Symbolic Rhetoric Research Articles

A Content Analysis of the Vision Statements of Top 10 Leading Universities in Indonesia

This study analyzes the vision statements of Indonesia's top 10 universities, as ranked by Times Higher Education in 2024. Vision statements are crucial for defining a university’s strategic direction, identity, and stakeholder engagement. The content analysis identifies recurring themes, including scientific advancement, innovation, community empowerment, and global competitiveness. While these statements articulate ambitious goals, potential challenges such as symbolic rhetoric and institutional isomorphism may hinder their effectiveness. The findings emphasize the need for vision statements that are actionable and aligned with the institution's mission. The study concludes with recommendations for further research on the practical implementation of these visions and the role of leadership, as well as strategies for embedding visions into institutional culture.

French political symbolism and identity construction

The present study examines how the language of political symbolism operates within the framework of identity construction. It focusses on the themes of sovereignty during the 2022 French presidency of the European Union and the national presidential election campaign. On the basis of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, it suggests that, apart from purely linguistic features, extra-linguistic factors are also essential in order to convey a global view of symbolic rhetoric. The analysis is conducted according to an overall 6-tier model of figurative origins involving the parameters of personal background, political context, cultural history, reference, conceptual metaphor and linguistic metaphor. By applying the parameters of the model, it is proposed that the core of political argumentation in the corpus analysis is based on national symbols and the conceptual mapping they embody. The basic hypothesis of the model assumes that a politician attempts to portray the symbolisation of unity in accordance with his or her political background and personal biography. A political narrative is thereby created within the current political context using predominant symbols in cultural history. An over-riding factor is the role of referential points which may determine divergence in conceptual mapping. These features then lead to the construction of conceptual metaphors which can take on a particularly hyperbolic structure in the ensuing linguistic metaphors. The implications of the study highlight the important role of symbolism in political debate, its interaction with conceptual metaphor, the relevance of extra-linguistic factors portrayed by the 6-tier model, the link between cultural history and hyperbolic linguistic structures and political divergence in similar symbols.

Domestic politics and international competition: populism and the importance of understanding rhetoric

ABSTRACT How do ideology, foreign policy, and the international system interact with and shape one another? This paper examines the relationship between ideology and foreign policy in the United Kingdom, India, and China and finds three common threads. First, while ideology likely affects foreign policy formulation, the causal mechanisms involved are complex and not necessarily uniform across states. Second, destabilizing forces like populism are increasing around the world with the potential to disturb current conceptions of the international order. Finally, from a policy perspective, distinguishing between a state’s operational and symbolic rhetoric can reduce the likelihood of strategic miscalculation. With these commonalities in mind, we contend that foreign policymakers must approach other states understanding that each state’s domestic situation is unique and that while Sino-American competition looms large in American policymaking, it might not be the driving force behind other states’ foreign policy decisions. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the official policy or position of the U.S. Army, Department of Defense, or United States Government.

The Class Dynamics of Antiracism in Go Set a Watchman

Because it portrayed Atticus Finch as a racist and a segregationist, when Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman was published it caused much public dismay. But the book’s classism has not yet aroused such dismay. This essay argues that the antiracism of its main character—an adult Jean Louise Finch—is articulated in part by snobbish opposition to what she deems to be “white trash” attitudes. In this way Lee’s critique of a steeply stratified southern society is compromised by her transferring the symbolic rhetoric of defilement from a racial “other” to a class “other” assumed to be racist. Studying the classist premise of Watchman, then, helps attune us to its operation in To Kill a Mockingbird.

PROPORTIONALITY OF BIAS-MOTIVATION AND HATE CRIME: AN OVERVIEW OF HATE CRIME LAWS

This article's overall research objective will be to critically analyze the foundational theory of hate crimes. The research question asks to what extent hate crimes are grounded in a foundational commonplace style of elaboration of statutory rules, as propounded by Nicolaus the Sophist, on the bases of the so-called ‘final headings’. The argument seeks to sustain the view that the so-called hate crimes are cognate to final headings elaborations in order to ground commonplace judicial denunciation. The research paradigm identifies underlying norms; therefore, the research methodology is doctrinal, establishing a legal narrative analysis.In extended synthesis, a statute might not proscribe fighting words of racial animus any more than those of hatred of the victim’s family. Regulation of the words’ subject inferred elaboration by the heading of the just and the appropriate. The enigma of the ‘something more’ criterion is ostensibly an elaboration of the possible and the beneficial. Hate crime laws apply to conduct motivated by hate, instead of hate speech. Hate suggests a consequential vitiation of reputation, so that hate crime laws are impliedly elaborated based on the final heading of the appropriate. Online symbolic rhetoric is arguably the enigmatic ‘something more’ and elaborated by the final headings of the possible and the beneficial. Hate crime laws require extraordinary police inquiries into offenders' motives. This conflation of duty and avoiding turning a blind eye implies final headings elaboration by the appropriate and the just. A measurement of victim vulnerability by association with a suffering group is the primary indicium of commonplace, elaborated by the final heading of the beneficial. The key to a hate crimes prosecution for social media actions would be hostility as a vicious error, as already elaborated as being equivalent to hatred, susceptible to elaboration by the final heading of appropriateness.

Coloring Palestine: The Flag Device and Cinematic Motivations in Narrative Movies

This article compares the flag colors device in three films: Paradise Now, When I Saw You, and 3000 Nights. The central question is how Hany Abu-Assad, Annemarie Jacir, and Mai Masri embed the colors red, green, white, and black in their movies, the colors of the Palestinian flag. Three major motivations for the flag device are compared: symbolic rhetoric, artistic play, and narrative composition by examining flag motifs from global cinema (Godard, Kieślowski, and Mehta) and other Palestinian films and paintings. This article argues that Abu-Assad, Jacir, and Masri have used flag colors to structure their films’ form and to cue their narratives.

RETORIKA INFOGRAFIS PANDEMI CORONA VIRUS MEDIA JURNALISTIK DIGITAL ONLINE

AbstractThe phenomenon of infographics as a visual strategy to attract readers of digital newspapers in order to realize the importance of the protocol issued by WHO and the government of the Republic of Indonesia in an effort to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, is currently quite prevalent by online media press. The visual form of infographics published by the digital-based press (online) is usually derived to accompany the main article on the front page (headline). The important message of the infographic that is prioritized is not to spread quickly, namely by maintaining social distancing, encouraging work at home, and always maintaining cleanliness and wearing a mask when leaving the house, even then with restrictions. How the form of visual communication design in the form of an infographic is able to provide aesthetic appeal in visual rhetoric to readers who will be the attention of this study. Through a qualitative research method approach to the phenomenon of infographic design from the perspective of text study from the aesthetic value of symbolic visual rhetoric with visual communication design analysis in terms of harmony achievement through its persuasive informative constituent elements. The findings of this study are related to the form of the infographic which is more portrait or vertical dominant. Colors tend to be strong colors red, yellow, blue, and black to indicate pandemic-related color psychology. Visual rhetoric tends to be iconic and header and copy letters are dominant in using sanserif to persuade understanding and reading of information to the reading audience. To remind adherence to health protocols, such as messages from mothers, namely wearing masks, washing hands and maintaining social distancing are the keywords to break this pandemic.Keywords: Covid-19 infographics, aesthetics, visual rhetoric, online press media

Muslim Solidarity and the Lack of Effective Protection for Rohingya Refugees in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia has the weakest normative frameworks for refugee protection of any region in the world apart from the Middle East. Only two out of ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have signed the 1951 International Refugee Convention. Nevertheless, the 2012 ASEAN Human Rights Declaration explicitly mentions the right to seek and receive asylum ‘in accordance with the laws of such State and applicable international agreements’ (ASEAN 2012). One of the litmus tests for this right has been the regional treatment of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority from Myanmar that faces forced displacement, discrimination, and large-scale state violence. Based on media content analysis and a scientific literature review, this paper sheds light on how ASEAN’s most prominent Muslim member countries, Indonesia and Malaysia, advocate on behalf of the forcibly displaced Rohingya. In particular, this paper focuses on competing forms of political interventions and shifting notions of Muslim solidarity. While Indonesia and Malaysia have been very vocal in bilateral, regional, and international forums to criticise the Myanmar government for their violation of basic human rights, both countries remain highly reluctant to offer sanctuary to Rohingya refugees, of which several thousand have attempted to reach Indonesia and Malaysia. This research finds that the notion of Muslim solidarity remains a symbolic rhetoric primarily directed at domestic audiences and the failure to render effective protection to refugees has rather increased over the last five years.

Aborting Global Women's Rights: The Boundaries of Women's Representation in American Foreign Policy

AbstractAmerican foreign policy has expanded in recent years to address issues that affect women and girls worldwide, global women's rights, yet there has been minimal investigation into how these representative claims for women worldwide are formed and the substantive U.S. commitment. Is this a reflection of a growing American feminist foreign policy or symbolic rhetoric for domestic audiences? To better understand the representation of global women's rights in American foreign policy, I analyze the political context behind three widely supported American foreign policy bills focusing on women that were introduced during the 111th Congress (2009–10). Each of these bills failed to become statute. Drawing from qualitative comparative case study analysis, I show how antiabortion politics constrain the legislative success of any American foreign policy legislation that focuses on women, regardless of relevance. This suggests that foreign women's bodies are a terrain for U.S. legislators to advance abortion policy objectives with minimal electoral constraint. Although advancing women's rights furthers broader U.S. foreign policy objectives, such as preventing terrorism and growing market economies, domestic abortion politics shape the boundaries of how global women's rights are represented in American foreign policy.

Environmental Criticism

We live in a time of rampant environmental crisis and environmental injustice. Environmental criticism seeks to analyze the role of material and symbolic rhetoric in deconstructing, mediating, and composing relationships between humans, more-than-humans, and the environment. This essay offers a reflection on the status of environmental criticism as a subfield within rhetorical criticism with a focus on two topoi that have animated discussions about rhetorical criticism for many years: text and critical judgment. Through exploring these topoi, I reflect on the state of environmental criticism, what it has to offer to broader conversations within rhetorical criticism, and some future directions. The essay concludes by arguing that environmental criticism is an inherently critical approach that is premised on the idea of a crisis/care discipline.

Exploring the \u2018Shadows\u2019 in the Implementation Processes for National Anti-fraud Strategies at the Local Level: Aims, Ownership, and Impact

This article studies the development and implementation of a nationally drafted strategy for fraud in local government in England. The purpose, relevant to other countries which also face (or evade) problems of policy outreach, is to consider what is required to achieve effective implementation through three broad aspects: aims, ownership, and impact. There is a particular focus on the assessment of the strategy implementation process and what mechanisms translate strategies into effective delivery or what other factors may subvert that delivery. The empirical research draws on the UK government’s 2006 policy review on fraud and the consequential changes between then and 2019, including a number of fraud strategies initiated by the United Kingdom central government. To review implementation in practice, it focuses on the 2011 local government strategy and uses a local-level case study to assess issues concerning aims, ownership, and impact, as well as the effect of other nationally determined policies and agendas. It concludes that without an ‘owned’ strategy implementation process as a whole, national strategies concerning the prevention and policing of fraud in England in the twenty-first century have had—and continue to have—modest impact on practice on the ground at the local level. We find it plausible that this is true elsewhere in the world, not only for crime control but also for other ‘change’ strategies in the public sector. However, testing that proposition is for researchers in other countries. Our aim here is to use this superficially parochial study to raise more universal questions about how policy designers (and academic researchers) need to take better account of circumstances on the ground, the management of strategy implementation and legitimacy, if their strategies are to be more than merely symbolic rhetoric.

Material politics of images: Visualising future transport infrastructures

Cities around the world are suffering from mobility infrastructure crises. Governments are responding to these crises through different ‘fixes’. Mobilities researchers have analysed these fixes in terms of who they privilege and who they neglect. Yet little has been said about the actual materials that are used to garner support for these fixes, with analysis often focusing on the symbolic rhetoric of talk and text. This article develops geographical thought about the material agency of images by reflecting on four types of image-object used by WestConnex, a private motorway that is the proposed ‘fix’ to Sydney’s drivetime crisis. It does this to speculate on how different forms of geovisualisation might gain their authority through the material agencies of the images themselves, rather than just being the passive representations of a supposedly dominant power. In doing so, this article develops geographical understandings of the multiple ways that images participate in the production of future infrastructures.

Not All Crime Policies Are Created Equal

Previous research suggests that American presidents resort to the use of symbolic rhetoric because of public opinion, party affiliation, election year politics, and divided government. This research, however, treated crime policy as a general topic, disregarding the nuances that emerge from different types of crime policies. The research at hand posits not all crime policies are the same or handled the same politically, and thus divides them into seven crime policy categories: law enforcement, courts, corrections, juveniles, guns, death penalty, and drugs. Drawing upon the theory of symbolic rhetoric and categorizing presidential speeches from 1948 through 2010 into these seven categories, this study employs logistic regression to explain the influencing variables upon the likelihood presidents will employ symbolic rhetoric for each of these crime policy types. Findings suggest that although the use of symbolic rhetoric is different for each crime policy issue, there are two key factors that matter overall: divided government and party affiliation.

Building and performing: early sixteenth-century Portuguese presence in Azammūr

Azammūr was the last great Portuguese conquest in North Africa (1513–42). On the one hand, it represented the last stage of a broader strategy of establishment in Morocco still fired by crusade ideology. Christian Azammūr proposed a new urban space, which was celebrated by contemporary Portuguese narratives. Beyond technological, urban and military innovations, the Portuguese presence in Azammūr was affirmed through a symbolic rhetoric that would often surpass the political occupation itself. On the other hand, those in Azammūr faced a harsh reality; the city did not attract numerous Portuguese settlers and the local economy showed few signs of intense activity. Eventually, Azammūr experienced armed confrontations and alliances between its Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities. Methodologically, this study offers an analysis of cross-referenced archaeological, architectural and documentary material. It was carried out as a part of a research project from 2007 to 2011. It presents the first contemporary and updated synthesis of the historical process that led to the ruling and abandonment of Azammūr by the Portuguese, and thus remains relevant to understanding Muslim–Christian relations and exchanges in terms of their military, social and spatial aspects. Moreover, the paper examines the period when Europe evolved from late-medieval conceptions to early-modernity.

Going Symbolic

Research into the American Presidents’ role in crime control policy has consistently found that they rely on symbolic rhetoric in their crime speeches. The research to date, however, has been confined to qualitative analysis and has not attempted to explain why presidents engage in symbolic rhetoric when it comes to crime policy. This study assesses presidential speeches related to crime from 1948 through 2010, and employs logistic regression to estimate the effects of the independent variables on the likelihood presidents will employ symbolic rhetoric. Findings suggest public opinion, presidential election year, party affiliation, and divided government, are significant factors in the likelihood presidents will engage in symbolic politics. The article concludes with a discussion of the study’s implication for the larger body of research on presidential crime rhetoric and the federal role in crime control.

Obama in Words and Deeds*

ObjectiveWe assess how President Barack Obama acted as chief legislator using the rhetoric contained in his initial joint address to Congress and his three subsequent State of the Union addresses (SUAs).MethodUsing content analysis, we analyze how Obama conveyed policy substance (both credit claiming and position taking) and used symbolism as he carried out the constitutional requirements of reporting and recommending measures to Congress.ResultsObama's first‐term SUA rhetoric is consistent in regard to credit claiming; he devotes about 17 percent of his speeches to this activity. His SUAs typically contain about 35 legislative requests, and these are frequently requests for fairly large‐scale actions. His use of symbolic rhetoric is unique. Obama uses individuals and historical examples to highlight the instrumental and effective role government has played in supporting the pursuit of the American Dream. His legislative requests, for his first three full years in office, have been fully or partially successful at a median rate of almost 45 percent, placing him slightly above the median yearly rate since 1965.ConclusionsObama's rhetorical choices in the SUA portray him as an unusual chief legislator in many ways. He is deferential to Congress on legislative detail, tending to focus his SUA requests on large‐scale items and leaving the details of legislation to Congress. If Congress failed to act, he occasionally sought to accomplish his policy goals through executive actions if he could. He was then able to use the rhetoric of the SUA to portray himself as an active and effective president, something that would aid his reelection and legacy goals. Furthermore, Obama often had to confront unreasonably high expectations, and this strategy helped him position himself against the unpopular institution of Congress as he sought reelection.

A Colonialist Celebration of National : Verbal, Visual, and Landscape Ideographs at Homestead National Monument of America

This essay analyzes the Homestead National Monument of America in Beatrice, Nebraska, as a material and symbolic rhetoric organized by the political ideograph <heritage>. After establishing the diachronic use of <heritage> and analyzing its synchronic confrontations with other verbal, visual, and landscape-based ideographs at the monument, I argue the monument is a material discourse symptomatic of a privatizing and protecting ideology. Specifically, the monument's employment of <heritage> perpetuates an ideology that separates <heritage> from the colonialist actions of the U.S. Federal government, opening a discursive space for recognizing the persecution of American Indian Nations by the “public” government, while not exposing a visitor's “private” <heritage> to the ramifications of that colonialism.

Crime Control in the 2008 Presidential Election: Symbolic Politics or Tangible Policies?

Presidential candidates regularly use crime issues to help win electoral support. Contrary to conventional wisdom, crime control became an issue in the 2008 presidential campaign. Despite decreasing crime rates and public opinion focused only temporarily on illegal immigration, the three major presidential candidates (Obama, Clinton, & McCain) discussed many anticrime initiatives during the campaign. Unlike past research which has found presidential candidates use primarily symbolic rhetoric in their anticrime rhetoric, all three presidential candidates in the 2008 presidential election were found to have employed tangible statements. The article discusses the different findings, making recommendations for future research.

Crime control in the 2000 presidential election: A symbolic issue

Presidential candidates regularly use crime issues to help win electoral support. Contrary to conventional wisdom, crime control also became an issue in the 2000 presidential campaign. Despite decreasing crime rates, the debate was driven by public opinion. Because the crime debate was fueled by perception rather than reality, it is argued that the symbolic nature of the debate became important in providing reassurance to the American public. This finding points to the importance of symbolic rhetoric by presidential candidates in appealing to voters and increasing public support.

Computers, Scientism, and Cyborg Subjectivity in Postsocialist China

The rapid development of Chinese computer and internet industries, the immense growth in the consumption of information technologies, and the increased symbolic and practical uses of computers for both work and leisure show that Chinese subjectivity is changing to incorporate computer technology as part of how people define themselves. Based on fieldwork conducted in a rural Guangdong village from 19931999 and in urban Shanghai from 19982001, this paper will examine how scientism, an idealization of science that reifies and universalizes scientific precepts into cultural dogma, has increased traditional sources of stratification such as urban versus rural and littoral versus hinterland. With its ambivalent attitude towards new information technologies, the Chinese state has been central in shaping how computers and the internet have penetrated national borders, thus demonstrating how science and technology are subjective forms of knowledge that naturalize the particular cultural and political perspectives of the elite in postsocialist China. This paper concludes that a Chinese cyborg subjectivity is emerging, revealing how the internet and computer technology lies at the heart of the symbolic rhetoric of what it means to be a modern person in mainland China.