Zheltukhina M.R.1, Sporova I.P.2
Zheltukhina M.R.
Pyatigorsk State University
e-mail: zzmr@mail.ru
Sporova I.P.
A.S. Griboyedov Moscow State University
e-mail: i.sporova@yandex.ru
The Manipulative Effect of Email Subject Lines in American Political Email Newsletters
Annotation. Modern information and communication technologies are rapidly shifting various forms of communication into the virtual media environment. Election campaigns in some countries are characterized by the use of new methods to attract the attention of voters, which in turn leads to the emergence of new hybrid genres of political media discourse. This article examines the email subject line as a structural component of a political email newsletter. The aim of the study is to examine the manipulative impact of email subject lines belonging to this new genre of political media discourse using methods such as discursive, contextual, linguopragmatic, systemic-linguistic, and interpretive analysis. The material for the study is 500 email subject lines from a corpus of political email newsletters intended for US residents during the 2016-2022 election campaigns. The obtained results allow us to conclude that email subject lines have significant potential for manipulating the recipient's consciousness, despite the lack of a direct correlation between the subject line of a political email newsletter and its content. Graphic (capitalization), lexical (eponymy, combination of LE of different styles, military metaphors) and syntactic techniques (appeals, imperative mood) contribute to the creation of a manipulative effect on the addressee.
Keywords: political media discourse, internet discourse, media genre, political email newsletter, letter subject, metaphor, influence, manipulation.
Zheltukhina MR Sporova IP.
MANIPULATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE EMAIL SUBJECT LINES IN THE AMERICAN POLITICAL DIRECT EMAIL
Abstract. Modern information and communication technologies are rapidly shifting various types of communication to virtual environments. Election campaigns in some countries are characterized by the use of new methods to attract voters' attention, which in turn leads to the emergence of new hybrid genres of political media discourse. This article examines the email subject line as a structural component of political direct email. The aim of the study is to study the manipulative influence of email subject lines related to the new genre of political media discourse, achieved by applying methods such as discursive, contextual, linguopragmatic, system-linguistic and interpretive analysis. The study is based on the analysis of 500 email subject lines from the political direct email corpus sent to US residents during the 2016-2022 election campaigns. The findings suggest that email subject lines have significant potential to manipulate recipients' minds, despite the lack of a direct correlation between a political email subject line and its content. Graphic (capitalization), lexical (eponymy, a combination of lexical units of different styles, military metaphors), and syntactic techniques (appeals, imperative mood) contribute to manipulative influence on recipients.
Key words: political media discourse, Internet discourse, media genre, political direct email, email subject line, metaphor, influence, manipulation.
Introduction
The rapid development of digital technologies is facilitating the transition of many spheres of socio-political life to a virtual environment. For example, in the last decade, election campaigns in a number of countries have been actively conducted online (including campaigning, communication with voters, fundraising, and electronic voting). The use of new information technologies during election campaigns in the United States has contributed to the emergence of a new media text genre – political email newsletters [1; 2; 3]. The heterogeneity and multimodality of this neo-genre of political media discourse is of research interest in terms of its structural, functional, linguo-semiotic, and pragmalinguistic features. Lingvo-pragmatic techniques for influencing the addressee, borrowed from advertising discourse, are also manifested in the presentation of email subject lines. The relevance of studying the linguopragmatic features of the subject lines of letters in American political email newsletters is caused by the need to identify and systematize the most effective linguistic means of influencing the electorate, embodied in strategies and tactics of a certain kind.
Literature review
It should be noted that at present a significant number of linguistic studies of epistolary genre texts have been carried out (T.G. Vinokur, A.I. Efimov, N.P. Potockaya, D.E. Rosenthal, Sh. Bally,
R. Meyer) [2]. In the scientific community, there are active discussions related to the problems of defining the genre diversity of letters (N.B. Lebedeva,
T.V. Shmeleva), descriptions of the structure and features of the functioning of linguistic means of expression in them (V.S. Zaitseva, G.P. Sidorenko, S.V. Usova, N.A. Kovaleva, S.L. Katarzhina), identification of the specifics of strategies and tactics in written communication (N.S. Balanchik, N.V. Silaeva) [8].
The transition of written communication to a virtual environment leads to the need for a detailed study of Internet discourse and the emergence of research in this area, namely, a comparison of the linguistic features of the functioning of the language of computer communication on Web pages in Russian and English has been carried out
(A.A. Atabekova), lingvosemiotic analysis of electronic hypertext (O.V. Dedova), the specificity of linguistic design has been established
Internet discourse (N.A. Akhrenova), the study of linguistic personality in virtual discourse and the consideration of spam mailings as varieties of the email genre (O.V. Lutovinova) [1; 2; 4; 7].
Issues related to written political communication in the virtual environment remain open for discussion. The identification and differentiation of genres of political media discourse raises certain difficulties associated with the highly dynamic development of the political sphere and the intersection of several types of discourse in terms of their genre diversity [9; 10]. For example, in recent decades, a new
The genre is a political email newsletter, which exhibits characteristics of related genres of advertising and virtual discourse. In terms of characteristics such as distribution channel, multimodality, and the use of microtargeting technology, the neo-genre of political email newsletters is most similar to direct mail, which belongs to the genre of advertising discourse [2].
Material and research methods
The research material is based on email subject lines from a corpus of political email newsletters sent to US residents during the 2016–2022 election campaigns, totaling 500 units. The research methodology is based on a systematic approach that allows for the identification of linguopragmatic means of influence in political email subject lines.
email newsletters. The experiment's instrumental basis consisted of discursive, contextual, linguopragmatic,
systemic-linguistic and interpretative analysis, facilitating the identification and description of the linguopragmatic manipulative potential of linguosemiotic means used in the subject of electronic messages of the "political email newsletter" genre.
Research results
The structure of an email newsletter assumes the presence of such traditional components as the sender's address, subject, preheader (English. preheader), header (English. header), main part (English). body) and footer (English. footer) [5].
The subject of the letter is the primary information intended for the potential voter to whom the political letter is addressed.
Email newsletter. In our opinion, the functional purpose of an email subject line is directly related to the text's title.
Implementing signaling function, the subject line of an email allows the recipient to anticipate its content without actually opening the email. The structural and semantic features of a traditional text header and email subject line are typically presented in a compressed text format, traditionally implying a direct correlation with its content. Let's consider the implementation of the signaling function of a political email subject line using an example. For example, in an email from American political activist Candace Amber Owens (Candace Owens), publicly supporting the policies of President Donald Trump and criticizing the activities of the US Democratic Party and the social movement Black Lives Matter (opposes discrimination and violence against black people), the theme stated is:
[Petition Alert] The Olympics wants to CANCEL the American flag
(10.02. 2020) / [Petition] They want to CANCEL the American flag at the Olympics.
By focusing the recipient's attention on national symbols as a source of particular pride, the sender can manipulate the recipient's consciousness, despite the fact that the subject line of the email is not directly related to its content. A quantitative analysis of the correspondence between the subject line of a political email newsletter and the main content of the email revealed that over 90% of the total number of subject lines do not directly correlate with the content. Thus, this mismatch facilitates the following function of email subject lines.
Attractive function The purpose of an email subject line is to attract the recipient's attention to the main body of the message, encouraging them to open the email and read its contents. As an example, here's a common "template" subject line for an American political email newsletter:
BREAKING NEWS from Georgia (17.08. 2016) / Breaking news from the state of Georgia.
The impact on the recipient's emotional sphere is achieved by drawing attention to a situation that requires a quick response to an event. Template phrases (breaking news / urgent / breaking news) They create a sense of importance, while causing anxiety and loss of control over reality, motivating the recipient to search for additional information, thereby leading to the need to open the email.
The following example email subject line contains information that is inconsistent with the content of the email:
It will get you fired (23.07.2021, 23:53) / This will get you fired.
However, such a technique evokes negative emotions, forcing the recipient to act immediately (to support a political party or candidate, to make a donation to the fund of a certain political movement).
Meaning-forming function The subject line of an email newsletter sets the general context for how the text is perceived, including conveying the author's position. Criticizing the actions of President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, the head of the NIAID Laboratory of Immunoregulation, and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Anthony Fauci, in the subject line of a political email, stated:
Dr Fauci lied to our faces, Patriot (13.06.2021, 04:17) / Doctor Fauci lied us в face, Patriot.
Further in the text of the email, the author deliberately does not name the chief medical adviser to the US President, Anthony Fauci (Anthony Fauci):
He [Dr. Fauci] believes our strong bureaucracy and his corrupt allies in Congress will defend him until the end. He thinks he can avoid accountability completely. / He [д—р. Fauci believes our powerful bureaucracy and his corrupt allies in Congress will protect him to the bitter end. He thinks he can avoid responsibility entirely.
Structural and semantic features of political topics
email newsletters are manifested at the level of supragraphemics (font size and features), vocabulary (metaphors, eponymy, combination of vocabulary of different styles), syntax (imperative mood, nominative constructions).
The potential for using various graphic techniques when writing email subject lines is limited by the technical aspects of the process. Therefore, capitalization is used in email subject lines, as is the deliberate uncapitalization of the subject line. Capitalization enhances emphasis and draws additional attention to the subject line as a whole or to a specific part of it. For example, in the following example, the author does not capitalize the first word of the email subject line, emphasizing the need to continue the struggle for power:
this election is NOT OVER (13.06.2021, 04:17) / these elections are NOT OVER YET.
The lexical design of the subjects of political email newsletters includes multiple instances of the use of military metaphors, a combination of neutral and colloquial vocabulary, and the use of eponymy.
Military metaphors are an integral component of political language, and political confrontations during election periods are comparable to battle scenes. Thus, the inclusion of military metaphors in the subject lines of political emails creates an atmosphere of confrontation and agonism.
Here are some examples of political email subject lines that contain metaphors from the "Warfare" frame:
Help me fight for my freedom, Patriot (13.06.2021, 04:17) / Help me fight for my freedom, Patriot.
We’re still in this fight (11.06.2021, 03:10) / We are still in this fight.
To create the image of «one’s own» person in political topics
Email newsletters combine neutral and conversational vocabulary:
Fauci wants you masked, Google wants you gagged (09.06.2021, 01:28) / Fauci wants you to wear a mask, Google wants you to shut up.
Using colloquial gag / shut up The use of the word "mouth" rather than another style-neutral lexical unit contributes to the creation of an acute situation related to the actions of government officials to remain silent about the issues of vaccination against coronavirus and its consequences.
Of particular research interest is the use of eponymy as a subject line for political email newsletters. This technique is characterized as attributing the names of famous figures (including political ones) to laws, theories, or phenomena.
For example, Re: Wolf’s veto (09.06.2021, 01:28) / ReWolf's Veto
In this example, the email subject is related to decisions by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf (Tom Wolf) block (veto) certain bills or budget items during his tenure. The prefix Re in the subject means «Regarding) or «"Response to"», indicating that the email is a reply or relates to a previous conversation. It's assumed that emails with this type of subject line will be perceived by the recipient as important messages that require immediate attention.
In terms of syntactic design, political email subject lines are presented as simple sentences, less often as phrases. Of particular interest is the use of imperative moods in email subject lines, interpreted as a direct call to action: Don’t listen to the media (13.06.2021, 04:17) / Don't listen to the media. Appealing to the sense of civic duty, the author of the mailing uses an appeal patriot / patriot: Fauci LIED AGAIN, Patriot! (13.06.2021, 04:17) / Fauci LIED AGAIN, Patriot!
Conclusions
Studying the specific stylistic organization of political email subject lines allows us to make significant linguistic and pragmatic contributions to the description of the genre characteristics of this media text. The recipient's introduction to the content of an email begins with the subject line, which is one of the structural elements of the letter. The compositional features and stylistic devices used by the author of a political email directly influence the establishment or breakdown of communication between the recipient and the sender in online settings.
Literature
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