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Conversational Delivery: Jamieson argues that electrified media allowed speakers to project their voices more easily. These media also allowed viewers to feel more intimately connected to the speaker. So, “Speeches became talks” (p. 56).
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Conversational Delivery: Jamieson argues that electrified media allowed speakers to project their voices more easily. These media also allowed viewers to feel more intimately connected to the speaker. So, “Speeches became talks” (p. 56).
Conversational Delivery and its Effects on How we Perceive and how News Media Cover Public Officials: • One might argue that TV and radio encouraged people to feel intimately connected with their leaders. This results in less concern about policies and parties, and more concern about personal character. • Recent Stories from CNN.com: • “What Does President Bush Keep in his Pockets?” http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/02/bush.pockets.ap/index.html • “President Bears Soul with iPod 1” http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/12/bush.ipod/index.html
Conversational Delivery and its Effects on How we Perceive and how News Media Cover Public Officials: • One might argue that the intimacy of television leads to image-driven campaigns and media coverage. • Some researchers and pollsters even suggest that modern voters can’t manage issues, so they should focus on images when selecting leaders. • Polls collected in the last few election cycles indicate that American voters are interested in three qualities in their presidential candidates: honesty, intelligence, and independence. • These preoccupations could lead to a media that focuses on issues of honesty, intelligence, and independence: Did Bush/Clinton lie? Is Bush able to lead without Cheney? Who’s smarter, Bush or Kerry?
Words Caption Pictures: Jamieson argues that television emphasizes the visual and often subordinates the verbal. As a result, people become fixated on the image and not on what is said about the image. As a result, she says politicians have become overly concerned with providing memorable images.
Words Caption Pictures--the Effects on Media Coverage: One might argue that the attention given to the image leads politicians and news media to focus on how things look just as much as they focus on the information given in a press conference, a speech, or a debate. For example: President Bush’s recent speech about the efforts to manage disaster relief in New Orleans covered a number of important topics, including his idea for creating an “opportunity zone” along the Gulf Coast. Yet, news media were just as likely to mention his plans for recovery as they were to mention the fact that he delivered the speech in his shirt sleeves, or that he brought his own generators to light the scene where he delivered his speech.
Words Caption Pictures--the Effects on Media Coverage: One might argue that the attention given to the image leads politicians and news media to focus on how things look just as much as they focus on the information given in a press conference, a speech, or a debate. Another example: Though few can remember what Gore and Bush said in their first official debate, many remember that Al Gore wore too much makeup and that he sighed too often. Coverage of the debates discussed how the candidates looked often just as much as what they said.
Autobiographical Reference: Jamieson argues that the intimacy of electrified media encourages people to reveal personal information about themselves. Politicians dodge accusations of dishonesty by appealing to their characters. In speeches, they are just as likely to talk about their own lives and experiences as they are to discuss their policies.
Autobiographical Reference--the Effects on Media Coverage: One might argue that the frequency of autobiographical reference in political speechmaking has led the public and the media to expect a great deal of self-disclosure from their candidates For example: Howard Dean, at one point was the front-runner in the Democratic primaries, but the media kept hounding him for information about his wife, a famously shy woman. In the end, he had to pressure her into an interview with Diane Sawyer. Sawyer asked extremely personal questions like, “How does it feel, to be the object of all these jokes?” and “is religion ever a problem” when raising your children?
What Happens When the Old Oratory (Fiery, Formal, Descriptive) Meets the New Medium? http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/convention2004/zellmiller2004rnc.htm