Unit 10. Critical Literacy in the 21st century, Part 2:
How to see through the political rhetoric
University of Aruba, Faculty of Arts & Science
Critical Literacy and Interaction
October 4, 2010
Today’s topic
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Repeat some highlights of unit 6: ideologies
Political discourse
The role of persuasion
The role of meaning generating devices in
political discourse:
– Myths (stories)
– Metaphors
What is an ideology?
• Ideologies are the fundamental beliefs of a
group and its members
Ideology and Power
• Why do people develop ideologies?
• Cognitively: ideologies may be developed because they organize
social representations
• Social basis: people are better able to form groups based on
identification along various dimensions, including sharing an
ideology
• Since ideologies control social practices in general and discourse in
particular, a social function would be: ideologies enable or facilitate
joint action, interaction and cooperation of in-group, as well as
interactions with out-group members (social micro level functions
of ideology)
• At macro level, ideologies are described in terms of group relations,
in terms of power, dominance (control) but also cooperation
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Power
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Social power and Ideologies
• The power of group A over another group B. Usually this
means control of action: A is able to control (limit, prohibit,
stimulate ) the actions of B.
• Since discourse is also a form of action, such control may be
also exercised over discourse and its properties: context,
topic and style.
• Since discourse may influence the mind of recipients, groups
may indirectly (e.g. through mass media) also control the
mind of people persuasion and manipulation
• Powerful discourse may influence the way we define an event
or situation in our mental models or how we represent
society in our knowledge, attitudes and ideologies.
• Control of discourse (sender)taking a critical stand
• To have power, you have to legitimize it.
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General strategy for ideological
analysis of discourse
• A method to ‘find’ ideology in text and talk.
• We’ll link this method with the self-schema of groups
– Membership: who are we? Who belong to us? Who can be
admitted?
– Activities: What are we doing? Planning? What is expected of
us?
– Aims: why are we doing this? What do we want to achieve?
– Norms: What is good or bad? Allowed or not allowed in what
we do?
– Relations: Who are our friends? Or enemies? Where do we
stand in society?
– Resources: What do we have that others don’t? What don’t we
have that others do have?
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Political ideology
• A set of beliefs and ideas that one can apply into policies and
events: one’s political ‘moral code’ and worldview
• A way to gauge one’s view of change in both society and political
system
• A way to gauge one’s view of the role of government in a society in
both economic and social/moral affairs
• 4 functions of (political) ideology:
1. Explanation
2. Evaluation
3. Orientation
4. Political program
• http://www.slideshare.net/technolote/some-major-politicalideologies
Political discourse
• Political discourse is a form of discourse with
specific purposes:
– To teach ideologies (explicitly and implicitly)
– To legitimize power (to de-legitimize power of the
other)
– To mobilize resources
Political leadership & Discourse
• “ It has always been preferable for the governed to be ruled by the
spoken word rather than by the whip, the chain or the gun”
(Chaterteris-Black, 2005)
• Leadership is a social act requiring individuals who are gifted in the
arts of communication and self-representation as well as other who
are ready to follow the visions offered by leaders
• The more democratic societies become, the greater the need of the
leader to convince potential followers that they and their policy can
be trusted
• Purpose: To legitimize power, (to de-legitimize power of the other)
to mobilize
• Language, discourse, the most important tool for this.
• Language of leadership
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Persuasion and Rhetoric
• Rhetoric is the art of persuading others, therefore
rhetoric and persuasion are inseparable
• The difference between rhetoric and persuasion is that
the first refers to the act of communication from the
receivers' perspective (hearer), while persuasion refers
both to speakers intentions and to successful
outcomes. Hearer’s are only persuaded when the
speaker’s (sender) rhetoric is successful
• The most rhetorically successful speech performance is
the most persuasive one as measured by the follower’s
responses
Classical rhetoric (Aristotle)
• The classical rhetorical notions of ethos, logos
and pathos are very important to distinguish
on which levels political discourse is aiming at:
• Logos: rationality, the logical aspect of the
content (logica)
• Ethos: morality, normative evaluations
• Pathos: feelings and emotions
Intention is very important in
persuasion
• Persuasion is an interactive communicative process in
which a message sender aims to influence the believes,
attitudes and behavior of the message receiver (Jowett
& O’Donnell, 1992)
• It is important to distinguish the two roles in the
communication process:
– The active role of the sender is characterized by deliberate
intentions: persuasion doesn’t occur by chance but
because of the sender’s purposes
– The receiver’s role may be perceived as passive, but if
persuasion is to be successful the message needs to
comply with their wants and needs, their desires and
imagination
Strategy: US and ThemPolarization
• Positive self-presentation / Negative other-Representation:
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Say positive things about US
Say negative things about THEM
Do not say negative things about US
Do not say positive things about THEM
• This is a very general characteristic of group conflict and
the ways we interact we opposed groups, but also this
strategy also characterizes the way we talk about ourselves
and others
• As formulated above, the strategy is too absolute, direct
and general
• Let’s look at a more subtle strategy to express ideologies in
text and talk
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Ideological Square (van Dijk, 2004)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Emphasize positive things about US
Emphasize negative things about THEM
De-emphasize negative things about US
De-emphasize positive things about THEM
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These 4 possibilities form a conceptual square ideological
square.
It may be applied to all levels of discourse analysis: content,
semantic and lexical level (meaning of words and sentences), to
opposing pairs ((de)-emphasize): length, brief, explicitly, implicitly,
metaphors, big or small headlines,
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I’m a democrat and I’m a republican
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiQJ9Xp0x
xU
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPG25Wf
0aa4&NR=1
• Let’s answer the 5 core questions of media
literacy
Core concepts translated in key questions
(your role: consumer of media)
1. Who created this message? (authorship/sender)
2. What creative techniques are used to attract my
attention (format/creative strategies for reality
construction)
3. How might different people understand this
message differently? (audience/receiver)
4. What values, lifestyles and points of view are
represented in, or omitted from, this message?
(content)
5. Why is this message being sent? (purpose)
Ideological square analysis
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH8vyU3c
cko&feature=related
• FITNA
• Meaning: Temptation, A test
• Theological sense: God tests your ability to
withdraw from temptation. Testing the power
of believers of Islam
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Meaning generating devices that carry
ideologies (persuasive strategies)
• Powerful rhetorical devices are:
• Metaphors are a persuasive figure of speech very common
in political arguments, because it represents a certain way
of viewing the world that reflects a shared system of
believe (ideology). It has cognitive imaginary rich and
emotional valueexperience
• Myths (stories): a story that provides an explanation for all
the things for which explanations are felt to be necessary
• Ideology, myth and metaphor are similar in that they share
a common discourse function of persuasion and the
expressive potential for cognitive and emotional
engagement
3 political myths (Geiss, 1987)
1. The myth of the Conspiratorial Enemy is a myth
in which a hostile out-group is plotting to
commit some harmful act against an in-group.
2. The Valiant Leader myth is one in which the
political leader is benevolent and is effective in
saving people from danger by displaying
qualities of courage, aggression and the ability
to overcome difficulties
3. The united We Stand myth is a belief that a
group can achieve victory over its enemies by
obeying and making sacrifices for its leaders
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Myth 1: Conspiratiorial enemy
• The myth of the Conspiratorial Enemy is a
myth in which a hostile out-group is plotting
to commit some harmful act against an ingroup
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=binMjEiS8
AY
• Other examples:
– The islamization of the NL,
– The communistists take over
Myth 2: The Valiant Leader
• The Valiant Leader myth is one in which the
political leader is benevolent and is effective
in saving people from danger by displaying
qualities of courage, aggression and the ability
to overcome difficulties
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6DDYd0sfA
E.g. expressive power for potential cognitive and emotional engagement.
Myth 3: United we stand
• The United We Stand myth is a belief that a
group can achieve victory over its enemies by
obeying and making sacrifices for its leaders
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJoL5drdx
xY