Rhetorical use of fear in presidential speeches: The War on Terror discourse

Abstract

This article explores the rhetorical use of fear in presidential speeches and its spillover to the media in order to achieve political and public consensus during a crisis situation. Fear is the primal emotion that people face under the recognition of an actual or an imaginary threat or danger. Based on that existential aspect, fear is also recognizable and identifiable rhetorical schema, applicable in the Mass Media/ Press. Strategic Communication uses this schema in its narrations and then diffuses it over in the Mass Media. Analysing that constructed fear we can extrapolate conclusions about the strategic planning of the political actors. In our case, we attempt to come to conclusions about the interconnection of the Rhetoric of Fear and the rhetorical construction of the ‘Rally around the Flag effect’ in the US Press. The analysis focuses on presidential rhetoric in the United States in the aftermath of 9/11 and the construction of the ‘War on Terror’ discourse. Using qualitative content and discourse analysis methodology, this article reveals that the rally around the flag effect has been mobilized rhetorically through the strategic use of fear that had been employed by the media and affected public opinion. The use of fear in President Bush’s rhetoric and its repetition by the governmental political elite influenced the opposition. The consensus of the political elite spilled over to the media and dominated the news, which reproduced the frames and the constructed fear arguments, providing a specific political reality for the public.