| Abstract [eng] |
The master thesis Emotional Narratives in Political Communication in the Time of COVID-19 Pandemic analyzes emotional narratives created and enabled in public political communication of representatives of the Lithuanian government in time of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the role of emotions in political communication becomes more important in recent academic research, this paper raises a question of how Lithuanian politicians created and enabled emotional narratives in the time of COVID-19 pandemic and whether they can be an effective tool for politicians to control population and seek structural power. Combining the theory of cultural politics of emotion by Sara Ahmed with the methodological tools of discourse analysis, this paper offers an in depth analysis of the public communication of the Prime Minister of Lithuania Saulius Skvernelis and Minister of Health Aurelijus Veryga of the time of the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic. Various press releases and social media posts are taken into analysis. The empirical research begins by identifying specific discourse components with emotional potential, moving on to interpreting their means with the help of various ligvistic tools and finally, based on theoretical implications and methodological tools structuring three main emotional narratives, produced by the representatives of the government. The narratives are as follows: the war, the disobedience and the unity narratives. The results of conducted analysis also disclose that all three of the emotional narratives can be used as a tool to control population in times of crisis, only by different means. This study contributes to the research field of emotions in political communication by presenting an in depth case analysis of how specific emotional narratives can be used in political communication in a public health crisis. The research can be further developed by including additional theories with clearly identified emotional narratives, bigger data samples, prolonging period of time of analysis or introducing different approaches of discourse analysis. |
