Beyond Public Speech and Symbols: Explorations in the Rhetoric of Politicians and the Media

De Landtsheer and Feldman draw together a collection of research essays examining the nature, characteristics, content, and reception of public rhetoric in various cultures and social settings. The volume focuses on three concerns. First, it examines public speech and symbols in various countries in both the East and the West. Second, it details various methods to study political discourse. Third, it reviews public speech and symbols in relationship to citizenship. As a unique study of the ways in which public speech works in a variety of nations to liberate and educate when it bridges the gaps between political elites and regular citizens, this volume should appeal to anyone, including scholars and researchers, with an interest in better understanding the burgeoning world of political communication.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction by Ofer Feldman The Rhetoric of Public Personalities New Labour, New Rhetoric? An Analysis of the Rhetoric of Tony Blair by Peter Bull Domain-Related Variation in Integrative Complexity: Clinton, Gingrich, Gorbachev, and Various Canadian Political Leaders: A Measure of Political Importance and Responsiveness? by Peter Suedfeld Political Language and the Search for an Honorable Peace: Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, Their Advisors, and Vietnam Decision Making by Moya Ann Ball The Eyesore of the Beholder: Beauty as Political Discourse in the 1998 Venezuelan Presidential Elections by Maritza Montero Speech Structures in Deliberative Bodies Linguistic Strategy of Involvement: An Emergence of New Political Speech in Japan by Shoji Azuma A Psycholinguistic Analysis of The European Union's Political Discourse Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (1980-1995) by Christ'l De Landtsheer and Lise van Oortmerssen National versus Global Public Discourse in the Era of Multi-Channelism: The Introduction of Commercial and Cable Television in Israel as an Empirical Test of Habermas' Theory by Mira Moshe and Sam Lehman-Wilzig Mythical Thinking, Aristotelian Logic, and Metaphors in the Parliament of Ukraine by Sergiy Taran Speech Aimed at Encouraging Citizen Participation Raising the Social Status of Intellectuals and Prescribing Ideal Behavior for Chinese Citizens: Press Images of Model Intellectuals Under Economic Reform by Mei Zhang Non-Oratorical Discourse and Political Humor in Japan: Editorial Cartoons, Satire, and Attitudes Toward Authority by Ofer Feldman Using the Internet in Political Campaigns: Campaign Evidence from Interactive Interviews with Novice Users by Montague Kern, Marion Just, Ann Crigler, and Iris Hong Xie Visions of a Tragedy: Symbolic Covergence in the Print Media Coverage of the Murrah Building Bombing in Oklahoma City by Tracey L. Mitchell Symbolism and Social Movements: How U.S. Political Debates Are Shaped and Citizens' Attitudes Influenced by Symbolic Communiqués by Nadya Terkildsen, Frauke Schnell, and Karen Callaghan Conclusion Public Speech, Symbols, and Democratic Citizenship East West by Christ'l De Landtsheer Index

About the Author :
CHRIST'L DE LANDTSHEER is Associate Professor at the Amsterdam School of Communications Research of the University of Amsterdam. Her numerous publications and international lectures focus on political communications, rhetoric, European integration, and political psychology. She is coeditor, with Ofer Feldman, of Politically Speaking: A Worldwide Examination of Language Used in the Public Sphere (Praeger, 1998). OFER FELDMAN is Associate Professor at Naruto University of Education, Japan. The author or editor of numerous books and articles, he is the executive editor of Politics and the News Media in Japan (1993). His present work focuses on political discourse and metaphors in Japan.

Review :
.,."respresents a significant undertaking in its efforts to make connections among the scholarly interests of a range of disciplines--speech communication and mass communication, political science and psychology, as well as linguistics--and among the messages of political figures and media from both Western and Eastern countries."-Journal of Government Information ?...respresents a significant undertaking in its efforts to make connections among the scholarly interests of a range of disciplines--speech communication and mass communication, political science and psychology, as well as linguistics--and among the messages of political figures and media from both Western and Eastern countries.?-Journal of Government Information ..."respresents a significant undertaking in its efforts to make connections among the scholarly interests of a range of disciplines--speech communication and mass communication, political science and psychology, as well as linguistics--and among the messages of political figures and media from both Western and Eastern countries."-Journal of Government Information