Thesis on "Semantics a Tool for Shaping Public Opinion in the Age of the Internet"

Thesis 10 pages (3085 words) Sources: 5 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Semantics: A Tool for Shaping Public Opinion in the Age of the Internet

What People Are Talking About on the Internet

A quick Google or other internet search engine search of "forums" returns not hundreds or thousands, but millions of sites related to internet public forums for what has become known as internet chat. This begs the question: What are people talking about? They are talking about topics of public interest: weight reduction, hobbies, like art and photography; but there are literally millions of political forums. People are, more than ever before in history, talking about and sharing ideas on their political representation on a world-wide scale. Discussions, debates, even heated arguments about political leadership are going on between people who have never met one another face-to-face are taking place every minute of everyday. The discussions, debates, and arguments are from the perspective of people analyzing every word being spoken by presidents, representatives of the United Nations, and even news journalists who are today, again, more so than ever before seemingly affiliated more with political ideologies than they are with reporting just the news. This means that the public is examining, analyzing, and sharing ideas and thoughts about the semantics of the political lexicon.

Politicians and world leaders alike tend to use semantics as a political tool to persuade their constituents to their point-of-view on subjects of government and world affairs. Before the internet, the publics' base of discourse was their immediate families, friends, and other associates, who might, or might not be interested in engaging in political discourse with them. The internet has changed this. Today, for the millions of internet sites devoted to political chat, there are millions more individuals visiting those sites for the specific purpose of engaging in the examination and analysis of their leaders' semantics, and asking the question: What did it mean?

The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine and understand how political semantics are being interpreted by the public, and how the sharing of information via the internet is shaping the public's opinions about their leaders and world events. This essay will seek to answer the questions: How are semantics utilized by world leaders to influence and to gain the support of public opinion? How are those efforts facilitated or hindered by the public's access to information and discourse via the internet?

Political Semantics

Semantics is the study of the nature of words as they are used by people; the meaning, the inferences through classifying and understanding the changing meanings of words as they used by people during conversations and discourse. Politicians and world leaders have long utilized semantics -- indeed, created an art in the use of political semantics. Political scientists and authors Ofer Feldman and Christ'l de Landtsheer (1998) say that understanding political semantics means looking to the characteristics, nature, and of the language used by world leaders (p. ix). This concept is exemplified by America's former president, William Jefferson Clinton, when, in 1998, testifying before a Grand Jury investigating inappropriate behavior with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky; Clinton testified that he did not lie when he said he did not have an inappropriate relationship with the intern because:

"It depends on what the meaning of the word is . . . If 'is' means is and never has been, that is not -- that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement (Youtube, at Youtube, 2009, video, found online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaZBm-d5Yqs&feature=related."

Clinton went on to explain his rationale to the jury, saying that if someone had questioned him as to the appropriateness or inappropriateness of his relationship with the intern, ". . . asked me a question in the present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely true (Youtube, at Youtube, 2009, video, found online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaZBm-d5Yqs&feature=related)."

Clinton's remarks to the jury were published in a transcript that was circulated on the internet, and then the video tape of Clinton testifying and making the comments circulated the internet, and, today, is found on Youtube.com. It circulates the internet today not so much because people are unaware that Mr. Clinton took an oath on the Christian Bible to tell the truth, and then lied, but because it represents to the American people that they cannot take on its face value the words of their elected officials, and must analyze and look to the meaning of even small words like "is" that might completely alter the meaning of the truth. In the case of Clinton, it was employment of semantics to mitigate the public reaction to his inappropriate relationship with Lewinsky; even to deceive the public as to the truth.

A second example of political semantics comes, once again, through the presidency and diplomacy of the Clinton Administration. In 1994, when the Rwandan Hutu embarked upon a systematic annihilation of the Tutsi in Rwanda, the United States, under the Clinton administration, elected not to intervene in the violence that was described by people in and outside of Rwanda as "genocide (Zeleza and McConnaughy,, p. 179).

"Members of the Clinton administration from former Secretary of State Warren Christopher to Madeleine Albright, then U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, could not bring themselves to call the killings (of the Tutsi by the Hutus) genocide. Under international law, the United States was obligated to prevent genocide, and thus, should have intervened in Rwanda (Roth 1998:41) (Zeleza and McConnaughy, p. 179)."

Instead, the Clinton administration worked around the definition of genocide, which was evidenced by the mass killings, and instead referred to the violence as "a longstanding tribal conflict (p. 179)." The word "genocide" was succinctly avoided in an employment of political semantics, because the word "genocide" would have triggered a public reaction that, in 1994, could have adversely impacted Clinton's upcoming re-election efforts.

In 1994, when the events unfolded in Rwanda, the use of the internet was not at the heightened, almost frenzied, level of information utilization as it is today. The Rwandan genocide of the Tutsis, however, will, today, return 2,640,000 sites for information on the subject. The pressure brought to bear as a result of public opinion and continuing discourse on the subject no doubt played a part in Clinton's subsequent apology (albeit years later) to the Rwandan people, as well as his frequent public responses to questions about those events that have caused Clinton to repeatedly and publicly state that he "regrets" Rwanda.

Political scientist and author Mika LaVaque-Manty (2002) says, ". . . The salience criterion for a micro-level political act is not a direct causal line, but, rather, depends on what we might loosely call "political semantics (p. 20)." LaVaque-Manty holds that people by way of their actions today are a manifestation at a macro-level of political action as instrumental action (p. 20). In other words, the actions of the public in their daily lives is a manifestation of the micro-level political semantics and how people interpret the characteristics, nature, and meaning of the words employed by political leaders.

I would argue that the internet facilitates how people today interpret the characteristics, nature, and meaning of political semantics. That the free flowing and unregulated discourse and exchange of ideas in an anonymous world forum informs, influences, and shapes the public perception about world leaders and events today.

The Public Arena of the World Wide Web

Today, nearly everyone either has a home computer, a laptop computer, or access to the internet, allowing them read and engage in conversation with people around the world concerning issues of political concern such as the wars being waged by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan; global warming; nuclear proliferation in third world countries that did not have nuclear weapon capabilities until after the Cold War;

the human genome project (cloning and stem cell research) and, especially since September 11, 2001, religion and Muslim peoples. The intense public interest surrounding these topics of discussion has put political semantics under the public's microscope: the internet. Leaders of once independent nations are now finding their leadership and views subject to world opinion.

The cultural, religious, political and academic diversity of people utilizing the internet today as source for information about political and world leaders and events is immeasurable. Everyone, from the highest academicians, scholars, scientists, and physicians, to young intermediary level students, parents, to shopkeepers, factory workers, field workers, military personnel, and even third world countries where many people would not readily think of as having internet access, are using the internet.

In the book the Right Questions: Truth, Meaning & Public Debate, author Nancy Pearcey (Johnson and Pearcey, 2004) writes that she woke early on September 11, 2001, to check the daily news on her computer (p. 107). No longer do people turn first to televised news programs or even print media for their daily news. They, like Pearcey, go to their computers and look for the most up-to-date and up-to-the-moment news updates. As quickly as events occur around the… READ MORE

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