Transcript Crisis Rhetoric

Crisis Rhetoric:
An Exercise in Persuasion
Professor Tim Castro
Defining Crisis
•An unstable condition, as in political, social, or economic
affairs, involving an impending abrupt or decisive change
•The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright ©
2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
•The point of time when it is to be decided whether any
affair or course of action must go on, or be modified or
terminate; the decisive moment; the turning point
•Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Defining Crisis Rhetoric
• Crisis Rhetoric
– The announcement of a situation that demands
decisive action and urgent response, national unity,
and trust in the president
– “So long as the crisis is not one of a military attack
upon the US, it is to be considered a political event
rhetorically created by the president.”-Theodore
Windt
Crisis Rhetoric vs...
• Tragedy
– Address/Response to a devastating situation
– Events have unfolded
• Crisis is ongoing/unresolved and outcome hinges on the
action of the President.
• Framed differently: past vs. present/future
– Not necessarily an issue of foreign policy
• Therefore, does not imply a political crisis
Crisis Rhetoric vs...
• War Rhetoric
– Often overlaps in form and content, but has a
broader scope/subject matter
– “All wars are crises, but not all crises are wars.”Kacewicz and Meany
– War rhetoric explicitly calls for military action
whereas crisis rhetoric often threatens or alludes
to future military action.
4 Components of Crisis Rhetoric
• Obligatory statement of facts
• Establishment of a melodrama between good
(us) and evil (them)
• Policy announced by the president and “askedfor” support are framed as moral acts
• Compliance is framed as normative
Debate and Opposition
• “To criticize the Commander-in-Chief in the
midst of an apparent crisis may appear
downright unpatriotic.”-Denise Bostdorff
– Framing limits opposition
– Framing limits acceptable options for response to
those put forth by the President
Functions of Crisis Rhetoric
• “Situations rarely create crises- rather,
presidents perceptions of situations and the
rhetoric used to describe them mark events as
crises.”-Bostdorff
• Escalate or De-escalate depending on which
strategy suits the political situation of the
President
When to escalate?
• Divert attention from other issues
• Justify a particular course of action for
president
• Can bolster approval ratings/make president
appear more potent if he knows he can resolve
the “crisis” effectively
• Can secure Congressional support
Case Study
• Operation Just Cause
– December 20, 1989 Bush addressed the nation regarding
“crisis” in Panama
– Justifies military action because of recent American solider
death, two attacks on US military personnel, as well
threatened rape of a US military wife
– Presented the military action as a way to:
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combat the illegal drug trade
protect the integrity of the Panama Canal Treaty
protect American lives
restore democracy to Panama.
Operation Just Cause
• Results of Action:
– Noriega fled to the Vatican before turning himself
in to the US authorities on charges of drug
trafficking
– “Bush’s management of the crisis won him
widespread public and congressional support and
put to rest questions about his ‘toughness.’”
– Bostdorff
– The success of the Panama Crisis came to be one
of the defining events of Bush’s presidency
When to De-escalate?
• Situations in which the administration looks bad or a
positive, decisive conclusion cannot be attained
• Typically a sudden cessation of rhetoric on a topic
– Serves to minimalize issue
– Or divert attention elsewhere
• a president often needs a new crisis in order to de-escalate another
one
– “[The press] is stunningly successful in telling its readers
what to think about.”-Bernard Cohen
Agenda Setting Theory
• McCombs and Shaw
• The ability of mass media to transfer the salience of
items on their agendas to the public agenda
– Focus on cause and effect relationship between media
content and voter perception
• Not just what to think about, but how to think about it
• “The media acts as a mediator between the world
outside and the pictures in our heads”-Walter
Lippman
Agenda Setting Theory
• Framing
– The process of calling attention to some aspects of
reality while obscuring others, which might lead to
different reactions; the selection of a restricted
number of thematically related attributes for
inclusion in the media agenda when a particular
object is discussed.
• Who sets the agenda for the agenda-setters?
Movie Clip
Special Case?
• 9/11 discussion