scholarly journals “Stirring it up!” Emotionality in audience responses to political speeches

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 611-627
Author(s):  
Peter Bull ◽  
Maurice Waddle

Speaker-audience interaction in political speeches has been conceptualised as a form of dialogue between speaker and audience. Of particular importance is research pioneered by Atkinson (e.g., 1983, 1984a, 1984b) on the analysis of rhetorical devices utilised by politicians to invite audience applause. Atkinson was not concerned with emotionalisation in political speech-making, rather with how applause was invited in relation to group identities through ingroup praise and/or outgroup derogation. However, his theory has provided important insights into how speakers invite audience responses, and a powerful stimulus for associated research. The purpose of this article is to address the shortfall of emotionalisation research within the realm of political speeches. We begin with an account of Atkinsons influential theory of rhetoric, followed by a relevant critique. The focus then turns to our main aim, namely, how key findings from previous speech research can be interpreted in terms of emotionalisation. Specifically, the focus is on audience responses to the words of political speakers, and how different forms of response may reflect audience emotionality. It is proposed that both duration and frequency of invited affiliative audience responses may indicate more positive emotional audience responses, while uninvited interruptive audience applause and booing may provide notable clues to issues on which audiences have strong feelings. It is concluded that there is strong evidence that both invited and uninvited audience responses may provide important clues to emotionalisation - both positive and negative - in political speeches.

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 520-541
Author(s):  
Sarah Ledoux ◽  
Peter Bull

Abstract Recent research has established that Japanese political oratory and audience behaviour (Bull & Feldman 2011; Feldman & Bull 2012) are fundamentally different to those found in British political speeches (Heritage & Greatbatch 1986). To further develop these cross-cultural analyses of political rhetoric, speaker-audience interaction was analysed in ten speeches by the two second-round candidates in the 2012 French presidential elections (François Hollande; Nicolas Sarkozy). Analogous to British speeches, French speeches were characterised by “implicit” affiliative response invitations and asynchronous speaker-audience interaction, in contrast to Japanese “explicit” invitations and synchrony. These results were interpreted in terms of Hofstede’s (2001) individualism-collectivism cultural dimensions. Dissimilarities in audience responses between the two candidates were also identified and discussed. The analysis of cross-cultural differences continues to reveal the intricate differences between societies, and ensures academic understanding on rhetoric is not boxed into crude universal rules.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 601-622 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyangmi Choi ◽  
Peter Bull ◽  
Darren Reed

Previous studies showed that cultural dimensions (individualism and collectivism) are related to audience behavior in responding to political speeches. However, this study suggests that speech context is an important issue to be considered in understanding speaker-audience interaction in political speeches. Forms of response, audience behavior, and response rates were analyzed in three speech contexts: acceptance speeches to nomination as political parties’ candidates for presidential election, presidential election campaign speeches, and presidential inauguration speeches in the Korean presidential election of 2012. We found that audience response forms and behavior were distinctive according to the three speech contexts: in-group partisan leadership, competitive, and formal contexts. However, there was no relationship between the affiliative response rate and electoral success in the election. The function of the audience response is popularity and support of a speaker in acceptance and election campaign speeches, while it is conformity to social norms in inauguration speeches.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 473-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Bull

Significant insights have been gained into how politicians interact with live audiences through the detailed microanalysis of video and audio recordings, especially of rhetorical techniques used by politicians to invite applause. The overall aim of this paper is to propose a new theoretical model of speaker-audience interaction in set-piece political speeches, based on the concept of dialogue between speaker and audience. Research is reviewed not only on applause, but also on other audience responses, such as laughter, cheering, chanting, and booing. Research is also reviewed on other factors besides rhetorical devices, in particular, delivery, speech content, and uninvited applause. Although these analyses are based primarily on British speeches, they also include recent studies of speeches delivered in both Japan and the USA. This cross-cultural perspective, it is proposed, provides significant insights into the role of political rhetoric in speaker-audience interaction, which may be usefully conceptualized in terms of broader cross-cultural differences between collectivist and individualist societies.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ofer Feldman ◽  
Peter Bull

Affiliative response invitations were analysed in 38 speeches delivered during the 2009 Japanese general election by 18 candidates for the House of Representatives (the lower house of the National Diet of Japan). The results clearly replicated those reported by Bull and Feldman (2011) in their analysis of the 2005 Japanese general election. Highly significant correlations were found between the two studies not only for the overall pattern of affiliative responses, but also for each type of response (applause, laughter and cheering). In both studies, over 70% of affiliative responses occurred in response to explicit invitations from the speaker. This contrasts with British political meetings, where applause occurs principally in response to implicit rhetorical devices. However, the candidates’ electoral success showed no significant correlations either with overall affiliative response rate, or with rates for applause, laughter or cheering. It is proposed that the prime function of affiliative response invitations at these meetings is not so much to win votes as to give the audience the opportunity to express their support both for the candidates and for the political parties they represent.


Author(s):  
Dolynskiy I.V.

Increasing of language contacts, globalization and internationalization of public relations, expansion of modern information technologies encourage a comprehensive study of modern English communication. Political activity has always played a special role in society. An important role in determining the country’s international image is played by its presentation by the country’s political leaders. With the help of speeches, politicians have the opportunity to address both the international community and the citizens of their country. Direct contact with the audience determines the choice of lexical, syntactic and phonetic means in the design of speech. Political speeches have three main functions: the communication function, the announcement function and the influence function. American oratory theorists point to the need for the speaker to concentrate on composing his speech, taking into account the audience reaction what he is trying to provoke. Much attention in the American oratory theory is paid to the speech compositional construction. One of the political discourse genres is political speech. Presidential political speech is an oral political text, which is proclaimed by the president to a mass audience, sets urgent tasks in a particular sphere of public life, and gives recommendations for the implementation of tasks. It performs the functions of persuasion, agitation, congratulations, has a pre-created script, which depends on the communicative situation. The construction of a political speech is based on the principle of argumentation (introduction, main part, final part), which facilitates the speech audience perception. The study was based on the political speeches texts of two American presidents – John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The analyzed speeches have different topics: inaugural addresses of presidents, comments during hostilities and diplomatic (delivered during visits). The article highlights the concept of political discourse; it’s identified and described the main types of political speeches; revealed the linguistic and stylistic features and expression means of John F. Kennedy’s; Ronald Reagan; Hillary Clinton political speeches.Key words: English discourse, political speeches, linguistic and stylistic aspect, translation aspect, rhetorical devices. Розширення мовних контактів, глобалізація та інтернаціоналізація суспільних відносин, впровадження сучасних інформаційних технологій спонукають до всебічного дослідження сучасної англомовної комунікації. Політична діяльність завжди відігравала особливу роль у житті суспільства. Політичний дискурс – це явище, з яким люди стикаються щодня. Боротьба за владу є основною темою та рушійним мотивом цієї сфери спіл-кування. Політична комунікація, орієнтована на викладення тих чи інших політичних подій, пропаганду ідей, установок, цінностей, володіє емоційним та інтелектуальним впливом на свідомість громадян. Важливу роль у визначенні іміджу країни відіграє спосіб презентації політичними лідерами держави. За допомогою виступів політики мають можливість звернутися як до міжнародної спільноти, так і до громадян своєї країни. Прямий контакт з аудиторією зумовлює вибір лексичних, синтаксичних і фонетичних засобів в оформленні промови. Політичні промови мають три основні функції: функцію спілкування, функцію повідомлення та функцію впливу. Теоретики американського ораторського мистецтва вказують на необхідність оратора сконцентруватися на тому, щоб його промова була складена, враховуючи реакцію аудиторії, яку він намагається викликати. Велика увага в теорії американського ораторського мистецтва приділяється композиційній побудові ораторської промови. Одним із жанрів політичного дискурсу є політична промова. Президентська політична промова – це усний політичний текст, який проголошується президентом перед масовою аудиторією, ставить назрілі завдання в тій чи іншій сфері громадського життя, дає рекомендації щодо здійснення поставлених завдань. Вона виконує функції переконання, агітації, вітання, має завчасно створений сценарій, який залежить від комунікативної ситуації. Побудова політичної промови засновується на принципі аргументації (вступ, основна частина, завершальна частина), що полегшує сприйняття промови аудиторією. На основі аналізу текстів політичних промов можна змоделювати інтереси, вподобання, типові реакції політичного лідера, його уявлення про друзів і ворогів. Матеріалом дослідження слугували тексти політичних промов двох американських президентів – Джона Кеннеді, Рональда Рейгана – й кандидата в президенти Гілларі Клінтон. Проаналізовані промови мають різну тематику: інавгураційні звернення президентів, коментарі під час воєнних дій і дипломатичні (що виголошувалися під час візитів). У статті викладено поняття політичного дискурсу; визначено й описано основні типи полі-тичних промов; виявлено лінгвостилістичні особливості й засоби вираження політичних промов Джона Кеннеді, Рональда Рейгана, Гілларі Клінтон.Ключові слова:англомовний дискурс, політичні промови, лінгвостилістичний аспект, перекладацький аспект, риторичні прийоми.


2001 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Stephan Dähne

Qur'anic wording in political speeches in classical Arabic literature (khuṭba, pl. khuṭab) is often stripped of its original (Qur'anic) meaning and used to convey a completely new message. In all cases, the Qur'anic wording is made to fit into both the theme of the text and into its grammatical structure. Most striking is the phenomenon which may be named ‘equivalence of contexts’. This phenomenon differs from its very closely related counterparts, known in classical Arabic literature as iqtibās (quotation) and talmīh (allusion). Even if it is not a constant feature of political khuṭab, taken as a whole, the phenomenon of ‘equivalence of the contexts’ can be detected quite frequently therein. It cannot be simply understood as a product of pure chance. It is rather a rhetorical device comparable to other rhetorical devices like iqtibās and talmīḥ in so far as it serves to embellish and to emphasise the message connected with it.


2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 699-722
Author(s):  
Samu Pehkonen

The article introduces the concept of choreography, defined as situationally enacted participation and action framework that provides sequential structure for social interaction, for studying performer–audience interaction during musical performances. Performers develop a preferred type of interaction during a repeated series of concerts. Audiences become absorbed in the choreography through participation in the concerts and the circulation of the Internet videos from earlier concerts. As the audience learns to expect certain actions from the side of the performers, improvisation is required from the performers in order for the choreography to be successful. Attention is paid to the methods the performers use to produce “watchables” and to manage the audience responses. The spatial, temporal, and gestural elements of this enacted choreography are analyzed sequentially using conversation analysis. The longitudinal data is composed of YouTube concert videos of Kings of Convenience performing a song, “I’d Rather Dance with You.”


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 107-121
Author(s):  
Ahmed Sokarno Abdel-Hafiz Hussein

Nigel Farage’s speeches and rhetoric have been instrumental and effective in the British voters’ decision to withdraw from the European Union. This paper aims to study rhetorical devices in the speeches of Nigel Farage at the European Parliament: list constructions, contrastive pairs etc. Having identified and classified the rhetorical devices, I proceed to perform a frequency analysis with the purpose of determining the number of times each device occurs. Thus the research questions are: (a) what rhetorical devices permeate the speeches? and (b) what is their frequency of occurrence? In order to achieve these objectives, I have studied twenty speeches Farage delivered at the European Parliament during the period from 2010 to 2017. I examine rhetorical devices that were previously treated as nonessential in Farage’s speeches (cf. Hädicke 2012) and I present arguments against the claim that the three-part list is the most common strategy in political speeches.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyangmi Choi ◽  
Peter Bull

Abstract An analysis was conducted of the discourse of South Korean political speakers in relation to collective audience responses, based on three situational contexts. Results showed marked contextual differences in the formatting of messages used to invite audience responses. In campaign speeches, explicit (dialogic) rhetorical devices (RDs) occurred most frequently, thereby supporting Bull and Miskinis’ (2015) hypothesis that such RDs are characteristic of political speech-making in collectivist far eastern societies. However, this hypothesis was substantively qualified by findings that (1) in the acceptance and inauguration speeches, implicit RDs were utilized more frequently than explicit (dialogic) RDs, and (2) in those two contexts, it was non-formatted messages that occurred more frequently than either explicit or implicit RDs separately.


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