Strategic Ambiguity and Discursive Power in The Contemporary Political Media Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis (Published)
The Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach is used in this study to examine the connection between strategic ambiguity and discursive power in the political discourse of the contemporary media. Ambiguity has become a key language and ideology in contemporary political communication, a method used by political actors and media institutions to create persuasive stories, mediate ideational conflict and consolidate institutional power. This study seeks to investigate the role of strategically ambiguous language in political media discourse and its role in creating/producing discursive power. This study is of a qualitative nature, following Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis, which is further strengthened by the socio-cognitive perspective of van Dijk and discourse-historical perspective of Wodak. The texts are selected political media texts such as political speeches, televised interviews, news report, press conferences and social media’s political statements. The analysis is concerned with the identification of linguistic elements linked to strategic ambiguity like vagueness, euphemism, modality, metaphorical framing, implication and lexical indeterminacy. The results show that strategic ambiguity is a conscious communication tactic to allow political figures interpretive latitude, deflect direct blame and reach ideologically different audiences at once. The study also shows the active participation media in consolidating the ambiguity of political narratives, either by framing or selective representation, which is used to consolidate the ideology and public opinion management. Ambiguous political discourse was identified as a discursive and symbolic power that works not only as a rhetorical imprecision, but as an advanced rhetorical device. Furthermore, the analysis shows that today’s digital environments amplify the persuasive power of ambiguity by speeding up the flow of disembodied and politically charged messages that are both loaded with emotion and uncertain. This means that ambiguity fosters ideological polarization, multiplicity of interpretation and the normalization of hegemonic political narratives in today’s society. The study ends with the finding that strategic ambiguity is one of the core elements of the political media discourse of today and is an effective discursive power. It additionally shows how the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) method can be useful for revealing ideological patterns and power dynamics in political communication. The research is useful for discourse studies, political linguistics, and media analysis since it helps to better understand the role of language as a tool of ideological manipulation and socio-political control in current media environments.
Keywords: Ideology, Media Discourse, Political Communication, critical discourse analysis, discursive power, linguistic manipulation, political media discourse, strategic ambiguity