From conflict to consensus: Cognitive remodeling via proximization strategies in mediation discourse—An STA triadic analysis of 10 TV mediation episodes

Abstract

In televised mediation programs, mediators facilitate the alignment of disputing parties’ positions through discursive negotiation, ultimately achieving dispute resolution and social harmony. To investigate the comprehensive strategic use of mediators’ discourse, this study analyzes 10 episodes of Gold Medal Mediation as a linguistic corpus. Employing Cap’s Proximization Theory and the STA (Spatial-Temporal-Axiological) model within a mixed-methods framework, we quantitatively and qualitatively examine the specific strategies of proximization deployed by mediators. This approach systematically reveals how mediators utilize three-dimensional proximization resources to negotiate positions between parties. The results demonstrate a significant gradient in mediators’ use of STA resources: Spatial proximization dominates, temporal proximization is secondary, and axiological proximization plays a supplementary role. At the micro-level, mediators construct discursive legitimacy through differentiated configurations of STA sub-strategies: Entity anchoring in the spatial dimension; future orientation in the temporal dimension; conflict mitigation in the axiological dimension. These configurations culminate in a replicable linguistic intervention model for dispute mediation.