The Journey Metaphor in Mediatized Political Discourse

Abstract

Abstract The present paper will analyse manifestations of the journey metaphor from a critical discourse analytical perspective in order to observe how the journey metaphor is used as a discourse strategy in mediatized political speeches and interviews whereby political actors manipulate the second-frame interactional participants (the audience) into sharing a (spurious) sense of solidarity with them. There are three hypotheses that will be tested in the course of the analysis: the first is that a wide-variety of realjourney elements are exploited for the political metaphor of journey, and there is a concrete correspondence between journey vehicles and political scenarios. The second hypothesis is that journey metaphors that are used in political speeches, celebrity interviews and confrontational political interviews are of different types and complexity. The third hypothesis is that the manipulative intent behind the use of metaphors is exposed in the latter types of mediatized political discourse to varying degrees as a result of the different degrees of pragmatic accountability adhered to in the two subgenres. We argue that the first two hypotheses are confirmed on the basis of the qualitative analysis presented in the paper, whereas the third hypothesis is not borne out by the data.