The Deixis of Homeland in State Identity Policy on TV Channel “Russia 1”

Abstract

The most important words of state identity policy are often the smallest: “we,” “this,” and “here,” i. e., words of the linguistic “deixis”. Deixis (Greek Deiktikos – indication) is the use of linguistic expressions and other signs that can only be interpreted by referring to the physical coordinates of the communicative act – its participants, its place and time. The contextual nature of deictic expressions that include the personal pronoun “we” has been studied by linguists, but only recently has it attracted sociologists and political scientists. Researchers believe that deixis allows one to see how the “center of the interpretive universe” works, whose potential appears not to have been completely disclosed. Thus, the purpose of the research presented in this article is to test deixis as a tool to analyze representations of state identity policy in media and assess the impact of the use of the deixis of Homeland in the construction of state identity policy, through the example of the TV channel “Russia 1”. The methodological basis of the research is the concept of identity policy, as suggested by one of the key experts in the sphere of identity studies, I. S. Semenenko, a Corresponding Member of RAS. Identity policy is defined within this concept as a targeted program for building a political community’s identity. I. S. Semenenko qualifies identity policy in both theoretical and empirical dimension with reference to historical policy, museum practices, etc. As a chronological framework, the period between 2011 and 2012, characterized in Russia by an active surge of comprehension and reinterpretation of the Russian identity, was chosen. 106 reports for December 2011 and December 2012 on Vesti Nedeli (News of the Week) on Rossiya 1 TV channel served as an empirical base of the research. This research is based on Frame Analysis and the Theory of Banal Nationalism. As an empirical technique, we used content analysis of video materials, which identified 32 cases of the use of deictic expressions of state identity policy, broadcast by the tools of the television channel “Russia 1”. The novelty of the research consists in testing the linguistic tool of deixis with regard to a political topic of the study; namely, state identity policy through the medium of news stories. The analysis of deixis made it possible to assume parameters for the spatial and temporal model of Russian political identity, demonstrating the way in which the answer to the question “where are we?” in terms of time and space affects the question “who are we?” It also emphasized the role of deixis in shaping state identity policy, which gave researchers the possibility to define it from the perspective of the center of the world and the source of civilization.