Conversation and Genre Analysis of a Political News Debate

Arab World English Journal (AWEJ), 2022

The researchers of the present study have conducted a genre analysis of two political debates between American presidential nominees in the 2016 and 2020 elections. The current study seeks to analyze the cognitive construction of political debates to evaluate the typical moves and strategies politicians use to express their communicative intentions and to reveal the language manifestations of those moves and strategies. To achieve the study's aims, the researchers adopt Bhatia's (1993) framework of cognitive construction supported by van Emeren's (2010) pragmadialectic framework. The study demonstrates that both presidents adhere to this genre structuring to further their political agendas. For a positive and promising image, presidents focus on highlighting domestic and international issues to reflect leadership. On the other hand, highlighting controversies and defense strategies appear to be prominent in debate in consensus with the contemplative nature of this genre. Discoursal devices like polarized lexicalization and actor description are vital in orienting the controversies and influence with the aid of in-group pronouns, representative speech acts, and national/self-glorification.

2015

ii The present study uses a Conversation Analytic (CA) framework to investigate how interviewers and interviewees display political alignment or disalignment with each other in news interviews. It looks at interviewers ’ use and design of questions: negated questions; prefaced questions; disjunctive and prefaced questions. It, then, examines both interviewers ’ and interviewees ’ use of membership categorization devices as a means of displaying even stronger alignment and disalignment. Use of ethnic and religious categories such as ‘brother ’ and ‘friend ’ are examined as well as the use of attributes such as ‘terrorist. ’ The final section of this thesis examines instances of code-switching to display alignment. Data used in this thesis are taken from video-taped interviews with ambassadors concerned with the ‘Question of Palestine ’ and were collected from the United Nations web archive. Taken as a whole, this thesis could be used to compare political discourse in one culture/lang...

2012

This paper employs Conversation Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis to examine institutionalized interaction. The majority of the data is taken from American and British political news interviews. The focus is on the found similarities between the two approaches in regard to institutional discourse, viz. the formalistic features which both conversation analysts and critical discourse analysts investigate. It should be noticed, however, that there are still remaining differences between the two approaches, since critical discourse analysts, compared to conversation analysts, also focus on broader discursive issues of talk.

Journal of Pragmatics, 2007

Oye: Journal of Language, Literature and Popular Culture, 2020

Conversation strategies in political communication reveal politicians’ political wills. Existing studies on political discourses have concentrated largely on written texts, almost to the exclusion of television-based political interviews within the Nigerian context. Analysing selected episodes of Politics Today spanning the years 2011 and 2015, this study investigates the discourse functions of conversation strategies in the discourse of Channels Television’s Politics Today (CTPT). Conversation strategies on CTPT bifurcate into Presenter’s Conversation Strategies (PCS) and Guests’ Conversation Strategies (GCS). The PCS capture three strategies: identity-profiling, elicitation and shadowing. The GCS engage three strategies: avoidance, asserting and promising. Discourse functions of these strategies manifest illocutionary acts. For the PCS, identity-profiling has informing, presenting and revealing acts; elicitation has asking and requesting acts; and shadowing has suggesting and summarising acts. For the GCS, avoidance has dodging and excusing acts; asserting has criticising, inviting and dismissing acts, and promising has disclosing and promising acts. While the presenter deployed strategies to elicit information to keep the public informed, the guests explored strategies to conceal or reveal their political wills to the public. Consequently, the discourse functions of conversation strategies on Channels Television’s Politics Today inform and misinform the public for political manipulation. Keywords: Conversation strategies, Discourse functions, Political discourse, Politics Today

This study aims at exploring the relationships between language and ideology and how such relationships are represented in the analysis of spoken texts, following van Dijk’s Socio Cognitive Model (2002). In this study, it is tried to show that political talk shows broadcast by private TV channels are working apparatuses of ideology and store meanings which are not always obvious for readers. Through the analysis of two episodes of a very popular talk show of a private television channel of Pakistan, the researchers attempt to reveal how the ideologies are represented in these shows. It also suggests that these talk shows mystify the agency of processes by using various strategies. In other words, critical text analyses reveal how these choices enable speakers to manipulate the realizations of agency and power in the representation of action to produce particular meanings which are not always explicit for all readers.

Information Sciences Letters, 2023

The article aims to explore the ideology of Jordanian politician's discourse in the talk shows, based on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) in its ideological aspect, and by applying Van Dijk ideological square. The population has been the program "Friendly Fire" (NiranSadeeqah) that is broadcast on Amman TV. Seven episodes have been analyzed (of which, their airtime accumulated to (5 hrs. and 51 minutes) that hosted seven Jordanian prime ministers. The analysis categories have been determined based on Van Dijk ideological square; (Emphasizing positive things about Us, emphasizing negative things about Them, De-emphasize negative things about Us, De-emphasizing positive things about Them). The results concluded that the ideology of the Jordanian politician's discourse sought primarily to De-emphasize of the negativity related to the Jordanian politician (36.4%), with (2.07 hrs.) of the seven episodes. At the second rank, the Jordanian politician's discourse focused on emphasizingthe positivity of politician Jordanian (28.7%) with (1.52.30 hrs.). Thirdly, they sought to "Emphasize negative things about others" (19.7%) with (01:06:20 hrs.). Finally, they focused on "De-emphasizing positive things about others" (15.2%) with (0:45:30 hrs.).

The primary form of spoken language is the realization of interrelated utterances in different ways for different speaker purposes. Conversation – the exchange of linguistic activities in everyday situations is often developed between physically co-present interlocutors. On this important fact is oriented the linguistic interest about the interaction. If conversation is so important, it must have left traces in language structures or, if we proceed from the assumption of the founders of the conversation analysis that the different structures of language are designed exactly to serve for conversation, then an important area for study opens to linguists. There are remarkable points of connection between the organization of turn construction units in conversation and the syntax of a clause. Turn organization is interactionally sensitive to the topological syntactic description of the Albanian clausal structure. Specific parts of grammatical structure can be used by speakers to accomplish specific actions in a turn-taking system. Parts of speech can be used by speakers as turn entries, to connect elements within a single TCU, to connect turns with each other, or to prompt a speaker to provide a sequential contribution. Sacks et al. (1974) suggested a three-part structure of turns including “one which addresses the relation of a turn to a prior, one involved with what is occupying the turn, and one which addresses the relation of the turn to a succeeding one.” This brings us to a core structure of a TCU with recognizable starting and closing elements. Starting from the assumption by Sacks et al. that “turn taking depends on subtle features of the utterance enabling a speaker to project the end of a prior turn,” I analysed the relationship between syntactic completion and speaker validated turn units. Since this is the major linguistic resource, which has to be deployed and monitored in achieving turn transfer, I have examined the features that contribute to defining the relevant transition points based on the CA literature. Grammatical rules provide construction and recognition-guides on the possible completion points of TCUs. I think that the set of features analysed until now from the conversationalists must include not only syntactic, intonational, and pragmatical clues but also the gesticulation. These factors converge in a very complex way for projection in advance of the possible transition points. A more profound level of analysis needs more linguistic investigation to see how these clues interplay to embody this projectability. Sacks et al. (1974) has classified conversation as ‘one polar extreme’ on the linear array, and ceremony, meetings, press conferences, seminars, interviews, debates, etc. as possibly the other pole, but this should not be understood as proposing the independent or equal status of conversation and ceremony as polar types. This was based ‘on a range of other turn-taking parameters, and in the organization by which they achieve the set of parameter values whose presence they organize’ (Sacks et al., 1974:729). They generally were based on the allocational techniques that speakers use in these types of conversation, taking into account that the ordering of all turns is pre-allocated during television debates. For this reason, I have examined live television debates (without post editing) to identify similarities and differences compared to common everyday conversations. Analysing high visibility debates between participants with strongly opposed viewpoints, the role of a journalist sometimes becomes weakened. The participants take the role of allocating their turns. They interact with each other without waiting for the journalist to prompt them and, in these cases; we do not have equalization of turns. It becomes evident then the maximization of the size of the set of potential speakers to each next turn. This feature of television debates makes them similar to common conversations. While television debates are designed to facilitate the equalization of turns by specifying the sequence of speakers, this does not always actually happen. More conflict they have to deal with, more maximization of the size of the set of potential speaker to each turn happens. In this sense, we should see the linear array described by Sacks et al. as having two extreme poles. Television debates do not have a fixed position and may migrate on the array due to multiple factors (such as involvement in conversation.) Conflict, strong opposition, and minimization of the journalist role in allocating turns may influence speakers to use different involvement strategies in television debates that make their positions on the array undefined.

2013

"[edited, with Urszula Okulska] Featuring contributions by leading specialists in the field, the volume is a survey of cutting edge research in genres in political discourse. Since, as is demonstrated, “political genres” reveal many of the problems pertaining to the analysis of communicative genres in general, it is also a state-of-the-art addition to contemporary genre theory. The book offers new methodological, theoretical and empirical insights in both the long-established genres (speeches, interviews, policy documents, etc.), and the modern, rapidly-evolving generic forms, such as online political ads or weblogs. The chapters, which engage in timely issues of genre mediatization, hybridity, multimodality, and the mixing of discursive styles, come from a broad range of perspectives spanning Critical Discourse Studies, pragmatics, cognitive psychology, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics and media studies. As such, they constitute essential reading for anyone seeking an interdisciplinary yet coherent research agenda within the vast and complex territory of today’s forms of political communication. Table of Contents Notes on contributors vii–xi Analyzing genres in political communication: An introduction Piotr Cap and Urszula Okulska, 1–26 Part I. Theory-driven approaches Chapter 1. Genres in political discourse: The case of the ‘inaugural speech’ of Austrian chancellors Helmut Gruber, 29–71 Chapter 2. Political interviews in context Anita Fetzer and Peter Bull, 73–99 Chapter 3. Policy, policy communication and discursive shifts: Analyzing EU policy discourses on climate change Michał Krzyżanowski, 101–133 Chapter 4. The television election night broadcast: A macro genre of political discourse Gerda Eva Lauerbach, 135–185 Chapter 5. Analyzing meetings in political and business contexts: Different genres – similar strategies? Ruth Wodak, 187–221 Chapter 6. Presenting politics: Persuasion and performance across genres of political communication James Moir, 223–235 Part II. Data-driven approaches Chapter 7. Legitimizing the Iraq War through the genre of political speeches: Rhetorics of judge-penitence in the narrative reconstruction of Denmark’s cooperation with Nazism Bernhard Forchtner, 239–265 Chapter 8. Macro and micro, quantitative and qualitative: An integrative approach for analyzing (election night) speeches Thorsten Malkmus, 267–295 Chapter 9. Reframing the American Dream: Conceptual metaphor and personal pronouns in the 2008 US presidential debates Michael Boyd, 297–319 Chapter 10. The late-night TV talk show as a strategic genre in American political campaigning Katarzyna Molek-Kozakowska, 321–343 Chapter 11. Multimodal legitimation: Looking at and listening to Obama’s ads Rowan Mackay, 345–377 Chapter 12. Blogging as the mediatization of politics and a new form of social interaction: A case study of ‘proximization dynamics’ in Polish and British political blogs Monika Kopytowska, 379–421 Index 422 “This book is a major contribution to genre analysis. The chapters approach genres in the field of political communication from theory-driven and data-driven perspectives. Based on this theoretical-empirical interdisciplinary approach, the volume brings to light the many complexities of contemporary (political) genres, revisiting the timely questions of, i.a., generic chaining, hybridization and content migration. It is an indispensable source for anyone seeking a methodological framework for studies in the broad spectrum of mutually interactive forms of modern political communication.” Christina Schäffner Aston University "Cap and Okulska's volume provides a crucial update on the conceptual status and the methodology of genre analysis." Andreas Musolff University of East Anglia "The term genre can mean a lot of things, and here they are all good. This collection is a probing and thoughtful contribution to our understanding of political discourse – a rewarding and challenging exegesis for genre theorists of all persuasions." James R. Martin, University of Sydney"

This article will focus on applied communication research that provides knowledge about political processes that sometimes explicitly, yet more often implicitly, enhance the practices of a democracy. We concentrate on a critical review of the literature concerned with televised political debates as these are the most spectacular contemporary forms of politics mediatization. The major research findings of applied political communication regarding debates include: the effects of such encounters with specific attention to the limited research on lower level or nonpresidential debates, media coverage of debates, candidates’ messages and viewer learning from debates, debate formats and content analyses of debates.