REPRESENTATION OF THE IMAGE OF A FRIEND / AN ENEMY IN THE MASS MEDIA OF VENEZUELA

The article deals with analysis and specifics of mass media of Venezuela with regard to representation of the image of “enemy” and “friend” of Venezuela and its political leaders. The goal of the article is to reconstruct and interpret the image of “enemy” and “friend” in the national media of Venezuela, to study both journalistic and linguistic tools used when creating news stories, as well as to analyze to what extent these tools and methods affect the formation or alteration of public opinion in the “friend-enemy” paradigm. The relevance of this study is due to the critical political situation in Venezuela, namely the confrontation of the National Assembly and the Government of Venezuela, which takes place in the media as well. The novelty lies in the fact that so far, the mass media of Venezuela has not been examined as an instrument to create the image of a “friend” and an “enemy” of the country. The research was based on press and online newspapers of Venezuela and other Latin American countries, scientific and journalistic articles published in South American journals, and also documented statements of political and public figures of past and present. To analyze the available material we used the tools of speech act theory and speech communication theory. Arguments are given that the linguistic units under consideration have a strong effect on readers‟ consciousness. In the course of this research we identified and systemized the most frequently used linguistic instruments of forming of image of enemy and friend.