Contextomy: the art of quoting out of context

Abstract

‘Contextomy’ refers to the selective excerpting of words from their original linguistic context in a way that distorts the source’s intended meaning, a practice commonly referred to as ‘quoting out of context’. Contextomy is employed in contemporary mass media to promote products, defame public figures and misappropriate rhetoric. A contextomized quotation not only prompts audiences to form a false impression of the source’s intentions, but can contaminate subsequent interpretation of the quote when it is restored to its original context. The author delineates this counterintuitive consequence of contextomy in an analysis of conservative politicians’ quotation of Rev. Martin Luther King in their campaigns to eliminate affirmative action programs in the US.