Abstract
Media is filled with opinion columns, on the left, right, and center, as well as news columns which merge into opinion. What is the point of these columns? Is it to reinforce attitudes or to change minds, or are these calls to action? I propose a maximally exhortative model. By this model, every opinion column and many news columns are disguised exhortations, calls to action or advocacies for inaction. By remaining hidden, such exhortations are more difficult to resist. The model recognizes three parts of an opinion piece. There is a factual claim, supported explicitly or not by factual premises. There is an evaluative claim, which says of a factual outcome that it is optimal or not. Then there is an exhortative claim, which urges readers to bring about optimal outcomes. All components are assumed to be present, whether or not directly signaled in the text. In this paper I examine a sample of opinion columns from different points along the ideological spectrum and I propose linguistic diagnostics to uncover the three parts of the model. By verifying exhortative intent, I demonstrate how opinion columns function as a stabilizing or destabilizing social force. I then show how the very same diagnostics convert into restraints on these hidden effects.
Presenters
Tom WernerAssociate Teaching Professor, Department of Philosophy, Carnegie Mellon University, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2022 Special Focus—Democratic Disorder: Disinformation, the Media and Crisis in a Time of Change
KEYWORDS
Opinion Columns, Exhortation, Linguistic Clues, Hidden Effects
