Language:
Research journal "Foreign Languages in Tertiary Education"
ISSN 2072-7607
Latest issues

Wu Xiaohong

Speech strategies of communicative influence in fake news (based on materials from Lapsha media). Pp. 84–95.

UDC 81’42

DOI: 10.37724/RSU.2025.75.4.009

EDN: XZAZSG

 

Abstract. This article examines the speech strategies and linguistic means used to implement them in fake news published on the Lapsha media portal. Drawing on pragmatic and cognitive approaches, the study identifies and characterizes the most common methods of influence: strategies of dramatization, intimidation, persuasion, and the corresponding tactics of hyperbole, fearmongering, and argumentation. It is noted that these strategies are employed by the sender to achieve their communicative intent, evoking various emotions in the audience (such as anxiety, fear, concern, surprise, etc.) and distorting reality in the recipient’s perception. Special attention is given to the description of linguistic units at different levels (lexical, morphological, syntactic, stylistic, graphic, and others). The results of the study may be used in theoretical courses in linguistics and journalism and have practical value — understanding the mechanisms of influence enhances media literacy and helps protect against manipulative effects.

Keywords: medialinguistics, fake news, dramatization strategy, intimidation strategy, persuasion strategy, speech tactic, manipulative influence, sender’s intention, mass communication, media language.

Bibliography

  1. Baranov A. N. Lingvisticheskaya teoriya argumentatsii (kognitivnyy podkhod) [Linguistic theory of argumentation (cognitive approach)]. Abstract of a diss. … doctor of philology: 10.02.01, 10.02.19. Moscow, 1990, 48 p. (In Russian)
  2. Bartashevich D. A. Fake news technologies as a tool for managing public opinion. Vestnik Finansovogo universiteta. Gumanitarnyye nauki [Bulletin of the Financial university. Humanities]. 2024, vol. 14 (2), pp. 75–80. (In Russian)
  3. Belovodskaya A. A. Fake news. Medialingvistika v terminakh i ponyatiyakh: slov.-sprav [Media linguistics in terms and concepts: reference dictionary]. Ed. by L. R. Duskaeva. Moscow, Flinta Publ., 2018, pp. 416–421. (In Russian)
  4. Bol’shoy tolkovyy slovar’ russkogo yazyka [Large explanatory dictionary of the Russian language]. Ed. by S. A. Kuznetsov. St. Petersburg, Norint Publ., 2000, 1535 p. (In Russian)
  5. Bol’shoy tolkovyy slovar’ russkikh glagolov. Ideograficheskoye opisaniye. Sinonimy. Antonimy. Angliyskiye ekvivalenty [Large explanatory dictionary of Russian verbs. Ideographic description. Synonyms. Antonyms. English equivalents]. Ed. by L. G. Babenko. Moscow, AST-PRESS KNIGA Publ., 2007, 576 p. (In Russian)
  6. Gavrilov L. A., Zaripov R. I. Yazyk massovoy kommunikatsii i informatsionnoy voyny [The language of mass communication and information warfare]. Moscow, URSS Publ., LENAND, 2023 Publ., 216 p. (In Russian)
  7. Golovatskaya O. E. The meaning and origin of the term “Fake news”. Kommunikologiya [Communicology]. 2019, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 139–152. (In Russian)
  8. Dorofeeva V. V. Fake news in the modern media space. Voprosy teorii i praktiki zhurnalistiki [Issues of theory and practice of journalism]. 2019, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 774–786. (In Russian)
  9. Issers O. S. Kommunikativnyye strategii i taktiki russkoy rechi [Communicative strategies and tactics of Russian speech]. Omsk, 1999, 284 p. (In Russian)
  10. Issers O. S. Media fakes: between truth and mystification. Kommunikativnyye issledovaniya [Communicative research]. 2014, no. 2, pp. 112–123. (In Russian)
  11. Klyuev E. V. Rechevaya svyaz’. Uspeshnost’ rechevogo vzaimodeystviya [Speech communication: Success in speech interaction]. Moscow, RipolKlassik Publ., 2002, 320 p. (In Russian)
  12. Lapsha media. 2025, Jan.-June. Available at: https://lapsha.media (accessed 20.06. 2025). (In Russian)
  13. Lebedeva E. G. Fake news as a tool for manipulative influence in the media environment. Universum: filologiya i iskusstvovedeniye [Universum: philology and art studies]. 2021, vol. 3 (81). Available at: https://7universum.com/ru/philology/archive/item/11340 (accessed 20.04.2025). (In Russian)
  14. Osnovnyye ponyatiya perevodovedeniya (otecheskiy opyt): terminolog. slov.-sprav. [Basic concepts of translation studies (national experience). Terminological dictionary-reference book]. Ed. by M. B. Rarenko. Moscow, 2010, 260 p. (In Russian)
  15. Autonomous non-profit organization “Dialogue”: The reading audience does not trust fakes, but gets caught in the net of deepfakes and jhb nion leaders. Rossiyskaya gazeta [Russian newspaper]. 2024, Aug. Available at: https://rg.ru/2024/08/27/v-it-centre-dialog-rasskazali-o-samyh-populiarnyh-v-seti-fejkah-2024-goda.html?ysclid=mc23wc15pa16545624 (accessed 30.05.2025). (In Russian)
  16. Raspopova S. S., Bogdan E. N. Fake news: the nature of its origin. Vestnik Chelyabinskogo universiteta [Chelyabinsk university review]. 2017, no. 11, pp. 48–53. (In Russian)
  17. Ruzhentseva N. B. Diskreditiruyushchiye taktiki i priyemy v rossiyskom politicheskom diskurse: monogr. [Discrediting tactics and techniques in Russian political discourse]. Yekaterinburg, 2004, 294 p. (In Russian)
  18. Sukhodolov A. P., Bychkova A. M. “Fake news” as a phenomenon of the modern media space: concept, types, purpose, countermeasures. Voprosy teorii i praktiki zhurnalistiki [Issues of theory and practice of journalism]. 2017, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 143–169. (In Russian)
  19. Wu Xiaohong. Rechevyye strategii i sposoby ikh realizatsii v tekstakh rossiyskikh SMI, osveshchayushchikh mezhdunarodnuyu deyatel’nost’ V. Putina i Si Tszin’pina [Speech strategies and methods of their implementation in Russian media texts covering the international activities of V. Putin and Xi Jinping]. Diss. … of candidate philology: 5.9.5. St. Petersburg, 2024, 235 p. (In Russian)
  20. Wu Xiaohong, Navasartyan L. G. Speech strategies and tactics for achieving effective mass communication (based on the example of RIA Novosti texts). Mir nauki. Sotsiologiya, filologiya, kul’turologiya [World of science. Sociology, philology, cultural studies]. 2021, vol. 12, no. 4. Available at: https://sfk-mn.ru/PDF/59FLSK421.pdf (accessed 10.06.2026). (In Russian)
  21. Chernyavskaya V. E. Diskurs vlasti i vlastnyy diskurs: problemy rechevogo vozdeystviya: ucheb. posobiye [Discourse of power and power of discourse: problems of speech influence: textbook]. Moscow, Flinta Publ., Nauka Publ., 2006, 136 p. (In Russian)
  22. Bar-Hillel G. Indexical expressions. Mind. 1954, vol. 63, pp. 359–376.