Vol. 6, Issue 2, Part A (2024)

This paper focuses on the analysis of political language as the means of psychological control in mass media coverage of the international conflicts. The study seeks to investigate the ways in which politicians and the media manipulate language so as to shift public opinion and alter feelings and emotions. The focus is on the identification of certain linguistic strategies including amplification, incitement and emotional polarization to elicit fear or hope among the masses. The study also captures psychological aspect of language in reconstructing public perception of events and influencing the political discourse by the narratives that are fed to the public through media.
The research is based on the analysis of the international crises, including the wars and acute political conflicts, as for the role of language and its usage in achieving the psychological objectives. In these crises, the media use binary or war discourse that reflects the interests of the respective countries and has a direct impact on the audience’s perception and perception of the enemy or ally. Analysis of media discourse to a certain extent allows concluding that language is not just an instrument of communication but also a method of manipulation and control over mass consciousness.
The findings indicate that political language can be employed with a high degree of success in the pursuit of one or more specific psychological objectives: raising or lowering levels of tension; fostering or eroding trust relationships; and strengthening or weakening feelings of identity or enmity. Lastly, the study also recommends that there is a need to understand the psychological effect of language in political media during crises.