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In the snows of New Hampshire: Rhetorical constructions of the political arena in the 1988 primary
Abstract
This study sketches out the ways in which a candidate talks to voters. In modern presidential campaigning far too much of the focus is upon the broadcast media and their role in determining what gets filtered through to the citizenry. This is not a study of the effects of the mass media. No attempt is made here to dispute or confirm the effects of television upon the political process. Instead, this is a study of public speaking--the relatively direct interaction between the candidate and the potential voter. The work addresses a theoretical concern about creating a public space where political communication can occur. The study is divided into rhetorical analyses of key elements of the political arena that candidates from both parties constructed. The first chapter outlines the mythic rhetoric of citizen participation that characterizes this election in New Hampshire and outlines how the press attempts to locate representations of that participation. The following three chapters treat separately key elements of the public sphere by investigating where the candidates spoke and to whom, outlining the choices of formats for these appearances, and describing the sorts of language and image strategies employed by the candidates. A fifth major chapter depicts alternate constructions of public space that a handful of candidates used to deviate from the general patterns. Although this study is focused upon a single primary election and offers a clear historical record this is not the main purpose of the work. The analysis is spatially oriented and is meant to offer a geographic record of how the campaign was shaped by collective and individual conceptions of a public stage. To accomplish this purpose a rhetorical analysis of the political arena is used to create a "map" of the 1988 New Hampshire primary. This map details where the candidates chose to speak, to whom, in what manner, and with what language and images.
Subject Area
Communication|Geography|Political science
Recommended Citation
Metcalf, Eric Nelson, "In the snows of New Hampshire: Rhetorical constructions of the political arena in the 1988 primary" (1991). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9120918.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9120918