A Possible Way to Measure Manipulative Capacity of Polarized Political Media Texts

Section: Media Language

Within the realm of modern communication studies, there are numerous works on the tools journalists use to manipulate public consciousness. Far less frequently, attempts are made to create mechanisms to quantitatively express the manipulative capacity of media texts. One of the possible ways to measure the manipulative “charge” of polarized political messages (both online and in print) is substantiated in this article. The author’s approach is based on fifteen parameters, each of which is subject to quantitative measurement in relation to a particular media text. These parameters are (but not limited to): the presence of evaluative statements within headlines and subheadings, balance (i.e. the amount of page space devoted to an alternative view), information sources, the number of emotion-laden words and precedent names, the extent to which the main arguments are well-founded. The article also contains the results of the beta-testing of this evaluation system conducted on the basis of ten online stories from two American and three Russian newspapers. The key methodological limitations of this approach are formulated and further ways to optimize it are outlined.

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