Discursive Strategies of Manipulation

Many studies have critically analyzed a wide range of institutional and professional discourse genres including media discourse (Curran 2002; Bell 2004; Van Dijk 2005). The undeniable power ascribed to the media has inspired numerous critical studies in many disciplines not least in the field of mass communication itself. In order to analyze the way discourse may control people''s minds. We can refer to the different experiences and representations that people can accumulate during their lifetime (Couldry 2005 2006) and the more general and abstract socio-cultural knowledge attitudes and ideologies (Fairclough 1995a 2003; Develotte & Rechniewski 2006). By resorting to these mental representations media text producers can communicate messages implicitly without actually asserting them and with less chance that they will be challenged.