Portrait Sketches about Statesmen: Technology of Creation

Abstract

The paper deals with creation technology of portrait sketches of a statesman in mass media. In such publications the objects of representation are not only social and political interaction of a man with different political institutions and social groups (sociological aspect), but also inner psychological processes (psychological aspect). The author describes the different types of sketches which are widely-spread in political communication. Portrait sketches allow readers to see the inner world of main characters in a publication. Problem sketches give readers an analysis of some political event, phenomenon or process through the prism of a specific person’s life.The article describes the main features of these types of sketches, their functional purpose and their use in political communication.The paper places a special emphasis on the use of means of expression in a sketch while describing a person. The author states, that journalists often use psychology in portrait description. The oretical points are illustrated with the examples of sketches about new appointments in the Government of the Russian Federation.The paper describes the modern trend in a politician’s representation. This trend is connected with the problem of inner world describing in modern political journalism. The author comes to the conclusion that sociological aspect studies an individual in cooperation with social environment, and psychological aspect studies intrapersonal processes. The analysis of an individual’s inner world aims journalists not only at multivariate analysis of motivational sphere of a person which defines the behavior and actions, but also at detection of individual traits of character.