Internet Comments as Delegitimization-Driven Discourse (a Case Study of the Fox News Materials on the Political Actions of the U.S. President Joe Biden)

Abstract

The article introduces delegitimization as a macro-strategy of non-professional political discourse. The author studied comments on the site of the American Fox News to analyze the strategy of rational pessimism chosen by its readers as recipients of political news about the new president of the United States Joe Biden. The delegitimization discourse in the genre of Internet comments to political news proved to combine rational text production, emotional message, and an appeal to universal values. The strategy of rational pessimism manifested itself in the ideologies of the crises of democracy and presidential power. These cognitive-discursive units were actualized by both the broad extralinguistic context, i.e. the current political situation, and the immediate context, i.e. the publication aimed at discrediting Biden’s policy. The commentators' arguments about problems in the sphere of politics, economics, and business determined the interdiscursive nature of communication. While expressing pessimistic moods and negative attitude to the political actions of the U.S.President and the Democratic Party, the commentators appealed to the value categories of personal and state security.

Keywords

• political discourse
• addressee
• communication
• strategy
• reply
• crisis
• media