Cracks in the glass ceiling?: laughter and politics in Broadcast News Interviews and the gendered nature of media representations

"This dissertation investigates politicians' laughter in televised Broadcast News Interviews (BNIs) and mass media representations of Hillary Rodham Clinton's laughter in the context of her failed bid for the Democratic nomination in the United States in 2007-2008. The data for this study comprise spoken, interactional data (corpora of televised BNIs) and written, representational data (a corpus of media discourse)--distinct forms that require the use of different theoretical and methodological apparatus. The first component of the analysis employs the methodological framework of Conversation Analysis to examine the interactional work accomplished by Clinton's laughter and that of other politicians in situ, that is, in the BNIs themselves. The second component of the analysis employs an intertextual approach to analyze the post-hoc recontextualization of Clinton's laughter by the mainstream media as a gendered representation, namely, as a ""cackle"". In analyzing Clinton's laughter in talk-in-interaction and its subsequent representation in talk-out-of interaction, this study makes a distinctive contribution to a central question in studies of language, gender and sexuality-when gender can or should be invoked as an explanatory category in the analysis of discourse. The first two empirical chapters presents an interactional analysis of politicians' and Clinton's laughter in BNIs, and reveals how the previously undescribed practice of laughing in the course of ""serious"" interviewer questions, or at their completion, is not something that is unique to Clinton but is in fact a generic interactional practice. Further, this practice is not something that is oriented to as gendered by any of the participants in the news interviews analyzed. However, the intertextual analysis developed in the third empirical chapter suggests that this practice became gendered in post-hoc recontextualizations of those interactions, that is, in subsequent media representations- of Clinton's laughter. By considering the way Clinton's laughter travelled across contexts and into other discursive spaces, this dissertation shows how, despite women and men behaving in similar (non-gendered) ways, Clinton's behaviour was taken up in gendered (arguably, misogynist) ways. As a result, this dissertation gives empirical substance to claims about the ""double-bind"" situation that women politicians still face in the public sphere of politics.

Government Advertising, Political Behavior, and Electoral Effects in Brazil

Political communication and advertising are not performed only by politicians and parties. Governments around the world also invest in advertising at the national, subnational, and local levels. However, the study of government advertising has deserved little-to-no attention in political science. In this dissertation, I aim at filling this gap and try to answer four interrelated questions. First, what is the content of government advertising? Second, how does government advertising affect citizens’ political attitudes and behavior? Third, what factors explain governments’ expenditures with advertising? Fourth, does government advertising have political impacts on outcomes that matter for incumbent governments, more particularly electoral outcomes? This dissertation shows how government advertising matters by using Brazil as a case to be studied. Here, I argue that incumbent governments invest in advertising with the goal of building a reputation for accomplishments and also to signal effort to the electorate. Concerning the impact on attitudes and behaviors, I contend that government advertising and partisan advertising interact with the information environment to realize effects on voters. The dissertation is organized around a literature review on government advertising, a theoretical chapter, and four empirical chapters. The first empirical chapter carries out a content analysis of more than 400 ads from the state of Minas Gerais and its municipal governments and proposes a classification scheme for government ads. The second conducts an online survey experiment on 1,800 Brazilians to verify how government advertising affects the attitudes and behaviors of voters. The third chapter studies the determinants of and the impact of government advertising spending at the subnational level, in the state of Minas Gerais. Finally, the fourth empirical chapter analyzes the impact of government advertising in Brazilian municipalities and takes into account the effect of government advertising in conjunction with campaign spending. The results show that government advertising matters politically, with relevant impacts on incumbent’s vote share, turnout, and other measures of campaign effects in the experimental inquiry. The study has implications for the study of political communications, campaign effects, campaign spending, and incumbency (dis)advantage. It also helps understand better the Brazilian competitive political system

The discursive construction of responsibility : strategies used by political and military witnesses in public hearings

From the perspective of current situated discourse analysis and the associated disciplinary strands of conversational analysis, narrative studies and critical discourse analysis, this study examines how political and military elite witnesses construct versions of reality in the context of the public hearing and argues for the contestable nature of such versions. This study draws upon a multimodal approach which views discourse as an inherently complex process and product involving various semiotic layers, particularly, language and gesture which are intricately interwoven. The examination of the data reveals the systematic and strategic concurrence of resources of various kinds. It is shown how carefully elaborated texts are constituted through the use of evasion strategies (refusal to answer, reformulation and impersonalization), sensemaking practices and argumentative moves (scrip-formulation, counterfactual account, recourse to the lesson-deriving frame), and choreographed non-verbal resources (bodily orientation, facial expression and gesture); and how through these resources participants manage to deflect damaging attributions of personal and institutional responsibility and blame. An exploration of conversational dynamics shows that elite witnesses are often allowed to disregard the responsibilities and obligations defined by their situational roles as interrogators fail to gain, exert and maintain interactional control. It is possible to suggest hence that these witnesses benefit from some special licences which ultimately permit them to shape content, form and information flow. This study concludes by tapping into the dialectical link between discourse and society unveiling the particular ways in which strategic public discourse represents an instrument of social manipulation and hegemonic control which, far from generating genuine public dialogue, works to manufacture a false sense of debate as well as an equally false sense of consensus and resolution

Communicating Uncertainty: The Role of Communication Format in Maximising Understanding and Maintaining Credibility

This thesis investigates the effect of communication format on the understanding of uncertainty communications and considers the implications of these findings for a communicator’s perceived credibility. The research compares five formats: verbal probability expressions (VPEs; e.g., ‘unlikely’); numerical expressions – point (e.g., ‘20% likelihood’) and range estimates (e.g., ‘10–30% likelihood’); and mixed expressions in two orders (verbal-numerical, e.g., ‘unlikely [20% likelihood]’ and numerical-verbal format, e.g., ‘20% likelihood [unlikely]’). Using the ‘which-outcome’ methodology, we observe that when participants are asked to estimate the probability of the outcome of a natural hazard that is described as ‘unlikely’, the majority indicate outcomes with a value exceeding the maximum value shown, equivalent to a 0% probability. Extending this work to numerical and mixed formats, we find that 0% interpretations are also given to communications using a verbal-numerical format (Chapter 2). If ‘unlikely’ is interpreted as referring to events which will never occur, there could be implications for a communicator’s perceived credibility should an ‘unlikely’ event actually occur. In the low probability domain, we find a communicator who uses a verbal format in their prediction is perceived as less credible and less correct than one who uses a numerical format. However, in the high probability domain (where a ‘likely’ event does not occur) such an effect of format is not consistently observed (Chapter 3). We suggest ‘directionality–outcome congruence’ can explain these findings. For example, the negatively directional term ‘unlikely’ led to harsher ratings because the outcome was counter to the original focus of the prediction (i.e., on its non-occurrence). Comparing communications featuring positively and negatively directional VPEs, we find that communicators are perceived as less credible and less correct given directionality–outcome incongruence (Chapter 4). Our findings demonstrate the influence of pragmatics on (a) the understanding of uncertainty communications and (b) perceived communicator credibility

Confessing in the Human Voice: A Defense of the Privilege Against Self-Incrimination

ABSTRACT OF CONFESSING IN THE HUMAN VOICE: A DEFENSE OF THE PRIVILEGE AGAINST SELF-INCRIMINATION By Andrew E. Taslitz The privilege against self-incrimination has fallen on hard times. Miranda rights shrink, as do those more traditional “core” aspects of the privilege. Partly this is due to an implicit skepticism by the courts about the value of the privilege, despite their occasional explicit words of praise for its role in our constitutional scheme. Scholars largely, though not uniformly, agree that the privilege cannot be justified as a philosophical matter, viewing it as an unfortunate burden we are stuck with because of its presence in the Constitution. This article bucks the dominant trend by articulating a new defense of the privilege against self-incrimination, one rooted in cognitive psychology and linguistic theory. In doing so, the article tries to resurrect in a completely new form the supposedly discredited “mental privacy” justification for the privilege. Specifically, this article maintains that one of the two primary purposes of the privilege is to protect individuals against the compelled expression of their “literal voice,” by which I mean both the content of their words and the paralinguistic cues that accompany them. (The second purpose of the privilege, which is to protect the individual’s “metaphorical voice” – the voice of his counsel – I address in a companion piece). The privilege thus protects not so much the privacy of our thoughts as of our words. Control over our words matters for two inter-related reasons: first, compelled speech alters our thoughts, feelings, and character, making us into persons other than what we might choose; second, once those words leave our mouths, they expose us to social mis-definition and mis-judgment in ways that harm our sense of individual uniqueness and violate the boundaries that define us as a person. Part I summarizes the sorry state of the privilege today. Part II draws on recent work in cognitive psychology to explain why each human becomes unique and deeply wants to be judged as unique by others, to be known for the fullness of who we truly are. Part III first explores psychological and linguistic research on those features of language that lead listeners to make judgments about speakers’ essential character, leading to praise or condemnation, including the reasons for the frequent inaccuracy of those judgments. Next, Part III explains why similar principles hold for written and internet communications, even though they are different in important ways from the paradigm case of spoken speech. Finally, Part III explores the special dangers of mis-judgment by the criminal justice system, society’s ultimate vehicle for expressing condemnation of the person. Part IV explores empirical and philosophical work on how compelled expression actually changes our fundamental nature, while Part V, the conclusion, sums up the preceding argument. This article does not pretend to resolve all the puzzles created by the current version of the privilege. But it does lay the foundation for doing so by defending a neglected justification for the central importance of the privilege to human flourishing, suggesting that cramped interpretations of the privilege work a grave injustice that calls for correction

President Trump’s First Term: The Year in C-SPAN Archives Research, Volume 5

C-SPAN is the network of record for US political affairs, broadcasting live gavel-to-gavel proceedings of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and to other forums where public policy is discussed, debated, and decided––without editing, commentary, or analysis and with a balanced presentation of points of view. The C-SPAN Archives, located adjacent to Purdue University, is the home of the online C-SPAN Video Library. The Archives has copied all of C-SPAN\u27s television content since 1987. Extensive indexing, captioning, and other enhanced online features provide researchers, policy analysts, students, teachers, and public officials with an unparalleled chronological and internally cross-referenced record for deeper study. Books in this series present the finest interdisciplinary research utilizing tools of the C-SPAN Video Library. Each volume highlights recent scholarship and comprises leading experts and emerging voices in political science, journalism, psychology, computer science, communication, and a variety of other disciplines. Each section within each volume includes responses from expert discussants. Developed in partnership with the Brian Lamb School of Communication and with support from the C-SPAN Education Foundation, C-SPAN Insights is guided by the ideal that all experimental outcomes, including those from our American experiment, can be best improved by directed study driving richer engagement and better understanding. The fifth volume of the C-SPAN Archives research focuses primarily on the Trump presidency in the first term. Chapters address his moral language, his rhetoric on climate change, and African American support for Trump. Other chapters use the C-SPAN Archives to study congressional influence on immigration policy, nonverbal cues in congressional speeches, and local and national perspectives on congressional debates

Critical discourse analysis of election campaigns in Zimbabwe with specific reference to 2008 and 2013 election periods

Elections are a key aspect in all communities and in Zimbabwe they are held after every 5 years. Election candidates’ speeches. Linguistic manipulation is an influential instrument in politics and as such presidential candidates’ electioneering discourse is infested with persuasive linguistic elements. Therefore, this study analysed the generic structure of hard news and editorials as well as political manifestos. The nature of linguistic devices invoked for the enactment of political goals and objectives by Zimbabwean newspaper reports in English and Shona were analysed. The study looked at how presidential candidates express themselves to the electorate through language as well. The study demonstrated how newspaper reporters make linguistic choices to express similar content from contending politicians during election time. The study took a qualitative research methodology. Tools used to collect data were interviews and document analysis. Ten newspaper reporters were interviewed for their extensive knowledge of media situations. The newspaper articles which were based on political manifestos by two of the contending political parties, the MDC and ZANU PF were analysed. Systemic Functional Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis were used as theories of analysis. Findings from the study revealed the existence of certain linguistic devices that are used in the art of persuasion, as candidates campaign for political posts. Characteristic linguistic devices were observed in journalists’ reports. These devices include modals, verbs, pronouns, metaphors, repetition, anaphora as well as the use of “us and them” in both the speeches and news reports in English and Shona. The analysis showed a discrepancy between state and independent media as far as news representation of election events is concerned. It is recommended in this study that, there must be a balance in the presentation of politics in newspapers even if there is personal bias in linguistic choice on the part of individual journalists. A transition model into electioneering reporting came up. The proposed model looks into issues of cohesion in news reports. The study has contributed further insights into the nature, features and functions of political discourse. discourse is paramount in society and as elections are held, several persuasive elements and occasions come into play as contesting candidates try to garner votes. Election discourse is realised in the aspiringThesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 202