Media Communicative Discourse and Identity Crises: EU and USA

  • Abstract:

    Today one of the most discussed questions is the crisis of identity. This problem is popular both among scholars and publicity, which means that there are a lot of approaches to the question. We suppose that one of the key moments in the research of this crisis is connected with media discourse and two types of identity – ‘open and closed’. Our hypothesis is that in the conditions of information society communicative discourse formed by significant media event is a trigger and so called litmus paper for the reveal of the break lines in the collective identity structure (national and supranational). Taking into account the dichotomy of ‘open’ and ‘closed’ identity, we can see that if information streams in the media communicative discourse don’t come into conflict with traditional elements of identity, this discourse becomes effective mechanism of further development of identity. Whereas it enters into controversy with these elements it provokes a conflict between ‘open’ and ‘closed’ types of identity and allow to reveal the key lines of the break.The invasion in Iraq can be regarded as one of the most remarkable events in the beginning of 21 century that produced communicative discourse in the Western society. The research of the information streams connected with this war is fruitful for the attempt to prove our hypothesis and to model the mechanisms of European and Northern American identities development.