Presidential Image Research Articles

Face-work in North American Presidential Debates: A Corpus-based Multi-theoretical Approach

As inherently confrontational contexts, North American presidential debates compel politicians to engage in image restoration efforts when targeted by a face-threatening act. Since the first televised debates in 1960, presidential campaigns have become increasingly mediatized and the need to defend against face-damage has increased, for there is still a need to uphold a favorable presidential image despite the prominence of impoliteness in these events. Although a longstanding tradition, there is still no framework for the combined analysis of threatening and defensive face-work in presidential debates. This paper presents a corpus-based three-fold analysis blending qualitative, quantitative and statistical methodologies to observe the evolution of facework in this context, focusing on impoliteness and image restoration manifestations. The selected corpus comprises the presidential debates of seven North American elections —one per decade—, providing an overview of the evolution of both phenomena. This methodology also allows insight into the frequency of specific strategies. The analysis adopts a multi-theoretical approach to demonstrate the effectiveness of integrating Impoliteness theory (Culpeper, 1996) and Image restoration theory (Benoit and Wells, 1996) to create a comprehensive new approach to the study of face-work in presidential debates. Supported by results from Pearson’s Chi-square test, the combination of these theories was shown to be possible. The recurrence of attack-defense pairings integrating strategies from both theories also pointed to their necessary combination. While the recent incorporation of a female presidential candidate hinted at the potential gender variation of face-work in the debates, further data is needed to obtain conclusive results.

What Does It Mean to Have a Presidential Image? A Multiple-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis Measuring Trump and Biden in 2020

U.S. presidential candidates aspire to have a “presidential image.” Political communication researchers, media pundits, political scientists, pollsters, campaign consultants, and other political marketers speculate about who is “presidential” and “unpresidential.” No prior research, however, has empirically measured and validated a presidential image construct. Based on data collected prior to the 2020 U.S. presidential election (N = 618 registered likely voters), we tested congeneric models of presidentiality. Results indicated (1) a six-item, single-factor model fit well when single group confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were performed separately on ratings of Donald Trump (Study 1) and Joe Biden (Study 2), (2) multiple-group CFA indicated configural and metric invariance (generalizability across candidates) of the model, and (3) presidential image factor scores were strongly associated with the candidate participants planned to vote for in the election. The resultant indicators also advance theorizing that a U.S. president is expected to serve as both “head of state” through components of personability and as “head of government” through components of capability. Theoretical implications for political marketing are discussed.

Understanding President Trump supporters’ behaviors about a political controversy

PurposeThis study seeks to understand Trump supporters’ behaviors on social media in the wake of a political controversy: US President Trump’s continued support for Judge Roy Moore’s candidacy for the US Senate representing the state of Alabama despite several allegations of sexual assault against him.Design/methodology/approachFew days before the special election was held in Alabama, an online survey was conducted among 325 supporters of President Trump to explore Trump supporters’ social media behaviors, including the unfriending/unfollowing contacts and speaking out about the controversy.FindingsWe found a negative presidential image to influence individuals’ loss of face, and such loss of face to impact unfriending/unfollowing behaviors on social media, as well as outspokenness. Furthermore, the differences between strong issue supporters and weak issue supporters’ opinions of climate perceptions and outspokenness were investigated.Originality/valueRather than using fear of isolation as the mediator between opinion climate and willingness to speak out, as is generally the case in the spiral of silence model (Moy et al., 2001), this study investigated the role of another affective indicator, loss of face on two social media behaviors, outspokenness, and unfollowing/unfriending contacts on social media.

Book Review: Wafa Unus A Newsman in the Nixon White House: Herbert Klein and the Enduring Conflict Between Journalistic Truth and Presidential Image

Book Review: Wafa Unus <i>A Newsman in the Nixon White House: Herbert Klein and the Enduring Conflict Between Journalistic Truth and Presidential Image</i>

Coverage of the Commanders in Chief: Differences of Presidential Images Between the United States and Korea

A content analysis was conducted based on the presidential images presented by the leading newspapers and the official presidential office websites in the United States and Korea. Findings reveal differences between the two countries in terms of look, type, viewpoint, and visual hierarchy of the photographs. Specifically, the proportion of casual-look, documentary-style pictures showing the rear/back shot or a detailed view and higher in hierarchy images of President Obama were considerably higher than those of President Park in Korea, where virtually all images were authoritative, photo-opportunity style, front or side, and informational. The differences of how the presidents may be portrayed could be influential in shaping the public's perception of these presidents.

A Study of Discourse Strategies from the Perspective of Critical Analysis

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a form of reflective inspection of how discourses shape and influence us. It has been applied widely especially in political discourses which analyzes the potential characteristics of language and the social and cultural background generated in the text, committed to exposing the complex relationship between language, power and ideology with the aid of critical thinking. Generally, the theoretical framework of CDA is based on Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics. Halliday believes that language has three metafunctions, namely ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function. These three achievements meet the needs of language users in three aspects including the description of the experience of objective world, the construction of social relations and the organization of discourse. As an important theory in systemic functional grammar, transitive system embodies the ideational function of language, which expresses people’s real world experiences and the inner world in several processes. In addition, this kind of theory is based on the semantic configuration of Actor+Process. Therefore, this paper will make a critical discourse analysis of Donald Trump’s inauguration speech in 2017 from the aspect of linguistic transitive system. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the language skills used by Mr.Trump and the discourse generating patterns of his presidential image, so that we can explore the ideology reflected behind the language and dig into the process of building the image of the president of the United States in Donald Trump’s inauguration speech.

Recovery of the US president character in Hollywood film during Barack Obama’s terms

AbstractIn the wake of a political, financial, and institutional crisis, Barack Obama was elected President in 2008, and four years later he was appointed for a second term. The media campaign that took him to the White House drew a parallel between the trajectory of the Democratic candidate and the advent of Franklin D. Roosevelt for the presidency in 1932, because of the similarities of critical context between two historical moments marked by the need for change and regeneration, both internal and external. Hollywood films have also participated in this political turn, recovering the presidential image after the negative portrait drawn during the Bush–Cheney administration. While Obama has inspired an epic vision of the presidency back on the big screen, the new forged image also offers critical traits based on the public perception of his administration.

The Leading Man: Hollywood and the Presidential Image. By Burton W.Peretti. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2012. 335 pp.

The Leading Man: Hollywood and the Presidential Image. By Burton W. Peretti. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2012. 335 pp. The heading Man: Hollywood and the Presidential Image explores the institutional and cultural interplay of cinema and the presidency in the United States. It treats the Washington-Hollywood nexus as a point of convergence that gave rise to a presidential (p. 5)--a powerful formulation that occupied a central place in U.S. political culture. Relying on useful primary research, Peretti shows how the chief executives of the past century--from Herbert Hoover to Barack Obama--engaged the cinematic medium to boost their power on the national stage. In return, Hollywood solidified its status as a dominant cultural enterprise. According to Peretti, the making of the presidential image originated from the Founding Fathers. Intent on navigating the young republic through its various challenges, the early heads of state, often working in tandem with the First Ladies, honed their performative skills to reassure the public as an embodiment of the nation (p. 14). The rise of cinema brought this effort to a new level. While enjoying the movies for pleasure, these leading men--both Democrats and Republicans--carefully studied Hollywood's image-making techniques to build their popularity and charisma in the public arena. They not only made use of the screens--big and small--to promote their policy agendas, but also convinced a constellation of Tinseltown celebrities to rally for their campaigns. Even though some leaders kept their distance from Hollywood (e.g., Lyndon Johnson and George W. Bush), most others eagerly partook in constructing the cinematic presidential image. Their gains were substantial. In telling detail, Peretti shows how the dramatics of cinema, for instance, aided FDR's efforts to mask his physical disability. It also enabled Kennedy to flaunt his glamour and charm. Nixon obsessively pursued a conservative cinematic presidential (p. 164), together with Reagan, who boldly acted his two terms in office. Clinton elevated the cinematic presidential image to its definitive form (p. 243), which even helped him survive through the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Peretti also shows that the alliance benefited U.S. studios. Through a careful use of key works in the field of film history, the author demonstrates how Hollywood became a cultural mainstay in America by courting Washington's support. …

The Declining Relevance of Candidate Personal Attributes in Presidential Elections

This article examines sixty years of data from the American National Election Studies, and finds that the electorate's focus on candidate attributes has declined substantially. Whereas 80% of respondents had mentioned personal attributes in the past, in recent elections only about 60% have done so. Furthermore, such comments are now more tied to partisan identification and have less of an independent impact on voting behavior. The chances of presidential image makers successfully making a difference by emphasizing a president's personal character are now much less than in the era of Johnson, Nixon, and Reagan.

Legitimizing Leadership: Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s 2007 Inaugural Address

In this essay, I examine how Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner used her 2007 inaugural address to legitimize her political leadership. Placing the address within Argentina’s political climate and working in light of the fact that Fernández de Kirchner’s spouse was the out-going president, I use theories of political ethos to examine the challenges Fernández de Kirchner faced in inaugurating her presidency. I suggest that she constructed a hybrid ethos, combining multiple presidential images to reconcile competing concerns. I treat in depth three elements of that hybrid ethos: the ethos of a presidential couple that positioned Fernández de Kirchner alongside her popular husband; the ethos of a woman president building on a tradition of other influential Argentine women; and the ethos of a teacher-expert whose knowledge authorized national leadership. Enacting these varied ethoi, I argue, Fernández de Kirchner turned political challenges to her advantage and crafted the presidency she would assume.

“American” Pictures and (Trans-)National Iconographies: Mapping Interpictorial Clusters in American Studies

Udo J. Hebel examines the recent critical history of visual cultures in American Studies in his essay “‘American’ Pictures and (Trans-)National Iconographies: Mapping Interpictorial Clusters in American Studies,” focusing his analysis specifically on “political photography” and the concurrency of contexts that inform his reading of the history of US presidential images. This beautifully researched article, previously published in American Studies Today: New Research Agendas (Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2014), takes up questions related to “tensions” between disciplinary concerns and transdisciplinary potentialities for interpreting the representation of the political inside the framework of transnational American Studies.

Re“Characterizing” the Anecdote: Synecdoche and Ethotic Argument in Presidential Debate Rhetoric

For over four decades, presidential campaign rhetoric has focused intensely on the person of the candidate. One rhetorical strategy candidates employ to construct positive presidential image is the anecdote. This essay recharacterizes the status and rhetorical functions of anecdotes told in presidential debates. I argue how this complexly condensed, narrative-based strategy combines synecdoche with ethotic argument to engender representations of presidential identity. A more nuanced understanding of the role anecdote plays in the existing scholarship on narrative and presidential rhetoric is extended. My position is supported anecdotally by a close textual analysis of anecdotes employed by Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.

Burton W. Peretti. The Leading Man: Hollywood and the Presidential Image.

Burton W. Peretti. The Leading Man: Hollywood and the Presidential Image.

The Leading Man: Hollywood and the Presidential Image

The Leading Man: Hollywood and the Presidential Image

The leading man: Hollywood and the presidential image

American presidents and Hollywood have interacted since the 1920s. This relationship has made our entertainment more political and our political leadership more aligned with the world of movies and movie stars. In The Leading Man , Burton W. Peretti explores the development of the cinematic presidential image. He sets the scene in chapter 1 to show us how the chief executive, beginning with George Washington, was positioned to assume the mantle of cultural leading man. As an early star figure in the young republic, the president served as a symbol of national survival and wish fulfilment. The president, as head of government and head of state, had the potential to portray a powerful and charismatic role. At the centre of the story are the fourteen presidents of the cinematic era, from Herbert Hoover to Barack Obama. Since the 1920s, the president, like the lead actor in a movie, has been given the central place on the political stage under the intense glare of the spotlight. Like other American men, future presidents were taught by lead movie actors how to look and behave, what to say, and how to say it. Some, like John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon, took particular care to learn from the grooming, gestures, movements, and vocal inflections of film actors and applied these lessons to their political careers. Ronald Reagan was a professional actor. Bill Clinton, a child of the post-World War II Baby Boom, may have been the biggest movie fan of all presidents. Others, including Lyndon Johnson, showed little interest in movies and their lessons for politicians. Presidents and other politicians have been criticised for cheapening their offices by hiring image and advertising consultants and staging their public events. Peretti analyses the evolution and the significance of this interaction to trace the convoluted history of the presidential cinematic image. He demonstrates how movies have been the main force in promoting appearance and drama over the substance of governing, and how Americans' lives today may be dominated by entertainment at the expense of their engagement as citizens.

Seeing Obama, Projecting Kennedy: The Presence of JFK in Images of Barack Obama

During the 2008 election campaign Obama’s youth, his glamorous wife, young children, and liberal politics resuscitated the memory of Kennedy, who remains the benchmark of the presidential image. This article explores how Obama shapes himself in Kennedy’s image. Employing Freud’s concept of the ‘ego-ideal’, the article examines how Obama has sought to establish himself as Kennedy’s natural successor through his presentation and performance. The article compares the representation of the two presidents in the works of Annie Leibovitz, Stanley Tretick, and Richard Avedon, as well as the documentaries and By the People (2009).

What Goes Around . . . : Some Shtick from “Tricky Dick” and the Circulation of U.S. Presidential Image

Modern U.S. presidential persona is based on “message,” that is, on creating and sustaining a publicly imaginable “character” with biography and moral profile built around and projectable in relation to issues under current debate. Controlling “message” depends on the success of directed circulation of verbal and pictorial signs, among them narrative reports and images of presidential doings that join electoral politics and government uneasily and warily—or, in some eras and circumstances, comfortably and reliably—to the media institutions of news reportage and opinion‐shaping on the functioning of which the political order in democratic polities depends. Through the analysis of a news article reporting one remarkable—and seemingly revealing—incident during the presidency of Richard M. Nixon, and its circulatory fate, we can gain insight into the vicissitudes of “message”—as of any entextualized semiotic form—as it traverses the socio‐spatiotemporal realm in which it is shaped. [circulation, semiotics, presidential image, entextualization]

War Powers Derived from the Presidential Image

War Powers Derived from the Presidential Image

이미지 검색을 위한 영역별 기술어에 관한 연구 - 한국의 대통령 사진기록물을 중심으로 -

While relevant studies emphasize the significance of user-oriented indexing associated with fulfilling both topical and non-topical needs of individual users, a great number of operational retrieval systems supports only those searches related to subject attributes of the users` needs. Retrieval systems for presidential image collections are not an exception for such a restriction. Upon this reality. this study seeks diversification of access points for presidential images based on descriptors directly presented by potential user groups. Improvements of subject-based descriptors are suggested based on those descriptors identified.

Constructing Images in Presidential Primaries: An Analysis of Discourse Strategies in the Dole and Bush Iowa Straw Poll Speeches

This study examines how two major presidential contenders strategically developed their presidential images. The candidates' strategies are examined through the lens of a presidential candidate image prototype. Specifically, this study investigates whether, and how, gender shapes these strategies. Although both candidates emphasized images of competence, integrity, reliability, and charisma, and both presented themes of policy issues and experience, their presidential images nonetheless were clearly different. The influences of gender, situation, and position within the race are examined as distinctively influential factors.