scholarly journals Apologia, Image Repair and Rhetoric in the Defence of Electoral Defeat

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Kwabena Sarfo Sarfo-Kantankah
Keyword(s):  
Political Discourse ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
Image Repair ◽  
God's Will ◽  
Political Discourse Analysis ◽  
Electoral Defeat ◽  
General Elections ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Rhetorical Questions ◽  
Defence Strategies

Using the concepts of apologia, image repair and rhetoric, this paper examines the strategies employed by a former president of the Republic of Ghana to simultaneously maintain his reputation after losing the 2016 Ghanaian general elections and campaign for re-lection as the standard bearer of his party. The paper finds that the former president did not accept responsibility for the electoral loss, but used several indirect ways to deny responsibility for the defeat. He employed bolstering, accusation/attack, playing the victim, throwing a challenge and the God’s will factor as defence strategies in order to repair his image. He exploited the Aristotelian appeals of logos, ethos and pathos to boost his persuasion. In doing so, he deployed several rhetorical tools such as metaphor, allusion, rhetorical questions and parallelism to enhance the expression of the defence strategies. The analysis reveals that, as noted in the literature, some of the image repair strategies espoused by Benoit (1995, 2015), for example, outright denial and mortification, hardly apply to political contexts – the former President’s defence was indirectly expressed. Thus, the paper concludes that combining the concepts of apologia, image repair and rhetoric in the analysis of political discourse can illuminate political discourse analysis. The paper has implications for communicating defence, reputation repair and political rhetoric.

“Godsplaining”: Toward a Theory of Religious Capital in Political Rhetoric

2021 ◽  
pp. 002193472110293
Author(s):  
Wincharles Coker
Keyword(s):  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
Radio Station ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Rhetorical Strategies ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
God's Will ◽  
Biblical Allusion ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Prophetic Authority

This paper is an effort at theorizing the neologism godsplaining. The term interrogates the attempt by religious clerics to earn cultural capital by explaining God’s actions and preferences. The paper does so by deconstructing the political rhetoric of two popular Ghanaian prophets, following the outcome of the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections. Using deconstruction as an analytical tool, the study analyses a 2-hour interview the clerics granted an Accra-based local radio station on its morning show. The analysis showed that the religious leaders engaged in “godsplaining” by employing five basic rhetorical strategies— appeal to prophetic authority, kategoria versus apologia, erotema, biblical allusion, and anecdote in order to defend why their perceived political party either won or lost the 2020 general elections. The analysis revealed that the deliberative rhetoric of the prophets suggested a biased hermeneutic of God’s will in favor of their preferred political affinity. The study has implications for further research in media studies, religious communication, and the question of divinity in partisan politics.

scholarly journals Appeals in Political Rhetoric about Covid19: Political Discourse Analysis of Speeches by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan

2002 ◽  
Vol V (II) ◽  
pp. 11-21
Author(s):  
Tahir Mahmood ◽  
Muhammad Ahsan Bhatti ◽  
Muqarrab Akbar
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
Corona Virus ◽  
Political Discourse Analysis

This study is basically an analysis using political discourse, with an angle to investigate the appeals in political rhetoric. This study uses Aristotle's model for persuasion and to find out the ethos, logos and pathos elements in the speeches of Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan. This study is presenting the analysis of Imran Khan's first three speeches on the panic situation of the spread of corona-virus. The study reveals that there is a sizeable use of logos and pathos in the speeches on Covid19. Using pathos in the speeches, there is the use of different appeals, i.e. fear, nationhood, hope and religion. There is significant use of fear and religious appeal in the category of pathos, while the use of logical appeal was also in ample size.

scholarly journals Trusted and doubted: Discourses of parenting training in two Swedish official inquiries, 1947 and 2008

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (20_suppl) ◽  
pp. 59-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hetty Rooth ◽  
Ulla Forinder ◽  
Maja Söderbäck ◽  
Eija Viitasara ◽  
Katarina Piuva
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Subject Positions ◽  
Discourse Practices ◽  
Parenting Training ◽  
Political Discourse Analysis

Aim: The aim of this study was to analyse discourses of parenting training in official inquires in Sweden that explicitly deal with the bringing up of children and parental education and how the representations of the problems and their solutions affect parental subject positions in the early welfare state and at the onset of the 21st century. Method: We carried out a discourse analysis of two public inquiries of 1947 and 2008, drawing on theories about governmentality and power regimes. Tools from political discourse analysis were used to investigate the objectives of political discourse practices. Results: Both inquiries referred to a context of change and new life demands as a problem. Concerning suggestions for solutions, there were discrepancies in parents’ estimated need of expert knowledge and in descriptions of parental capacity. In a discourse of trust and doubt, the parents in 1947 were positioned as trusted welfare partners and secure raisers of future generations, and in 2008, as doubted adults, feared to be faltering in their child-rearing tasks. Conclusions: The analysis revealed how governmental problem descriptions, reasoning about causes and suggestions of solutions influenced parents’ subject positions in a discourse of trust and doubt, and made way for governmental interventions with universal parenting training in the 21st century.

scholarly journals A Pragma-Dialectical Approach to Political Discourse Analysis: A Case Study of the Former United State Trade Representative Ron Kirk’s Remarks on the Poultry Case

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Shi Wen
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Critical Discussion ◽  
Background Information ◽  
The Political ◽  
United State ◽  
Dialectical Approach ◽  
Political Discourse Analysis

<p align="LEFT">Under the research framework of Pragma-</p><p align="LEFT">Dialectics, this paper analyses and evaluates the</p><p align="LEFT">former United State trade representative Ron</p><p align="LEFT">Kirk’s remarks on the trade conflict of poultry.</p><p align="LEFT">Through this case study, I intend to develop a</p><p align="LEFT">pragma-dialectical approach to the political</p><p align="LEFT">discourse. Based on the argumentative</p><p align="LEFT">reconstruction, strategic maneuvering analysis</p><p align="LEFT">and critical evaluation of the remarks, this</p><p align="LEFT">paper finds that even if Ron Kirk’s remarks look</p><p align="LEFT">reasonable apparently, there are still some</p><p align="LEFT">fallacies hidden in them. In order to make the</p><p align="LEFT">US government benefit most from the trade</p><p align="LEFT">conflict, after considering comprehensively of</p><p align="LEFT">the potential topics, audience demands, and</p><p align="LEFT">presentational devices, Ron Kirk maneuvers</p><p align="LEFT">strategically by choosing beneficial starting</p><p>points and arranging argumentative schemes</p><p align="LEFT">technically. By doing so, he can transmit Anti-</p><p align="LEFT">China ideology to the international society</p><p align="LEFT">imperceptibly. In addition, by taking into</p><p align="LEFT">consideration the background information of</p><p align="LEFT">the poultry case and the Ten Commandments of</p><p align="LEFT">a critical discussion, this paper reveals that, the</p><p align="LEFT">accepted starting points and the argument</p><p align="LEFT">schemes are abused in Ron Kirk’s remarks.</p><p align="LEFT">Through the case study, this paper tries to study</p><p align="LEFT">political discourse from Pragma-Dialectical</p><p align="LEFT">approach and provide feasible analytical</p><p align="LEFT">methods and reasonable evaluative standards</p><p align="LEFT">for the political discourse analysis, so that a</p><p align="LEFT">new perspective will be offered for researches</p><p>on political discourse.</p>

scholarly journals Come Fly With Me: Analyzing The F-35 Aircraft Acquisition Discourse to Study Incivility in Question Period

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arun Jacob
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Accountability ◽  
The People ◽  
Canadian Politics ◽  
The Government

The main objective behind the parliamentary practice of Question Period is to ensure that the government is held accountable to the people. Rather than being a political accountability tool and a showcase of public discourse, these deliberations are most often displays of vitriolic political rhetoric. I will be focusing my research on the ways in which incivil political discourse permeates the political mediascape with respect to one instance in Canadian politics - the acquisition of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter. I believe that incivility in the political discourse of Question Period must be understood within the mechanics of the contemporary public sphere. By interrogating the complexities of how political discourse is being mediatized, produced and consumed within the prevailing ideological paradigms, I identify some of the contemporary social, cultural and political practices that produce incivility in parliamentary discourse.

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