Presidential rhetoric in times of crisis: A textual analysis of speeches by franklin roosevelt and ronald reagan

Abstract

While many scholars have examined the rhetoric of presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan individually, there is a gap in literature concerning crisis rhetoric specifically and little has been done in the way of comparing these two men. This study is a textual analysis of

A Textual Analysis of President Akufo-Addo’s 12th Covid–19 Address

“…This textual analysis study will strive to fill in the gaps which are emerging because as a scholarly effort, it examines one aspect of linguistic research on COVID-19 where there has been an emphasis on rhetorical analysis (Alo, 2012;Abuya, 2012;Babatunde & Odepitan, 2009;Cart, 2014;Bitzer, 1968;Cole & Harper, 2017;Ghasemi, 2020;Larrazabal &Korta 2002 andMensah, 2014) and critical discourse analysis (Ankrahi, Frimpong & Opoku, 2018;Mahdiyan, Muhammad & Hosseini-Maasoum, 2013;Appiah, 2015;Al-Badri & Al-Janabi, 2022;Addy & Ofori, 2020;Ningtyas, 2019;Awawdeh, 2021, Fairclough, 1995Hosseini-Maasoum, Mahdiyan, Rahbar 2013;Wodak, 2001) and speech analysis (Dadjoi, 2022;Kauffeld & Goodwin, 2022;Demuyakor, 2021;Daan, & Marx, 2021) in Ghana and Africa. This study would contribute to research generally in textual analysis in Ghana and Africa.…”

Afrika'nın ilk kadın başkanı olan Ellen Johnson Sirleaf'ın Açılış konuşmasının retorik analizi

“…Presidential rhetoric comes from political discourse as a theory and a style presidents use to communicate with the influence of media (Cart, 2014). Relating to the above definition of rhetoric, rhetoric in political speeches is an art to persuade through talks and texts produced by political leaders.…”

“…Furthermore, (Kane and Patapan 2010:372, as cited in Sekiguchi and Bouchebaba 2022) stated that "because public discussion and debate are essential in a democracy, and because leaders are obliged to rule the sovereign people using constant persuasion, rhetoric is central". However, this was criticized by President Ronald Reagan who said that persuasive communication cannot make one a great president without other presidential features such as using rhetoric wisely and being charismatic enough to capture and control a nation (Cart, 2014). This implies that only rhetoric may not be enough for a president to rule the nation, but his or her general characters, intellectual, language, and other political tactics also play a big role.…”

“…Therefore, presidential rhetoric might have become a research category because of the interest scholars, researchers and the public have in understanding it. The desire to understand rhetoric has opened up the door for studying presidential rhetoric and much has been written to define it because of its great importance in the spheres of life (Cart, 2014). For any orator to choose the right words is essential, and making a speech continuing with perfect and convincing words or phrases is exciting.…”

“…According to Tulis, (1988) as cited in Cart, (2014), rhetoric started with President Woodrow Wilson to be considered as a tool for governance, but today it is used at all levels of leadership through which leaders appeal to their followers to believe in their ideas and principles to make their leadership successful. People can behave differently with unique identities as per the nature of speeches they listen to from their leaders.…”