Politicians employ linguistic and argumentative strategies to persuade voters, for example by attacking opponents or praising allies (Brocca et al. 2016). To achieve these goals, politicians often resort to explicit or implicit persuasive strategies. The latter can more effectively disengage the recipient's epistemic vigilance (Sperber et al. 2010). Considering these aspects, the study aims to observe whether political speeches, varying in communicative contexts and formality levels, resort to explicit and implicit persuasive strategies differently. So, the analysis examined three speeches delivered by Giorgia Meloni in different communicative contexts, disseminated via YouTube. The speeches are as follows: 1) Closing speech of the electoral campaign (22/9/22); 2) First speech as Prime Minister (25/10/22); 3) Post-European Council press conference (30/5/23). Firstly, we considered the explicit strategies, focusing specifically on lexical choices. In this regard, we calculated the breadth and lexical diversity of the three selected speeches, and then we proceeded with a qualitative comparison of the key terms used for manipulative purposes. We then analyzed, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the implicit strategies (implicitness of content and implicitness of responsibility) used to convey biased information. The lexical analysis revealed that the degree of formality and the communicative contexts influence both syntactic structure and lexical breadth. Furthermore, all speeches tend to utilize terms readily available. Regarding to implicit communication, Meloni tends to resort frequently to implicitness of content (vagueness, implicatures), particularly to convey attacks. Instead, the implicitness of responsibility (Topic, presuppositions) is more commonly used in the campaign speech: the sharing of political and cultural ideals enhances the persuasive power of these implicit strategies, based precisely on the emitter's ability to present debatable information as already known to the audience.
Da Meloni di "uno straccio di idea" a Meloni della "questione non peregrina": comunicazione elettorale e comunicazione istituzionale a confronto
Bianco, Antonio;Zanchi, Chiara
2023-01-01
Abstract
Politicians employ linguistic and argumentative strategies to persuade voters, for example by attacking opponents or praising allies (Brocca et al. 2016). To achieve these goals, politicians often resort to explicit or implicit persuasive strategies. The latter can more effectively disengage the recipient's epistemic vigilance (Sperber et al. 2010). Considering these aspects, the study aims to observe whether political speeches, varying in communicative contexts and formality levels, resort to explicit and implicit persuasive strategies differently. So, the analysis examined three speeches delivered by Giorgia Meloni in different communicative contexts, disseminated via YouTube. The speeches are as follows: 1) Closing speech of the electoral campaign (22/9/22); 2) First speech as Prime Minister (25/10/22); 3) Post-European Council press conference (30/5/23). Firstly, we considered the explicit strategies, focusing specifically on lexical choices. In this regard, we calculated the breadth and lexical diversity of the three selected speeches, and then we proceeded with a qualitative comparison of the key terms used for manipulative purposes. We then analyzed, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the implicit strategies (implicitness of content and implicitness of responsibility) used to convey biased information. The lexical analysis revealed that the degree of formality and the communicative contexts influence both syntactic structure and lexical breadth. Furthermore, all speeches tend to utilize terms readily available. Regarding to implicit communication, Meloni tends to resort frequently to implicitness of content (vagueness, implicatures), particularly to convey attacks. Instead, the implicitness of responsibility (Topic, presuppositions) is more commonly used in the campaign speech: the sharing of political and cultural ideals enhances the persuasive power of these implicit strategies, based precisely on the emitter's ability to present debatable information as already known to the audience.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
