“Refinement” and “Scraping” for Political and Media Use

Abstract

The research examines the most commonly used words in political communication during two historical periods of the country’s development: the totalitarian and post-totalitarian eras. The infiltration of the lexemes „improvement“ and „eradication“ into the media discourse is traced to investigate their establishment in the journalistic vocabulary and their transformation into lexical dominants and emblems of public communication in both periods. The reasons for the journalistic assimilation of representative specimens from political lexicon vary. In the totalitarian state, the media unquestioningly reproduce the ideological concepts and linguistic clichés of the authorities and actively participate in state propaganda. In the post-totalitarian period, within the framework of a free media discourse, journalists adopt the words generated by mediatized political behavior and communication according to tabloid standards. The media coverage and overexposure of modern political vocabulary in both periods indicate the dominant role of power discourse in public communication.