Metaphorical Image of the President of Russia in the German Mass Media

Abstract

The article presents the results of systematic research into the role of metaphorical language means in forming the media image of V. V. Putin, the president of Russia, in the contemporary political media discourse of the German mass media. The primary aim of the study is to analyze the metaphorical image of the President of Russia, as well as to identify the linguistic features of his media portrait represented in the current political media discourse in Germany. The present study opens with a theoretical review of modern Russian and foreign studies devoted to the definition of media image. The study uses the materials of the German language documentary film Putin—Der gefährliche Despot [Putin—The dangerous despot] (ZDF), released in 2022. The research is carried out with the help of the methods of continuous sampling, discourse analysis, contextual analysis, and quantitative analysis. The authors identify 17 main communicative tactics and discursive means of forming the media image of the President of Russia used in 80 contexts, which exemplify the diversity of the used metaphorical language means and stylistic devices. The obtained findings demonstrate the linguistic manifestation of the critical, distrustful, and wary position of Germany towards Russia and Putin; the presence, to a greater extent, of predominantly negative judgments about the personality of the president of Russia and his activities in the political arena; the presence of statements aimed at discrediting Russia and its president among the German population through the use of a diverse array of metaphorical language means of speech influence.