The refugee crisis: narrative sequences and emotions in opinion articles/reports or narratives in the service of persuasion

Abstract

We intend to show, using an ad hoc corpus of media texts on the refugee crisis, how several linguistic and, more specifically, enunciative-pragmatic mechanisms contribute to the construction of an empathic discourse, used for argumentative purposes. These journalistic texts, between opinion and reporting, take sides, although not through a set of logical arguments objectively arranged and assumed by the speaker, but, instead, through narratives that show refugees as a source of information either as protagonists or, sometimes, as initial narrators. Through these narratives, the speaker seeks to approach the tragic experience told by refugees and bring it to the reader, with the aim of conquering his empathy (Lencastre, 2011). The linguistic empathy (Rabatel, 2017) translates into enunciative mechanisms, such as placing yourself in someone else’s place, assuming her voice, to understand her point of view. The narrative, descriptive and dialogical sequences (Adam, 2005) are at the service of this empathy, through which the speaker tries to persuade the addressee. Several mechanisms will be listed that contribute to the same discursive strategy of persuading the addressee, through discourse patemization. We conclude that emotion in discourse (Plantin, 2011) that favours empathy increases when done through the voice of people with names and stories located in spaces that can be described, using reported speeches, narratives and descriptions for the construction of the theses defended by the journalists.