Andriy Shoponiak
Kamianets-Podilskyi Ivan Ohiienko National University
Scientific Supervisor: PhD, Kryshtaliuk A. A.
EMOTIONAL EVALUATION IN IMAGE OF AN AMERICAN POLITICIAN
This paper investigates the emotive-evaluative component of the image of an American politician. The attitudinal image of a politician has been constructed. While comparing Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter’s images it has been found out that the first one is more negative and the second on is more neutral. At the same time positive emotive evaluation is part of each analyzed image.
Keywords: emotive-evaluative component, image, American politician, negative, positive, neutral.
Image of a politician is a construct that emerges in the discourse space. Having been constructed it turns into a communicated message, influencing on the one hand the behavior of a politician it represents and on the other hand the attitude towards this or that political leader.
The image of a politician has been mainly viewed from a socio-psychological point of view [1, p. 98-99], limited in space and time voter’s position [Martyn, p. 18-20] and practically taking into account appearance, the manner of speech and body movements of a politician [2, p. 329-331].
An important component in the image of a politician is emotional evaluation, which is considered to be a kind of emotions. Emotional evaluation demonstrates acceptance or unacceptance of a politician by the public.
According to the YouGov, an international research data and analytics group, the five most popular politicians in America are Barack Obama (58%), Jimmy Carter (55%), Bernie Sanders (48%) and Kamala Harris (48%). In this paper we are looking at the emotive-evaluative construction of the image of an American politician, i.e. the image of a politician constructed by addressees and viewers of his/her speeches.
Viewers who watched Barack Obama’s commencement speech for the class of 2020 used the following adjectives to describe it: inspiring, uplifting, funny, weird, corny, out-of-touch [5]. The first three adjectives prevail and provide a positive emotional image of Barack Obama. The unique word used in Obama’s evaluation is presidential [4].
High evaluation of Barack Obama can be proved by illustrating a discourse fragment: The Obamas are the world’s most admired man and woman. Barack Obama has deposed Bill Gates from his position as world’s most admired man for the first time since YouGov first started asking in 2014. Michelle Obama holds on to her position as world’s most admired woman, having ended Angelina Jolie’s run of dominance last year [3].
The cognitive-discourse analysis of the given above fragment shows that Barack Obama is on the highest position of EVALUATIVE SCALE marked by the superlative form of the adjective, the most admired. The double repetition of this superlative form strengthens the statement of high opinion. As the analysed fragment demonstrates the same is true for Michele Obama. The proper name the Obamas emphasizes their position and makes it stronger.
Jimmy Carter is the second popular American politician after Barack Obama. For his evaluation the following adjectives as intelligent, genuine, honorable, humble are used. America’s oldest-lived president, Carter, has two unique words associated with him: humble and honorable. [4]. Jimmy Carter is also seen as particularly likable. Both Obama and Jimmy Carter are viewed as people who “stand for ordinary people” [4].
Thus, the contemporary discourse makes it more possible and necessary to use responses and reactions of the audience for the evaluative construction of the image of a politician. The perspectives of further research are to investigate discursive images of different political leaders.
References
- Байрачна Л.К. Роль засобів масової інформації у формуванні політичного іміджу державної влади. Інформація і право. 2013. № 3, Вип. 9. С. 98–99.
- Юшина Н. Теорія знаків як метод дослідження політичного образу. Вісник Львівського університету. Сер. Філософсько-політологічні студії. 2012. Вип. 1. С. 329–331.
- Barack and Michelle Obama are the world’s most admired : web-site. URL: https://today.yougov.com
- How Americans describe the presidents they like : web-site. URL: https://today.yougov.com
- “Inspiring” and “uplifting”: Here’s what viewers thought of Obama’s Graduate Together speech : web-site. URL: https://today.yougov.com