Conceptual Metaphors in Political Discourse: Mechanisms of Shaping Thinking and Public Opinion in Digital Media Speech
Yegana Gahramanova 
Abstract. This research examines the pragmatic mechanisms of conceptual metaphors in shaping public opinion and collective thinking within political discourse in the digital media environment. Drawing on Lakoff and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and Teun van Dijk's Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the paper analyzes political speech patterns across digital news portals and social media platforms. Simultaneously, through quantitative and qualitative linguistic analysis, it performs cognitive mapping of lexical-semantic units, identifying the potential of these expressions for rapid dissemination and emotional impact within the algorithmic environment of digital networks. The study demonstrates that political actors frame complex socio-political realities by projecting concrete Source Domains (e.g., "WAR", "Natural dısaster", "Constructıon", "Dısease") onto abstract Target Domains. The analysis of over 450 digital media texts reveals that "WAR" metaphors induce emotional mobilization and polarization, whereas "DISEASE" and "Natural dısaster" metaphors construct an illusion of inevitability regarding specific policy decisions. The findings emphasize the necessity of critical media literacy to resist linguistic manipulation in the digital era.
Keywords: political discourse, conceptual metaphor, digital media, framing, public opinion, cognitive linguistics, critical discourse analysis