Convergent tendencies in political media discourse of postmodern era: manipulative potential of transmedia storytelling

Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, Ural Institute of Humanities, Department of Foreign Languages, Ekaterinburg, Russia

^* Corresponding author: plotnikova_mary@mail.ru

Abstract

The article deals with the fundamental problem of manipulating public consciousness to achieve certain political goals using new media technologies. The transformation of the modern media landscape associated with the rapid development of digital technologies leads to significant transformations in the social field. The active process of media convergence taking place in digital media space has determined the formation of one of the most relevant tools for the synergy of different polycode texts – transmedia storytelling, which consists in the nonlinear distribution of the global story across different media platforms in parts that do not repeat but complement each other. The product of transmedia storytelling is converged polycode texts based, as a rule, on several digital and traditional platforms, characterized by transmediality, which is most consistent with the mental characteristics of contemporary information consumers, and, in this regard, has significant influencing potential. Within the framework of this study transmedia storytelling is viewed as an effective political technology with a high manipulative potential. Transmedia storytelling allows you to create the most targeted political content, since the main concept of the broadcast message is transmitted through different media platforms and various linguistic and extralinguistic means, integrating reality and virtual reality, generating certain meanings, and broadcasting the necessary convincing attitudes within a given subject area. At the same time, the technology can be used both in a positive (promotional) and a negative (discrediting) political contexts.