Political Spokespersons Research Articles

Beyond Values and Interests: The Anglo-America Special Relationship during the Syrian Conflict

This paper attempts to reveal how intervention in international conflicts (re) constructs the Anglo-American Special Relationship (AASR). To do this, this article uses Syria as a case study. Analyzing parliamentary debates, presidential/prime ministerial speeches and formal official addresses, it offers a discursive constructivist analysis of key British and US political spokespeople. We argue that historically embedded values and interests stemming from unity forged by World War Two have taken on new meanings: the AASR being constructed by both normative and strategic cultures. The former, we argue, continues to forge a common alliance between the US and Britain, while the latter produces notable tensions between the two states.

Communicating information about the World Trade Center disaster: Ripples, reverberations, and repercussions

The coverage of the disaster in the U.S. on and subsequent to 11 September 2001, on various information channels throughout the world, was extensive. Written, spoken and visual material was produced and broadcast at unprecedented speed by sources ranging from authoritative journalistic channels, to official political spokespersons, to 'unofficial' sources and private persons posting comment on the Web via new Web-based news services, discussion and e-mail lists. The differing speed of response on the Web by the media industry, political and government channels reflected their organizational characteristics and the differing flexibility of reactions to extreme events. This paper traces a timeline of different aspects of news coverage during the week immediately following the disaster, and then over subsequent, more reflective, weeks. The material is used to show how a single dramatic event happening locally reverberates globally, and the impact of the developing global information infrastructure (GII) on these phenomena, geographically, temporally, and sectorally.

From Loyal Soldiers to Political Spokespersons : a Political History of a Loyalist Paramilitary Group in Northern Ireland

The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is the largest loyalist paramilitary organization in Northern Ireland. Launched in 1971, it has matched and even surpassed the violence of the IRA in the 1990s. However, the UDA is not seen simply as a « killing machine » by sections of the protestant working class. This paper seeks to explore the UDA aims and activity both during the troubles and in the context of the « peace process ».

Referendum campaign 1992: classic propaganda by political spokespersons on SABC-TV1

SUMMARY This article is a corollary to a research project on the 1992 referendum campaign conducted by the Department of Communication of the University of South Africa. The propaganda strategies, techniques and tactics of official political spokespersons for the “yes” and “no” camps as portrayed in selected SABC-TV1 programmes from 24 February to 16 March were analysed qualitatively. The conclusion is that each camp had resorted to classic propaganda with the overall idea of emphasising the so-called lies told by the other side.

Arms Control and Disarmament:

The study of arms control and disarmament is a subject of renewed interest in the United States. The attention of academicians, politicians, and average citizens, focused by a fear of nuclear holocaust, has turned to questions of how best to seek peace and safety in the nuclear age. Courses and programs devoted to arms control and disarmament and methods of achieving peaceful resolution of conflicts in today's world are offered at all educational levels, and the general public, aware of the necessity of being well‐informed on such an important topic, is looking for ways to obtain factual and reliable information to help sort out the conflicting claims of political spokespeople. Such material does exist and should be available to researchers, professors, students, and citizens, so that they can form opinions and attempt to influence policy on the basis of a sound understanding.

Canadianising the Holocaust: Debating Canada’s National Holocaust Monument

This paper addresses Canada’s first national monument to the Holocaust: the National Holocaust Monument (NHM) in Ottawa. I examine how public discourse surrounding the NHM constructs the Holocaust as a Canadian memory. Political spokespersons create connections between the Holocaust and Canadian history by drawing on themes of Canada’s Allied role during the war, post-war Jewish immigration, and the narrative of None Is too Many. The discourse frames Canada as both a hero and villain in respect to the Holocaust. Whereas some nations seek to resolve such conflicting memories, Canadians seem content to remember their nation in both ways.