Are Austrian presidential candidates ordinary people?
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Helmut Gruber
Abstract
This paper investigates one specific aspect of impression management (self-presentation as an ordinary person) of the candidates during the 2016 Austrian presidential campaign on Twitter and asks whether the candidates’ campaigns followed the innovation or the normalization hypothesis. By applying Goffman’s concepts of “giving” vs. “giving off” information to the affordances of political communication on Twitter, a communicated ordinariness strategy is distinguished from a staged ordinariness strategy. Different forms of these two strategies are identified in the candidates’ tweets by investigating the pictorial and verbal elements of their tweets. Results show that both strategies are employed rather infrequently in all but one of the candidates’ tweets. Only one of the candidates used a staged ordinariness strategy during one phase of the campaign. These results show that most candidates employed communication strategies which conform to the normalization hypothesis rather than to the innovation hypothesis. Furthermore, the results suggest that following a consistent communication strategy throughout an entire campaign might ultimately lead to electoral success.
Abstract
This paper investigates one specific aspect of impression management (self-presentation as an ordinary person) of the candidates during the 2016 Austrian presidential campaign on Twitter and asks whether the candidates’ campaigns followed the innovation or the normalization hypothesis. By applying Goffman’s concepts of “giving” vs. “giving off” information to the affordances of political communication on Twitter, a communicated ordinariness strategy is distinguished from a staged ordinariness strategy. Different forms of these two strategies are identified in the candidates’ tweets by investigating the pictorial and verbal elements of their tweets. Results show that both strategies are employed rather infrequently in all but one of the candidates’ tweets. Only one of the candidates used a staged ordinariness strategy during one phase of the campaign. These results show that most candidates employed communication strategies which conform to the normalization hypothesis rather than to the innovation hypothesis. Furthermore, the results suggest that following a consistent communication strategy throughout an entire campaign might ultimately lead to electoral success.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
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Part I. Constructing ordinariness in politicians’ discourse
- Are Austrian presidential candidates ordinary people? 21
- “You bring the steaks, I’ll bring the salad” 51
- Quoting ordinary people in Prime Minister’s Questions1 73
- “Well, Yair? When will you be prime minister?” 103
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Part II. Constructing ordinariness in experts’ discourse
- “I can do math, but I’m not that smart. I’m not brilliant” 133
- Ordinary science 157
- Constructing ‘ordinariness’ 179
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Part III. Constructing ordinariness in ordinary media
- Constructing ordinariness in online commenting in Hebrew1 and Finnish 209
- Ordinary people’s political discourse in old and new French media 237
- When being quotidian meets being ordinary 269
- Index 295
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Constructing ordinariness in politicians’ discourse
- Are Austrian presidential candidates ordinary people? 21
- “You bring the steaks, I’ll bring the salad” 51
- Quoting ordinary people in Prime Minister’s Questions1 73
- “Well, Yair? When will you be prime minister?” 103
-
Part II. Constructing ordinariness in experts’ discourse
- “I can do math, but I’m not that smart. I’m not brilliant” 133
- Ordinary science 157
- Constructing ‘ordinariness’ 179
-
Part III. Constructing ordinariness in ordinary media
- Constructing ordinariness in online commenting in Hebrew1 and Finnish 209
- Ordinary people’s political discourse in old and new French media 237
- When being quotidian meets being ordinary 269
- Index 295
