A Functional Analysis of the 2006 Canadian and 2007 Australian Election Debates

Benoit, William L.; Henson, Jayne R.

doi:10.1080/00028533.2007.11821676

Cited by 22 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Our analysis also provides support for functional theory. For all the talk of negative campaigning and the accusations of mudslinging, acclaims featured far more prominently than other functions, which accords with observations in other established democracies (Benoit and Henson, ). Brown was the most defensive of the three leaders – he was, after all, the only one with a governmental record to defend – but the other leaders had to do their share of defending too.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 84%

Rules, Strategies and Words: The Content of the 2010 Prime Ministerial Debates

2013

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This article investigates the verbal content of the 2010 prime ministerial debates using computer-aided text analysis (CATA) and functional analysis. It seeks to provide reliable measures of what the leaders said, develop our theoretical understanding of televised debates in British elections, open up the 2010 debates for potential comparison with others, and provide additional evidence by which the democratic value of the debates might be assessed. The article demonstrates that the leaders focused more on policy than on personality, that most content was devoted to positive reasons for supporting parties rather than negative attacks on opponents, and that there was variation in the attention paid to general themes and specific issues and in the nature of the leaders' appeals to voters.The findings offer qualified support for issue ownership and functional theories, but knowledge of the specific political context remains necessary for understanding the content.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 84%

Rules, Strategies and Words: The Content of the 2010 Prime Ministerial Debates

2013

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“…To ensure comparability of data in this replication, we followed the same procedures developed for conducting Functional Communication Quarterly 469 analysis of other political leaders' debates (e.g., see Benoit, 2007;Benoit & Henson, 2007;Benoit & Klyukovski, 2006;Benoit & Sheafer, 2006;Benoit, Wen, & Yu, 2007).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Debates Come to the United Kingdom: A Functional Analysis of the 2010 British Prime Minister Election Debates

Benoit

Benoit-Bryan

2013

Communication Quarterly

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“…In recent years, however, the functional theory of political campaign discourse has been applied to several elections in various countries outside of the US. So far, functional theory has been used to analyse political campaign discourse in Slovakia (Hrbková & Zagrapan, 2014), the United Kingdom (Benoit & Benoit-Bryan, 2013), France (Choi & Benoit, 2013), Spain (Herrero & Benoit, 2009), Israel (Benoit & Sheafer, 2006), Taiwan (Benoit, Wen, & Yu, 2007), Romania (Cmeciu & Patrut, 2010), Ukraine (Benoit & Klyukovski, 2006), Germany (Benoit & Hemmer, 2007), Korea (Lee & Benoit, 2004, 2005, Finland (Isotalus 2010(Isotalus , 2011, Canada (Benoit, 2011;Benoit & Henson, 2007), and Australia (Benoit & Henson, 2007). Applying functional theory to research the political campaign discourse in countries other than the US has raised the question of whether the theory is too culturally limited to be useful in political systems different from that of the US.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Functional Analysis of the Finnish 2012 Presidential Elections

Paatelainen¹,

Croucher²,

Benoit

2016

Studies in Media and Communication

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This study applied the functional theory of political campaign discourse, developed for political campaigns in the United States to two televised presidential debates in the 2012 presidential elections in Finland. Acclaims were the most preferred statement by the candidates, with agreements being the least preferred. Policy was discussed more than character during the debates. General goals and ideals were used more frequently to acclaim than to attack. Results are generally consistent with the results of previous studies of presidential elections in the US and other countries. However, differences did emerge: the classical functional categories were supplemented by a new category, the role of the moderator as an attacker in the debate is emphasized, the significance of the diminishing role of the Finnish Presidency is of significance, and the fact that one of the two candidates was the first openly homosexual presidential candidate likely influenced the debates and the election.

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A Functional Analysis of the 2006 Canadian and 2007 Australian Election Debates

Cited by 22 publications

References 33 publications

Rules, Strategies and Words: The Content of the 2010 Prime Ministerial Debates

Rules, Strategies and Words: The Content of the 2010 Prime Ministerial Debates

Debates Come to the United Kingdom: A Functional Analysis of the 2010 British Prime Minister Election Debates

A Functional Analysis of the Finnish 2012 Presidential Elections

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