polls and surveys show

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1、Chapter6PollsandsurveysshowPublicopinionasapersuasivedeviceineditorialdiscourseTuijaVirtanenNewspapersandothermediacommonlyrelyonpublicopinionpollsandsurveystogeneratenews.Further,pollsandsurveysprovidewritersofargu-mentativetextssuchaseditorialswithapoolofresultswhichtheycanuseas

2、evidencetosupportclaims.Ofcoursewritersneednottakeliterallywhatpollsandsurveysseemtoindicateinordertousethemforpersuasivepurposes;evenacriticaldiscussionofpollsandsurveyspresupposestheexistenceofpollingasanestablishedinstitutioninsociety.Itisimportanttoinvestigatehowtheresultsofpo

3、llsandsurveysarepre-sentedinnewspapersandothermediabecausetheysteerpeoplesperceptionsinhiddenways.Evenifaninformedreadershipisawareofthepitfallsofpolling,thediscourseofpublicopinionstillreadilyservespersuasivepur-poses.Bymediatingthediscourseofpollsandsurveys,interlocutorsconstruc

4、tcontextsforandthroughtheirtexts,andtheintertextualityandinterdiscur-sivityofthemediareinforcetheimpactofpublicopinionsurveysonthatveryopinion.Studiesofpollinghavehithertoprimarilyfocusedonthepsychologicalconsequencesofaskingquestions.Pollinghasthuslongbeenconsideredsome-thingofar

5、eflectionofpublicopinionandtheconcernhasaccordinglybeenwiththemechanismsofelicitingthatopinion.Yet,itisthediscourseofpollinganditsmediationthroughthepublicspacethathelpconstructthepublicopin-ionreferredtoinnewspapersandelsewhere.Hence,Lipari(2000)showshowpollingdiscourseservesthepu

6、rposesofsocialinteractionandhelpsmaintainandreinforceideologiesinsociety.Sherightlyconcludes:TuijaVirtanenWhatmakesthetacitassumptionsembeddedinpolldiscoursedoublyper-suasiveisthelegitimacylentthembythesupposedvoiceofthepublic.Whatmakesthemdoublypowerfulistherepeatedinterpretat

7、ion,dissemination,andreiterationofpolldiscourseinspeeches,policydebates,newsreports,andotherformsofpoliticaldiscourse.(Lipari2000:210)Inthislight,theinterdiscursivechain(Fairclough2001)mediatingandmar-ketingthediscourseofpublicopinionconstitutesacrucialsiteofstudy.Thepresentchapte

8、rfocusesononelinkinsuchachain,i.e