Category Archives: October 2013 Issue 10

Valeria Smolenenkova – Rhetorical Criticism as a Vaccination against Identification Rhetoric

Valeria Smolenenkova – Rhetorical Criticism as a Vaccination against Identification RhetoricAbstract: This articles looks into the issue of identification rhetoric and its use in modern public speeches. The aspects explored include the specific character of the modern political discourse, such as media text features and a dispersed audience, and current trends in speech structuring, e.g. collage-like structure, absence of proper composition, illogical emotional pattern. The article then discusses the problems caused by these trends by adducing the results of public polls devoted to the perception of speeches. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the effectiveness of rhetorical criticism in revealing the key features of the identification rhetoric. Three addresses by the heads of state (Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, and Queen Elizabeth II) have been used as a material for rhetorical analysis. Through exposing the deterioration of the public speech structure and argumentation, this article highlights the great importance of studying rhetorical criticism as a means of systematic analysis of public discourse.

Keywords: rhetoric, public speaking, rhetorical criticism, identification rhetoric, media text, signal words.

Rhetoric and Communications E-journal, Issue 19, October 2015, rhetoric.bg/, journal.rhetoric.bg, ISSN 1314-4464

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Book Review Rhetoric and Politics: Central/Eastern European Perspectives” (edited by Maria Zaleska). Reviewer – Iglika Kassabova

Maria Zaleska is a highly respected professor in rhetoric and a distinctive linguist at the University of Warsaw, Poland. She is the president of the Polish Rhetorical Society and serves at the Editorial Board of the Forum Artis Rhetoricae. Taking in account her academic pro-activity and research interests focused on rhetoric and argumentation theory, we are not surprised to see her impressive volume published „Rhetoric and Politics: Central/ Eastern European Perspectives”. The book is entirely edited by Prof. Zaleska, who managed to gather some of the most appreciated scholar in the areas of political science, sociology, history, linguistic and rhetoric.

Rhetoric and politics or rhetoric in politics constitute a heterogeneous art of research. For sure, the long history of both rhetoric and politics gives anything but a straightforward answer concerning their interrelations. The challenge to introduce the relation between the rhetoric and politics is taken by the editor herself in the first two chapters: Rhetoric and Politics: Mapping the Interrelations and Rhetorical Patterns of Constructing the Politician’s Ethos. …..

Rhetoric and Communications Е-Journal, Issue 10, October 2013, http://rhetoric.bg/, ISSN 1314-4464

 

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Valeria Kardashevska – Spoken Words and Their Power to Influence the Communication Medium

Abstract: The choice of the topic has been provoked by preconditions that have evolved recently from implementing the social interaction method by means of the living speech.  More and more people who work in different spheres are interested in and feel the need to consult with speech specialists. I believe it is time and necessary to systematize and analyze the working and time-tested practices and enounce them in scientific electronic journals. This article will examine various issues related to speech and will propose options for resolving them. The aim is to provoke interest and understanding of the need to master the voice, because in our social environment the voice often functions as a calling or  business card.
Keywords: communication, words, voice, speech, breathing, timbre.

Rhetoric and Communications Е-Journal, Issue 10, October 2013, http://rhetoric.bg/, ISSN 1314-4464

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Alexander Christov – Developing political PR Communications through Implementation of Practices from Corporate Communications

Abstract: In the paper the main point of view is presented and considered and it is exactly that there is an opportunity for the political PR communications to adopt some positive practices from the corporate ones and in this way to increase their efficiency. These practices are mainly related to the attitude towards negative information, targeting of the messages, and management of the feedback and distinctness of the messages. In addition, the idea that general differences in the management of political and corporate PR communications cannot be observed, is presented and justified, they are related mainly to the object of communication and some of the activities.

Keywords: PR, corporate communications, political communications, message, feedback

Rhetoric and Communications Е-Journal, Issue 10, October 2013, http://rhetoric.bg/, ISSN 1314-4464

 

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Tsvetan Kulevski – Crisis of Political Commentary

Abstract: The article is an attempt to find indicators of crisis of political commentary.Political commentary is one entity, which is full of the elements  political and commentary.A certain way of thinking and commenting is formed determined by the attitude of society and politics, which could be called critical attitudes.Clarity of political commentator is achieved through rhetorical features of language to discover what might be persuaded. The comment is a result of the subordinate function of the breed it critical stance on a real policy..The subject of the commentary is not the policy, someone’s word for it. The comment is a kind of second-language (metalanguage) developed from a base language (language-object) in our case the language of politics. Hence the possibility of exit from the crisis of the political commentary – to discover, invent and interpret thespecific rhetorical feature of the contemporary political code.

Keywords: policy, political commentary, crisis, critical attitudes.

Rhetoric and Communications Е-Journal, Issue 10, October 2013, http://rhetoric.bg/, ISSN 1314-4464

 

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Gergana Apostolova – Achronia as a Complex Mechanism for Social Control

Abstract: The paper is focused on a set of mechanisms for social control applicable as a remedial and prevention technique in cases of unrest and upsurge of civic anxiety preceding historic crises.  It is rooted in the idea for government and binding where ‘social binders’ are seen as sets of positive and negative tools for public mind control. Aspects of achronia have been known and applied ever since the dawn of human culture.  The mechanism is not studied though and there are no descriptions of it whatsoever. I have chosen to give it the name ‘achronia’ since it acts as a time machine.

The description of achronia follows a number of steps: 1) Planning of social reaction through time in terms of regulation of migration; dislocation and concentration of communities; a Smitsonian approach to current division of labour.  2) Typology of achronia. 3) Awareness of the application of achronia by the governing bodies. 4) Achronia in modelling e-government.

Keywords: achronia, achrony, achronic, government and binding theory, civic anxiety, social binders, migration of productive generations; e-government.

Rhetoric and Communications Е-Journal, Issue 10, October 2013, http://rhetoric.bg/, ISSN 1314-4464

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Desislava Dobreva – Visual Political Rhetoric in the Social Networks

Abstract: The subject of the present article is visual political rhetoric with its manifestations in social networks. Worldwide there are certain research traditions in this respect and in Bulgaria the problems attract the attention of the researchers in  social sciences and humanities. The focus in this paper is on a problem, which is characterized by timeliness and provoking research interest from different scientific perspectives. Based on the basic concepts derived from two theories in visual rhetoric (those of Group M and McQuarrie & Mick) a methodology for research is established, that proves and is based on the descriptive approach in selection and creation of initial corpus for research. Initial results from the analysis of the visual content are presented and also concrete examples of social networks’ profiles of Bulgarian politicians and Bulgarian citizens are provided.

Key words: visual rhetoric, social networks, political discourse.

Rhetoric and Communications Е-Journal, Issue 10, October 2013, http://rhetoric.bg/, ISSN 1314-4464

 

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Sonia Hinkova – The Foreign Policy – Rhetoric and Attitudes of the Remonstrates in Bulgaria in the Winter of 2013

Abstract: The represented article contains analysis of the foreign-political rhetoric and attitudes of the remonstrates in Bulgaria in the winter of 2013. Their essential characteristics are brought out. The rhetoric of the protest is defined as rhetoric of denial and self-closing because it legitimizes the confrontational attitudes of the remonstrates and shows the different way of speaking of their leaders. In the rhetoric of the street there is a replacement of terms as well as capsulation in the myth of the national body politics, which is represented with particular examples and quotations. In this rhetoric “citizens” is replaced by “people” and the foreign-political engagements of Bulgaria are qualified as “colonial slavery”. “Nostalgia” and hark-back to social stereotypes from another stage of the development of the Bulgarian society are “visible” in the attitudes of the remonstrates. These are transferred towards the foreign-political orientation of Bulgaria and deny the modern realities, in particular the membership in EU and NATO. An element of ideologization “creeps into” the rhetoric of the remonstrates which manifests in concrete terms and preferences towards exact countries (Russia, China). The article traces out a certain dynamic in the foreign-political rhetoric and attitudes of the remonstrates as well as it shows that they start as “anti-CEZ”, develop as anti-Czech and reach to anti-European.

Keywords: protests in Bulgaria, foreign-political rhetoric, foreign-political attitudes.

Rhetoric and Communications Е-Journal, Issue 10, October 2013, http://rhetoric.bg/, ISSN 1314-4464

 

Read the original of the article (in Bulgarian)