The place and role of political advertising in the system of manipulative technologies: the linguistic dimension

Abstract

Issues of language and political discourse form a very dense framework for theories and studies of argumentation, the new rhetoric. The political discourse analysis is gaining in scope and epistemological precision. However, discursive effects remain largely understudied regarding linguistic means as manipulative tactics. This phenomenon shapes the relevance of this study. It also analyses how linguistic traces of political discourse affect the population in terms of psychosociology and manipulative tactics. The ideology of discursive persuasion reveals issues in cognitive activity (meaning, intentionality, and strategy) that the speaker performs, as well as the impact on a known target. The study focuses on the norms and use of language, image, text, and sound in political advertising. It also analyses scholarly works related to the topic, offering an analysis based on observations on political communication and its media staging of the functioning of sociolinguistic variation regarding the norms and representations that operate in this official/dominant language market and specific to the language of politics. Research related to advertising and advertising language in relatively recent studies is still approached with some caution. Therefore, this paper attempts to deal with them from the perspective of linguistics in its broader discussion. To do so, the article focuses on studying linguistic means specific to political advertising on billboards during political campaigns. The most peculiar aspects of the contextual and formal expression of political advertising on billboards are identified.