Humour as an information-influencing resource in mass media

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to show how humour is involved in creating effective media communication. The research method is a stylistic analysis of the media text through establishing the manifestations of humour in its compositional components – paratext, metatext, and intratext. The paper reveals the manifestations of two types of irony – ridicule and banter – in these text components. It is established that banter is a means to demonstrate the event distantly, to reduce unnecessary pathos in the speech of top public officials, and to emphasize public contradictions indirectly. Language markers of banter are most often found in the metatext. In such forms of irony, veiled references and hints are expressed which require an additional cognitive effort to understand. The feelings that motivate irony are hidden behind a mask, and are the opposite of the implied ones expressed in the text: for example, indignation is hidden behind surprise and bewilderment. Banter is typical of business mass media, where every event is transmitted distantly. Ridicule is characteristic of sociopolitical mass media. It is expressed in the conflict charge of the media text – the desire to discredit the object of speech, and often acts as a means of transmitting alienation, demonstrating categorical opposition of one’s position to another’s. Ridicule is created by the saturation of negative-evaluative means, most often manifested in the expression of anger and indignation, which determine ridicule. The text markers of tonality, evaluation and degree of indirect expression form the basis of reading the modality character – i.e. badinage.