Power Relation Negotiation between Writers and Readers Embedded in Some CNN Commentaries

Abstract

Power relations exist between social groups, institutions, women and men, young and old, ethnic groups, etc. In mass media discourses, they exist between authors and viewers, listeners or readers. Besides, it is said that power relations are always relations of struggle – the term which, according Norman Fairclough [1], is used in a technical sense to refer to the process whereby social groups with different interests engage with one another. If applying Fairclough’s view to the case of CNN commentaries which are used in our investigation, media discourses can be seen as sites where text producers exercise their power through well-written language; and thus, they should be involved in a struggle (a power relation negotiation) with assumed readers over whom they supposedly want to influence their opinions. In this kind of struggle, this paper demonstrates that the writers exercise their power via linguistic means while taking into due consideration the ‘ideal’ readers’ position. It could be claimed that throughout the media discourses, commentators do have to negotiate the power relations with assumed readers.

Keywords: Assumed readers, ‘ideal’ readers, mass media discourses, power relations, power relation negotiation.