Rhetorical moves in political discourse: closing statements by presidential candidates in US primary election debates

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Schubert
Keyword(s):  
Political Discourse ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Sample Analysis ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
Primary Election ◽  
Presidential Primary ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
Political Persuasion

Abstract Presidential primary debates in the USA are commonly concluded by brief closing statements, in which the competitors outline the central messages of their election campaigns. These statements constitute a subgenre characterized by a set of recurring rhetorical moves, which are defined as functional units geared towards the respective communicative objective, in this case political persuasion. Located at the interface of rhetorical move analysis and political discourse studies, this paper demonstrates that moves and embedded steps in closing statements fulfill the persuasive function of legitimizing the respective candidate as the most preferable presidential successor. The study is based on the transcripts of 98 closing statements, which were extracted from eight Democratic and eleven Republican primary debates held between August 2015 and April 2016. Typical moves, such as projecting the speaker’s future political agenda or diagnosing the current situation in America, are presented with the help of illustrative examples, frequencies of occurrence, and a sample analysis of a complete closing statement.

Strategic functions of linguistic impoliteness in US primary election debates

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Schubert
Keyword(s):  
Verbal Aggression ◽  
Public Image ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
The Public ◽  
Primary Election ◽  
Presidential Primary ◽  
Political Discourse Analysis ◽  
Negative Face ◽  
Political Persuasion ◽  
Self Defence

Abstract Since presidential primary debates in US election campaigns serve the function of identifying the most promising nominee for the subsequent presidency, they constitute a highly adversarial multilogue. Debaters do not only exchange factual arguments but also use diverse forms of impoliteness geared towards damaging the public image of political opponents and persuading audiences to vote accordingly. Combining political discourse analysis with pragmatic approaches to impoliteness, this paper examines the ways in which verbal aggression in debates inflicts damage on the addressee’s positive and negative face. On the basis of five Democratic and five Republican debates from 2016, it is shown that impolite utterances fulfil the four central strategic functions of (a) delegitimization, (b) coercion, (c) entertainment, and (d) (self-)defence, all of which support the macro-function of political persuasion through the construction of personal preferability.

One of Many Tools to Win the Election

2016 ◽  
pp. 210-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashik Shafi ◽  
Fred Vultee
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Agenda Building ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
The Public ◽  
Virtual Presence ◽  
Us Presidential Election

Presidential campaigns today are increasingly integrating social media such as Facebook as an efficient tool to communicate with the public and organize their supporters. In a bid to explore how the Facebook is used by the politicians during election campaigns, this chapter explored official Facebook posts by two presidential candidates ahead of the 2012 US presidential election. The findings suggest Facebook was used in the campaign as a platform to organize like-minded voters, and reporting a virtual presence to the voters. Facebook was used strategically to resonate with the real-life campaign, and disseminate instant messages, rather than engaging in discussion with the public. The two candidates had only minor difference in the characteristics of their Facebook contents. The implication of the research for the online political agenda-building tactics is discussed.

False reasoning and argumentation in the Twitter discourse of the Prime Minister of Israel

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salomi Boukala
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Argumentative Discourse ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Critical Discourse Studies ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
Islamist Terrorism ◽  
Discourse Historical Approach

Abstract This paper explores the Twitter discourse of the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, regarding security issues and the threat of ‘Islamist terrorism’ as manifested in the latest election campaign (March 2015) and his tweets and statements on Operation Protective Edge (July – August 2014). By focusing on national security and the underlying threat of terrorism against Israel and the West on Twitter, I argue that Netanyahu disseminates his political agenda further and attempts to communicate political decisions on the Gaza conflict in a digital environment. By synthesizing Aristotle’s dialectic and rhetoric and the Discourse Historical Approach (DHA) to Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), and drawing on the concepts of topos and fallacy, I attempt to understand and explain how the Gaza conflict is communicated on social media by the Israeli Prime Minister. My aim is also to shed light on the validity of social media in political discourse and to examine whether and how social media can play a role in the propagation of political discourse in times of crisis through an argumentative discourse analysis of the tweets posted by the Prime Minister of Israel.

scholarly journals Hate Speech – What Reduces the Phenomenon in Media

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 170-180
Author(s):  
Kristina Nenova
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Way

Hate speech can be used as an instrument preferred to exert political influence upon voters during election campaigns. This article provides two examples to support this assumption – the first one is related to a Kirk and Martin’s study on the way main presidential candidates in the USA ran their campaigns in 2016, while the other assumption is related to the current debate in Bulgaria on the National Child Strategy 2019-2030. The present article  focuses upon possibilities to reduce the phenomenon’s influence as well as upon some of the challenges researchers and policy makers face in their attempts to limit it.

One of Many Tools to Win the Election

2018 ◽  
pp. 24-42
Author(s):  
Ashik Shafi ◽  
Fred Vultee
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Agenda Building ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
The Public ◽  
Virtual Presence ◽  
Us Presidential Election

Presidential campaigns today are increasingly integrating social media such as Facebook as an efficient tool to communicate with the public and organize their supporters. In a bid to explore how the Facebook is used by the politicians during election campaigns, this chapter explored official Facebook posts by two presidential candidates ahead of the 2012 US presidential election. The findings suggest Facebook was used in the campaign as a platform to organize like-minded voters, and reporting a virtual presence to the voters. Facebook was used strategically to resonate with the real-life campaign, and disseminate instant messages, rather than engaging in discussion with the public. The two candidates had only minor difference in the characteristics of their Facebook contents. The implication of the research for the online political agenda-building tactics is discussed.

Relational and competence perceptions of presidential candidates during primary election campaigns

1993 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Pfau ◽  
Tracy Diedrich ◽  
Karla M. Larson ◽  
Kim M. Van Winkle
Keyword(s):  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
Primary Election

scholarly journals Historical Mob Violence and the 2016 Presidential Election

2021 ◽  
Vol 694 (1) ◽  
pp. 172-188
Author(s):  
Rebecca Abbott ◽  
Amy Kate Bailey
Keyword(s):  
Black People ◽  
Mob Violence ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
Southern States ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Presidential Primary ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
Level Data ◽  
The Social ◽  
White Voters

As a 2016 presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump invoked racially charged rhetoric to galvanize conservative white voters who felt left behind in the “new economy.” In this article, we ask whether Trump’s ability to attract electoral support in that way was linked to local histories of racist mob violence. We use county-level data on threatened and completed lynchings of Black people to predict support for Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primary and general election across eleven southern states. We find that fewer voters cast their ballots for Trump in counties that had suppressed a comparatively larger share of potentially lethal episodes of racist mob violence. Supplementary analyses suggest that counties’ histories of violence are also related to their electoral support for Republican presidential candidates more broadly. We posit that this correlation points to the durable effects of racist violence on local cultures and the imprint of community histories on the social environment.

Family as a framing resource for political identity construction: Introduction sequences in presidential primary debates

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Sclafani
Keyword(s):  
Political Discourse ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Presidential Debates ◽  
Family Identity ◽  
Political Identities ◽  
Presidential Primary ◽  
Family Discourse ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Family Identities

AbstractThis study investigates the construction of political identity in the 2011–2012 US Republican presidential primary debates. Focusing on candidates’ self-introductions, I analyze how candidates use references to family members and roles to frame their political identities or ‘presidential selves’. Family references are shown to (i) frame candidates’ personal identities as family men/women; (ii) interweave the spheres of home and politics and consequently, their private and public selves; (iii) serve as a tool of discursive one-upmanship in self-introduction sequences; and (iv) demonstrate intimate familiarity and expertise on the topic of national security. This study extends research on family discourse and identity by examining the rhetorical function of mentioning family-related identities in explicitly persuasive public discourse, and contributes to sociolinguistic research on political discourse by examining how family identities serve as a resource for framing political identities. (Discourse analysis, framing, family, identity, political discourse, presidential debates, sequentiality)

scholarly journals Perang Tagar Di Ruang Virtual Diskursus Politik Capres Pasca Debat Putaran Kedua

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Ana Fitriana P ◽  
Ema Ema ◽  
Fardiah Oktariani Lubis
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Virtual Space ◽  
The Political ◽  
Virtual Communication ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Source Of Information

This study aims to uncover the political discourse of the Presidential Candidates after the second round of debates, Jokowi VS Prabowo in virtual space. The background of the political discourse of the 2019 Presidential Election debate in the virtual space gave rise to various responses and sentiments among the supporters. After the Presidential Election debate, the hashtag war between #BohongLagiJokowi and # 02GagapUnicorn on social media Twitter became the main discussion. The aim is to disperse the power, ideology, and interests behind the presidential political discourse through the Fairclough Critical Discourse Analysis. The research method uses qualitative methods to parse the problem in research, using critical thinking as a basis for research. The results showed the tweet of Prabowo supporters trying to show stunts through language. The use of subject pronouns such as the word Mukidi to dwarf the subject, also uses the hashtags #DeletJokowi, #UnistallJokowi, and #BohongLagiJokowi as symbols of virtual communication. In contrast, the tweet of Jokowi's supporters sent a stuttering sentiment because they didn't understand the e-comer business. Hashtag # 02GagapUnicorn as a virtual symbol for organizing texts. In the order of messo or the production of text, the two supporters make a virtual symbol through the hashtag to become a topic of discussion on Twitter. In the situational or macro aspects are influenced by the post-truth phenomenon that is vague information whose source is unclear, have an impact on the inclusion of opinions on the assassination of certain characters. The advice, wise social media, understand and thoroughly source of information, is not affected by the use of certain metaphors, and at the stage of text, production needs to pay attention to the effects that will impact on the influence of social psychology of each supporter.Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengungkap diskursus politik Capres pasca debat putaran kedua, Jokowi VS Prabowo di ruang virtual. Dilatarbelakangi oleh lanskap diskursus politik debat Pilpres 2019 di ruang virtual yang menimbulkan berbagai tanggapan dan sentimen di antara kedua kubu pendukung. Pasca debat Pilpres perang tagar antara #BohongLagiJokowi dan #02GagapUnicorn di Twitter menjadi pembahasan utama. Tujuannya untuk membongkar kuasa, ideologi dan kepentingan di balik wacana politik Pilpres melalui analisis wacana kritis Fairclough. Metode penelitian menggunakan metode kualitatif untuk mengurai masalah dalam penelitian, dengan menggunakan pemikiran kritis sebagai dasar pijakan penelitian. Hasil penelitian menunjukan tweet warganet pendukung Prabowo berusaha menunjukkan pengkerdilan melalui Bahasa. Penggunaan kata ganti subjek seperti kata Mukidi untuk mengkerdilkan subjek, juga menggunakan tagar #DeletJokowi, #UninstallJokowi dan #BohongLagiJokowi sebagai simbol komunikasi virtual. Namun sebaliknya, tweet warganet pendukung Jokowi membuat sentimen dengan kata-kata gagap karena tidak memahami bisnis milenial (e-commerce). Tagar #02GagapUnicorn sebagai simbol virtual untuk pengorganisasin teks, sedangkan di tahapan produksi teks (messo) kedua pendukung membuat simbol virtual melalui tagar (#) untuk menjadi tren topik pembahasan di Twitter. Pada aspek situasional (makro) dipengaruhi oleh fenomena post-truth yaitu informasi-informasi samar yang tidak jelas sumbernya, berdampak terhadap penggiringan opini terhadap pembunuhan karakter tertentu. Sarannya, bijak bermedia sosial, pahami dan teliti sumber informasinya, tidak terpengaruh terhadap penggunaaan metafora tertentu, serta pada tahap produksi teks perlu memperhatikan efeknya yang akan berdampak pada pengaruh psikologi sosial masing-masing pendukung. 

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