Crisis Rhetoric: An Exercise in Persuasion

Laura Kacewicz and Matthew Meany

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 “asked-for” 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:• 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