Abstract
Media Talk in Political Elections in Europe and America uses discourse analysis to evaluate how political figures generate enthusiasm among voters for themselves and their policies. Underscoring this work is that in the clutter of television programs and social media conversations, it is ever more challenging for broadcasters and politicians to reach their audiences.
The personality-driven politician provides an interesting case study, and Barack Obama is the focus of three of the book’s ten chapters. Ian Hutchby details the most interesting one: an interview the then-Senator Obama held with the FOX News program The O’Reilly Factor in September 2008. Hutchby contends that Bill O’Reilly’s show is typical of many political talk programs in countries supporting a free media system: It is structured as news but “within that is embedded the production of tendentious and often directly confrontational discourses more usually associated with political arguments than political interviews.”
Hutchby notes that O’Reilly appears determined to characterize Obama as different and less American than the people who watch The O’Reilly Factor. O’Reilly links Obama with controversial people from his past, especially Bill Ayers and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and suggests that the kinds of Americans that O’Reilly knows—and presumably attend to the messages FOX News delivers—would want no part of such individuals. Obama’s response centers on “witness disclaimers: attempts to establish distance between himself and the controversial figures or statements” made by them.
The distinction in style between the in-your-face O’Reilly and the seemingly funny man Jon Stewart is illustrated well by Geoffrey Baym. Baym asserts that Stewart’s persona masks the “complexity and depth” of his interviews with political figures. Moreover, Stewart embodies the consensus-building ideal sorely lacking in much of America’s mediated and political discourse. O’Reilly and Stewart are alike in their use of the accountability interview that challenges the judgments, opinions, and actions of the interviewee. O’Reilly operates more as an interrogator, and Stewart more as the conversationalist. But each demands that their subjects defend their personal associations and professional decisions.
Much like Barack Obama, the British politician Nick Clegg quickly rose from an otherwise anonymous figure to the top of the political spectrum in a short period of time. Neil Washbourne does not draw direct parallels between Obama and Clegg, but he does suggest that, much like Obama, as Clegg grew in popularity his rivals sought to discredit him. Washbourne and Andrew Tolson, who wrote a separate chapter about Clegg and the 2010 U.K. elections, assert that Clegg soon was derailed by an “unstable visibility,” meaning that the telegenic and popular persona could not translate into being an effective politician.
Other chapters in this book look at recent political elections or politicians in Greece, Spain, Sweden, and Austria.
This ultimately is a book less about journalism and more about the language politicians use to connect themselves to audiences. It could be of interest to educators who teach political communication or rhetoric classes.