Manipulative tactics employed by Azerbaijani authors in online media resources

Abstract

Recent investigations have established that manipulation is the abuse of language realized through various consciously employed linguistic means aimed to influence the listeners’ or readers’ social, interpersonal and mental states and behaviours, thus misdirecting their actions. Intentionality as one of the basic parameters of manipulation, no doubt, exercises a destructive effect on an individual, group or society at large. Depending on the range of their manipulative attitudes and intentions, often reaching beyond the bounds of morality, manipulators tend to bend reality, distort facts and through seemingly persuasive argumentation and proofs present their subjective reality as truth. This presupposes the employment of certain manipulative tactics and techniques meant to guarantee the manipulator’s success. The present case study attempts to expose the manipulative techniques and tactics deliberately employed by the Azerbaijani author of the article “Armenian So-Called Genocide”, published in the Azerbaijani online news medium “Azvision.az”. The object of the paper consists of a deep and thorough analysis of the manipulative intentions and interpretations worked into the mentioned article. On the basis of critical discourse-analysis, the application of the methods of argumentation, with references to empirical evidence, assists not only in observation of the mechanisms of manipulative techniques and tactics the author implements, but also reveals the persistence of Azerbaijani political circles toward the fulfilment of political goals through violations and falsifications of historical facts and distortions of reality.