社会杂志 ›› 2015, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (4): 33-.

• 专题:文化社会学 • 上一篇    下一篇

“党派实在论”的结构诠释学

马修·诺顿    

  • 出版日期:2015-07-20 发布日期:2015-07-20
  • 通讯作者: 马修·诺顿 美国俄勒冈大学社会学系 E-mail:mnorton@uoregon.edu E-mail:mnorton@uoregon.edu
  • 作者简介:马修·诺顿 美国俄勒冈大学社会学系 (翻译:牟锦萍 校译:徐冰)

A Structural Hermeneutics of Partisan Realism

Matthew Norton   

  • Online:2015-07-20 Published:2015-07-20
  • Contact: Matthew Norton,Department of Sociology,University of Oregon. E-mail:mnorton@uoregon.edu E-mail:mnorton@uoregon.edu
  • About author:Matthew Norton,Department of Sociology,University of Oregon.

摘要: 如果政治宣传,意识形态以及党派性等概念真的从这些概念本身的内涵来界定自身,那么,在追逐某个政治议程时,这些概念由于存在明显的偏见,从而会导致自相驳斥的结果。因此,毫不奇怪,这些沟通类型的显明特征之一就是宣称它们在精准和公平地再现实在,并且否认存在政治偏见的丑恶内涵。笔者称这种类型为“党派实在论”,即被政治驱动的媒体演出,它们象征性地把自己呈现为是在实在论类型下运作的。本文的问题是,党派性媒体报导是如何在追逐自身的政治议程的同时创造出一种中立且无偏见的实在论表象的。为此,本文借用文化社会学的结构诠释学方法,以“奥莱利实情”这档非常流行的美国电视新闻节目作为党派实在论的分析案例。本文认为,“奥莱利实情”是通过如下几个范畴来生产一种用以诠释新闻的“党派实在论”框架的:主持人形象建构、围绕二元对立符码形成复杂的潜在意义结构,以及一套精致奥妙的修辞技巧。虽然这档节目自诩是一扇投射现实的简单窗户,但事实上,它启用一套精妙的党派文化系统来确证观众通过这扇明显中立的窗户所看到的东西能够支持节目制作人的政治利益。为了让新闻呈现在一定程度上暗合各种党派结论但又看起来依然是实在论,而非充斥着偏见,节目的每个情节和片段都依据一个意义结构来搭建问题。这个意义结构虽然具有强烈的党派结论导向性,但又能给人一种对各方观点都进行过理性思考的外表。本文认为,这种针对意义结构的深度分析对于理解作为政治沟通类型的“党派实在论”具有重要意义。

关键词: 媒体—新闻分析, 结构诠释学, 党派性, 文化系统

Abstract:  Propaganda,ideology,and partisanship,if they identify themselves as such, suffer from the selfrefuting implications of explicit bias inpursuit of a political agenda. It is no surprise,therefore,that one of the distinguishing features of these genres of communication is that they claim to represent reality accurately and fairly,denying the polluting implications of political bias. I call this genre “partisan realism”,politically motivated media presentations that symbolically present themselves as operating in the genre of realism. The question posed by this paper is how partisan media coverage creates the appearance of neutral and unbiased realism while pursuing its political agenda. This paper analyzes The O’Reilly Factor,a popular American television news program, as an example of partisan realism.Using the structural hermeneutic approach developed in cultural sociology,the paper argues that The O’Reilly Factor produces a partisan realist schema for interpreting the news through the constructed persona of the host,a complex underlying meaning structure formulated around binary oppositions,and a sophisticated suite of rhetorical techniques. The show presents itself as a simple window onto reality,but it takes arefined, partisan cultural system to ensure that what viewers see through that apparently neutral window supports the political interests of the show’s creators. To present the news in a way that suggests partisan conclusions that still seem realistic rather than biased,individual episodes and segments of the show frame issues in terms of a meaning structure that leads strongly to partisan conclusions, but affords an appearance of the reasonable consideration of diverse views.The paper suggests that this kind of deep analysis of meaning structures is important for making sense of partisan realism as a style of political communication.

Key words: partisanship, media news analysis, cultural systems, structural hermeneutics