 18
Fig.5.1 Proximizationincyber-terroristdiscourse 63
vii
L T
IST OF ABLES
Table2.1 Spatialproximizationframeworkanditskey
lexico-grammaticalitems 19
Table4.1 Spatialproximizationframeworkanditskey
lexico-grammaticalitems(inanti-terroristdiscourse,
afterTable2.1) 45
ix
I
NTRODUCTION
Thisbookhastwoaims:empiricalandtheoretical.Theempiricalaimisto
studypatternsofthreatconstructionandfeargenerationincontemporary
public communication, including state political discourse as well as non-
governmental, media and institutional discourse on issues of public con-
cern, such as health, environment and technology. We argue that most
public communication is inherently coercive, involving a variety of dis-
cursive strategies by which the top actors (political, organizational and
businessleaders)legitimizetheirgoals,actionsandpolicies.Weclaimthat
manufacturingfearandsocialanxietyisacentralfeatureofmodernpublic
discourse, serving to justify policies which include the policy-makers and
their audiences in a joint course of action aimed to prevent or neutralize
thethreat.Thebookdocumentstheseclaimsinexamplesfromanumber
of American as well as European discourses, including presidential
speeches, journalistic opinions and organizational reports. The approach
is essentially critical discourse analytic, combining insights from prag-
matics, cognitive linguistics, text linguistics and several non-linguistic
theories within social and political sciences. In particular, the book
employs the apparatus of Proximization Theory (PT). PT is a recent
model of crisis construction and threat generation which has been devel-
oped to account for the ways in which the discursive construction of
closeness and remoteness can be manipulated in the public sphere and
boundupwithfear,securityandconflict.Originallydesignedtodealwith
instances of state political communication (presidential addresses, parlia-
mentarydebates),PTisusedinthebooktocoveranextendedspectrumof
public discourses, from immigration debates to anti-tobacco campaigns.
xi
xii INTRODUCTION
Proving the suitability of PT to explore such a broad and eclectic collec-
tionof discourses constitutes thesecond, theoreticalaim of thebook.
The book comprises 6 chapters, followed by a brief Conclusion.
Chapter 1 contains a discussion on the nature of fear and threat and how
they affect public audiences, as well as motivate them to act. It introduces
therelevanttheoreticalconcepts,suchascoercion,legitimizationanddele-
gitimization.Chapter2describesthemaintenetsofPTanditsapplicability
to work with the above concepts to account for acts of coercion in ‘state
political’ and,potentially, ‘public’ discourse. Chapters 3–6 are case studies
in which PT is used to analyse four different public discourses: health,
environment, technology and immigration. The Conclusion reflects on
thefearandthreatgenerationpatternsinthesediscoursesandhowsuccess-
fulPThasbeeninelucidatingthem.
CHAPTER1
Cognitive, Social and Psychological Issues
of Public Discourse and Threat
Communication
Abstract Thisopeningchaptercontainsaninterdisciplinarydiscussionon
the nature of threat and fear and how they affect the audience in public
discourse. It introduces relevant theoretical concepts, such as coercion,
legitimization and delegitimization. It demonstrates that threatening
visionsandanticipationsappealtothepublicaslongastheyareconsidered
personally consequential. This socio-psychological premise is taken as a
prerequisiteforthe developmentof ProximizationTheory.
Keywords Threat communication (cid:1) Coercion (cid:1) Legitimization (cid:1)
Delegitimization(cid:1) Credibility
What is public discourse? Depending on the discipline one is construct-
ingadefinitionfromwhatthistermconstitutesmaydiffer.Inthisbook,
the term ‘public discourse’ is used to refer to communicated issues of
public cultureand publicconcern that affect individuals and groupsina
givencivilization.Publicdiscourseisunderstood,afterJürgenHabermas
(1981), as a collection of voices on top issues of politics, economy, law,
education,andotherareasofpublicinterestandparticipation.Sinceina
nation-state some of these voices are naturally more powerful than
others, a bulk of public discourse is produced – or at least initiated – by
politicalleaders,aswellasinstitutionalbodiesregulatingsocialpractices
©TheAuthor(s)2017 1
P.Cap,TheLanguageofFear,DOI10.1057/978-1-137-59731-1_1