A. Tausogarova, N. Utemgaliyeva
Al-Farabi Kazakh National University
Almaty, Kazakhstan
aiauzhan@mail.ru, nassikhat.utemgaliyeva@gmail.com
CONTENT ANALYSIS AS A METHOD OF STUDYING ETHNOSTEREOTYPES IN
LINGUISTIC CONSCIOUSNESS
Mass media is not only a source of information nowadays, moreover it has become an axiom that they are considered to be the essential tools for absorbing a certain ideology by consumers’ consciousness and bringing them up to support the certain outlook.
This article deals with the capability of newspaper headlines and TV program titles as a part of mass media to form ethnostereotypes in the linguistic consciousness of consumers.
An attempt will be made to define the ethnostereotypes, which originated with the influence of mass media by carrying out a poll and the results will be shown by quantitative content analysis method.
Thus, the topicality of studying mass media influence on forming ethnostereotypes at the time of intercultural communication will be shown according to the modern process of globalization.
Keywords: content analysis, mass media, ethnostereotypes, linguistic consciousness, social poll, quantitative analysis, and qualitative analysis.
In every multinational country it is essential to have a harmonious relationship among different ethnics in order to keep peaceful life and sustainable economic growth. Within this framework, besides the affairs of a country, which are connected to the development of relationships between nations, the ethnic information in mass media and the role of ethnostereotypes in that information are substantial. Moreover, there is a serious impact on the dynamic between ethnics when one nation write about the personality traits, lifestyle, traditions, and the image in the history of another nation, furthermore, one nation write about their own people and express their own opinion on other ethnics.
According to the scientists, “ethnic ethnostereotypes playing a significant role in public consciousness and personal consciousness, serve well in, firstly, keeping ethnic compatibility, secondly, grouping ethnics, thirdly, ethnic adapting to the environment. Nowadays, ethnostereotypes are the part of ideology and they have become the tool for ideological struggle. Ethnic stereotypes have a programmatic description in the interethnic relation culture, since each representative of any ethnic group has the capability to inform about the habits and personality traits beforehand in any interpersonal and interethnic relationships” [1].
As it has been mentioned above, the role of ethnic information published in mass media is significant in keeping ethnic compatibility, grouping ethnics, ethnic adapting to the environment, mainly forming ethnic stereotypes in public consciousness and personal consciousness that serve well in developing harmonious interethnic relationships. In this case content analysis method is used to define ethnostereotypes, which appeared in linguistic consciousness by the influence of mass media. There are such definitions about this method in scientific works: “Content analysis is a concluding technique, which is used according to the research objectives of text description in order to define objectively and systematically. The procedures of content analysis are to calculate the usage frequency (or volume) of those or other relevant units in the text under the analysis. Content analysis gives an opportunity to fully describe the research object, define the reasons why that information appeared, define the results that influenced on that information” [2].
Furthermore, this method is particularly used while analyzing the mass media materials. Content analysis is considered to be the supplementary method (for instance, while analyzing the answers of open questions) while checking the materials collected with the help of other methods (poll, survey).
Thus, content analysis method was used to show the results of poll, which was conducted in order to scrutinize the ethnostereotypes formed in people’s consciousness due to the influence of Kazakhstani mass media, especially the press and TV programs.
The survey, which was conducted to define the ethnostereotypes formed in people’s linguistic consciousness due to the influence of Kazakhstani mass media, contained the following questions:
1. Which TV programs do you watch in the Kazakh language?
2. Your associations with nations as a result of watching TV programs in the Kazakh language;
3. Which TV programs do you watch in the Russian language?
4. Your associations with Kazakhs, Russians and other nations as a result of watching Kazakhstani talk shows, etc. in the Russian language:
5. What kind of negative/positive nicknames or ethnophaulisms do you know according to the appearances, occupation, etc. special features of ethnics (for example, Uzbek – Sart).
1. The resources of ethnophaulisms that you have mentioned (where have you heard, how have you known?):
А) From mass media: the press, films, jokes, advertisement, etc. (underline the appropriate one)
Ә) People say
7. Collocations connected with the ethnic time, era and internal social groups: (for example, New Russian, Shala Kazakh).
8. Ethnicons or collocations, fixed phrases with the names of nations that you know, for example, Swiss watches, Russian forest.
9. Proverbs and sayings, aphorisms about a certain kind of nation or ethnic among people.
Materials were defined and quantitative analysis was displayed according to the purposes of main parts of the survey.
Note: the answers of respondents will be given without any orthographical correction in research.
А) The survey included the respondents from all regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan: Almaty oblast – 42, Western Kazakhstan oblast – 6, Southern Kazakhstan oblast – 14, Eastern Kazakhstan oblast (Semey, Oskemen) – 5, Central Kazakhstan – 4.
Ә) Quantitative information about the age gaps of respondents.
As it is known from the works of scientists above, the role of intellectual level, which is the central pivot of forming ethnostereotypes in consciousness, was the key means by which survey respondents were ranked. Within this framework, the cognitive side of respondents’ consciousness, i.e. person’s past, intellectual level, certain events or festive days, national heroes, cultural figures, their notions about folklore, traditions, and the peculiarity of their capability to memorize historical and cultural information were taken into account. There is an index of age gaps and levels of respondents who took part in the survey: 18 – 35 (68 %), 36 – 55 (27%), 56 – 75 (6 %); 78 % of respondents were females and 22 % of them were males.
The survey in the Kazakh language contained the following question: Which language did you study in?
86 % of respondents answered that they studied in the Kazakh language;
6 % of respondents answered that they studied in the Kazakh and Russian languages;
5 % of respondents answered that they studied in the Kazakh, Russian and English languages; 3 % of respondents answered that they studied in the English language; 1% of respondents wrote incorrectly (the teacher of Kazakh).
The survey in the Russian language contained the same question:
69 % of respondents answered that they studied in the Russian language;
29 % of respondents answered that they studied in the Kazakh language;
2 % of respondents answered that they studied in the Kazakh and English languages.
Б) The quantitative information about the respondents according to the majors.
Teachers (42 %), lawyers (7 %), philologists (28 %), economists (11 %), journalists (4 %), historians (2 %) and others (6 %) took part in the survey.
В) There is an index of answers of respondents who speak Kazakh, which is shown in diagrams (pictures 1-9) by editorials related to the ethnonym topics in the electronic press publications: (“Striptease at a wedding: why are the Kazakh press silent?”, “Kazakh girls became the members of a group who upload photos of them in the nude”, “Great Russian great- power chauvinism (Tsarist official M.O. Menshikov about the policy of Russia in the Caucasus region)”, “Girls, dancing to rap in Kazakh national costumes, broke the Internet”, “Kazakh people cannot work – impressions of Chinese tourists”, “The first Russian terrorist: misfit who changed the history”, “Russia with the symbol of Bear”, “The dragon country having an immense appetite”, “Giant ‘dragon’: will it indeed pass away?”, “The Customs Union: Bear, bear cub and lamb”, etc.):
Negative opinion about that nation
Nothing springs to mind about that nation
This is a journalistic method
Other
Picture 1 – “Kazakh girls became the members of a group who upload photos of them in
the nude”
Negative opinion about that nation
Nothing springs to mind about that nation
This is a journalistic method
Other
Picture 2 – “Great Russian great- power chauvinism (Tsarist official M.O. Menshikov about
the policy of Russia in the Caucasus region)”
Negative opinion about that nation
Nothing springs to mind about that nation
This is a journalistic method
Other
Picture 3 – “Girls, dancing to rap in Kazakh national costumes, broke the Internet”
Negative opinion about that nation
Nothing springs to mind about that nation
This is a journalistic method
Other
Picture 4 – “Kazakh people cannot work – impressions of Chinese tourists”
The index of answers of respondents who speak Russian:
I negatively think of an ethnic
I do not react
I suppose that this is a manipulative method (used intentionally for creating a negative attitude towards an ethnic)
Other
Picture 5 – “Great Russian great- power chauvinism (Tsarist official M.O. Menshikov about
the policy of Russia in the Caucasus region)”
I negatively think of an ethnic
I do not react
I suppose that this is a manipulative method (used intentionally for creating a negative attitude towards an ethnic)
Other
Picture 6 – “Girls, dancing to rap in Kazakh national costumes, broke the Internet”
I negatively think of an ethnic
I do not react
I suppose that this is a manipulative method (used intentionally for creating a negative attitude towards an ethnic)
Other
Picture 7 – “Kazakh people cannot work – impressions of Chinese tourists”
Note: diagrams in research work are given as pictures
Table 1 – What kind of TV programs do you watch and on which channels? (the answers of respondents who speak Kazakh)
National channel Kazakhstan (“Easy to say”, “The happiness of a woman”, “Night studio”) 24 %
CТC (“Our truth”, Turkish serials) 13 %
Khabar (news, “Tour de Khabar”, “Seven days”, “Our house”) 12 %
I do not watch TV 12 %
Astana channel (Turkish serials,
“People say”) 15 %
31 channel (People say) 8 %
Channel Eurasia 1 6 %
The channel of education and culture 5 %
Other channels
(Gakku, 24 KZ, Channel 7, Russia) 5 %
Table 2 – What kind of TV programs do you watch and on which channels? (the answers of respondents who speak Russian)
News 33 %
Channel Eurasia 1 (“Wait for me”, TV program “Pozner”, “Let them say”, “Time”) 23 %
I do not watch TV 15 %
CТC (“The black square”, “The servant of people”, “Interesting times”) 11 %
BBC 8 %
Khabar (“Tour de Khabar”; “Our house”;
“Seven days”) 8 %
Other TV programs
(“Brief news”, “Our broadcast”) 4 %
The content models of ethnostereotypes were analysed during the qualitative content analysis
of survey materials in order to define the models of media resource ethnostereotypes (table 3).
Table 3 – The content models of media resource ethnostereotypes
The content models of media
resource ethnostereotypes The TV projects on Kazakhstani TV channels
autoethnostereotypes which influence positively on the national congruity (ethnostereotypes that outweighed in linguistic consciousness by the influence of mass media) Channel Khabar: “Motherland”, “Courage”,
“Our house”, “We are Kazakhstanis!”,
Channel Kazakh tv “History”, “Culture”
Channel Kazakhstan: The representatives of Alash; TV journal My Kazakhstan; Military patriotic program “White armour”; social political talk show “Square”
national values and directions, needs and motives, auto-
heterostereotypes and ethnic direction Channel Khabar: the intellectual game “The leader of the 21st century”;
Channel Kazakh tv: “Good luck”, “How is your Kazakh?”, «Dastarkhan»
Channel Kazakhstan: “Face to face with a child”, “The national game ‘Kokpar’”.
individual psychological
peculiarities, customs and traditions Channel Kazakh tv: “You can’t buy for money”;
Channel Kazakhstan:
“Journey to the country of dramas: the happiness of a woman”
the unique features of the nation Channel Kazakhstan:
“The warmth of the soul”, project ‘The voice of Kazakhstan ”
The topicality of ethnostereotypes, which has been considered as “standard notions and associations with a certain ethnic community that come to the mind of overwhelming majority in the same way” [3, 76] has been scrutinized from the 1920s of the 20th century and it is still topical in the 21st century. Since the era of globalization opened the doors to the development of economic, cultural, and political relationships between different nations and peoples. Due to this, such notions as multiculturalism, intercultural dialogue, cross culture, cross-cultural communication, and linguistic world-image were formed at the beginning of the 21st century. Moreover, the scrutiny of ethnostereotypes, which were formed in the linguistic consciousness of representatives of various cultures in the integration process of education and science that is considered to be one of the main directions between peoples and countries nowadays, also opens gates to the expansion of linguocultural areas, gives an opportunity to estimate the communicative and cognitive potential of these relationships, have successful intercultural communication, and understand ethnic mentality.
References:
1 Gladkih, S.V. Etnicheskiye stereotipy kak fenomen duhovnoi kultury // Diss. na soiskanie uchenoi stepeni kandidata filosofskih nauk. — Stavropol, 2001, — 154 p.
2 Kontent-analiz: ponyatie i vidy \\ http://www.studfiles.ru/preview/1811635/page:3/#4 3 Tausogarova А.K. Tildik kaktygys: zan togysy, tajiribe, sheshim. – Almaty: Qazaq universiteti, 2016. – 214 p.
Масс-медианың ақпарат көзі ғана емес, сонымен қатар өз тұтынушылары санасына белгілі бір идеологияны сіңіруде, оларды қайсыбір көзқарастың жақтаушысы етіп тәрбиелеуде басты құрал болатыны бүгінгі күні аксиомаға айналып отыр. Мақалада массмедианың бір саласы ретінде орын алатын телебағдарламалар мен баспасөз жарияланымдары тақырыпаттарының тұтынушылар тілдік санасында этностереотиптерді қалыптастыру мүмкіндігі қарастырылады. Әлеуметтік сауалнама жүргізу арқылы масс-медиа ықпалында қалыптасқан этностереотиптерді анықтауға талпыныс жасалады. Және сауалнама нәтижелері сандық контент-талдау әдісі арқылы өңделеді. Сөйтіп, қазіргі жаһандану үдерісіне сәйкес мәдениаралық қарым-қатынастардың аса қарқынды кезеңінде этностереотиптердің қалыптасуына масс-медианың ықпалын зерттеудің өзектілігі көрсетіледі.
На сегодняшний день стало аксиомой, что масс-медиа являются не только источником информации, но и средством, в основе которого лежит идеология воспитания аудитории и воздействие данного ресурса на языковое сознание. В статье рассматриваются возможности влияния заголовков публикаций СМИ, являющихся элементом дискурса масс-медиа, на формирование ассоциации об этносе и этностереотипов. Особое внимание уделяется определению этностереотипов в языковом сознании, формирующихся в результате воздействия масс-медиа с помощью социального опроса. Данные социального опроса обрабатываются количественным контент-анализом. Таким образом, выявляется актуальность исследования воздействия масс-медиа на сознание аудитории в формировании этностереотипов в процессе межкультурной коммуникации.