Fourth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

Companies that undergo a crisis due to unethical behaviour are often under fire of leading online media. However, do the media follow ethical communication principles when they write about the companies that ended up in a scandal due to their mishaps? How objective are news articles about companies’ crises? Do the authors of these stories use sound arguments and a neutral tone, or do they try to manipulate the audience’s opinion, using linguistic manipulation devices? This qualitative research involves a critical discourse analysis of thirty randomly selected articles from reputable online media such as The Guardian, Forbes, The Globe and Mail, Business Insider, CNN Business, and Washington Post that cover the scandals resulting from companies’ unethical behaviour. All the analyzed articles use a range of strategies of linguistic manipulation that help the authors to influence the audience’s perception of particular brands, which affects the companies’ reputation and therefore their sale volumes, stock’s value, and overall profits. The aim of this study is to identify the linguistic devices of manipulation in media discourse and demonstrate their possible effect on brand perception. The results of this study can be used to create more objective news articles and press releases that will avoid manipulation of the audience’s opinion and will allow creating brand perception based solely on facts without being influenced by authors’ predisposition.