MEDIJSKA INSCENACIJA SUKOBA I SPINOVANjE JAVNOSTI U POLITIČKOM GOVORNIŠTVU ALEKSANDRA VUČIĆA

Abstract

The power of storytelling and the persuasiveness of media narratives have attracted researchers’ attention from the 1930s to the present, and it is especially interesting to examine the relationship between faction and fiction in the contemporary media-mediated political process that is a combination of complex visual-narrative dimensions of communication. The development of the spinning industry has led to institutionalized forms of impression management and political promotion through mass media. Truth and objectivity in such an environment increasingly give way to manipulation and illusion, fictious or semi-fabricated stories and spins. Unless they are subjected to questioning and reflection, they become surrogates of reality and a special form of manipulation of public opinion. This paper deals with forms of fictionalization of the political process, spinning in politics and the role of media in conflict management, with the use of stylistic and rhetorical analysis of the political speeches of President Aleksandar Vučić, given during extraordinary press conferences. These political speeches are analysed in a wider theoretical framework of the media philosophy, as a part of a complex political stage performance and a propaganda machine characterised by significant manipulative techniques. The analysis is focused on “metamorphoses” of media narrative, as well as political spins, particularly the “putsch” spin, which President Vučić very often uses in his political speeches. The spin is given a new form in the “special” TV programme on the Pink Television and on the pages of the daily tabloid Informer