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Narrative, intertextuality, and apologia in contemporary political scandals

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This study argues for a revised perspective on political apologia, using the dramatic 1990 Minnesota gubernatorial campaign as a case study. Jon Grunseth, Independent Republican candidate, was accused of sexual impropriety by several women, a situation that, predictably, eventuated in his use of apologetic strategies. However, this study argues that the failure of those strategies must be understood outside of conventional apologetic frameworks, which stress immediate material circumstances, and should instead be analyzed within a revised, narrativized, approach to apologia. This new approach emphasizes the intertextuality of scandal narratives and argues that critical understanding of Grunseth's apologia must be situated within a wider web of late 1980s/early 1990s cultural discourse concerning mediated scandal, sexual infidelity, and male behavior.

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... Combining the three concepts is illuminating because, notwithstanding the copious scholarly attention on apologia, political discourse, political communication and image repair (cf. Achter, 2000;Roland & Jerome, 2004;Boyer, 2011), there is hardly any study that concurrently deploys the concepts of apologia, image repair and rhetoric to analyse political speeches. This deprives us of a comprehensive understanding of how politicians simultaneously engage in defence, image repair and campaign rhetoric. ...
... Roland & Jerome, 2004), and political contexts, as a result of political scandals in contemporary politics (cf. Achter, 2000). Achter (2000) attributes the increased studies on political apologia to the confluence of changes in the media coverage of political campaigns, and the ubiquity of political scandals complicates traditional studies of apologia. ...
... Achter, 2000). Achter (2000) attributes the increased studies on political apologia to the confluence of changes in the media coverage of political campaigns, and the ubiquity of political scandals complicates traditional studies of apologia. ...
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Using the concepts of apologia, image repair and rhetoric, this paper examines the strategies employed by a former president of the Republic of Ghana to simultaneously maintain his reputation after losing the 2016 Ghanaian general elections and campaign for re-lection as the standard bearer of his party. The paper finds that the former president did not accept responsibility for the electoral loss, but used several indirect ways to deny responsibility for the defeat. He employed bolstering, accusation/attack, playing the victim, throwing a challenge and the God's will factor as defence strategies in order to repair his image. He exploited the Aristotelian appeals of logos, ethos and pathos to boost his persuasion. In doing so, he deployed several rhetorical tools such as metaphor, allusion, rhetorical questions and parallelism to enhance the expression of the defence strategies. The analysis reveals that, as noted in the literature, some of the image repair strategies espoused by Benoit (1995, 2015), for example, outright denial and mortification, hardly apply to political contexts-the former President's defence was indirectly expressed. Thus, the paper concludes that combining the concepts of apologia, image repair and rhetoric in the analysis of political discourse can illuminate political discourse analysis. The paper has implications for communicating defence, reputation repair and political rhetoric.
... While Benoit's efficacy focus provides insight on the offensive act and offender's response, some scholars have argued that image repair theory should consider the broader cultural and intertextual media context within which apologias take place. Achter (2000) argued "a linguistic and cultural expansion" would bolster the framework by expanding our understanding of the intertextual field of discourses that inform the reception of the case, such as other scandals, films, and popular culture writ large (p. 330). ...
... Finally, the intertextual web of media discourses in which image repair rhetoric is situated undoubtedly informs how audiences interpret them (Achter, 2000). However, our analysis illustrated how the media can meaningfully organize and consolidate a broader field of discourses, creating a "hall of shame." ...
Article
In a powerful journalistic moment of 2018, The New York Times published the article, “After Weinstein: 71 Men Accused of Sexual Misconduct and Their Fall from Power.” It presented one collective effect of the #MeToo movement: a compendium of elite men compelled to leave their jobs due to their sexual misconduct. Shifting from the scrutinizing focus on survivors, the article created a hall of shame that placed the perpetrators and their abridged apologias in the spotlight. Using feminist rhetorical criticism and Benoit’s image repair theory, we argue that, while the article succeeds in highlighting the perpetrators’ occupational disruptions, the apologias reify antiquated understandings of gender and rape culture, illuminating the constitutive power of image repair rhetoric in reasserting toxic masculinity and rape logic in the #MeToo era. Moreover, we intervene in Benoit’s theory, which focuses on delineating the efficacy of strategies by which elites regain their influence. By offering a critical feminist apologiast approach, we compel critics to also interrogate the diachronic rhetorical and ideological scaffolding that benefits the interests of powerful, white, western, hetero-cis-male citizens while rendering the lives of the marginalized precarious and denying them cultural recognition.
... A politikai kommunikáció irodalma nem jeleskedik a választási vereség kommunikációjának a kutatásában. Alig találni olyan munkát, amelyik azzal foglalkoznék, hogyan dolgozza fel kommunikációs szinten valamely politikai erő a maga vereségét (Sarfo-Kantankah, 2019, Osisanvo-Alugbin, 2019, Bachryj-Krzywaznia, 2021). 2 Ugyanakkor politikusok és politikai szervezetek is alkal-maznak public relations eszközöket, s ezek jó része éppen az aktort ért támadások vagy katasztrófák kezeléséről szól (Achter, 2000, Sheldon-Sallot, 2008, mint például egy politikus hűtlensége vagy korrupciós botránya, vagyis olyan esetek, amelyek megtépázzák a szervezet vagy a politikus hírnevét, fenyegetik imázsát. A public relations abban nyújt segítséget: hogyan állítsuk helyre a jó hírünket valamilyen negatív történés, külső támadás után? ...
Article
A tanulmány azt mutatja be, hogyan dolgozta fel az ellenzéki összefogás politikai közösségének a nyilvánosságban megjelenő része a választási kudarcot. A pártokból, politikusokból, médiából, szakértőkből és közírókból állónak definiált tábor vereségkommunikációját a public relations irodalmában definiált egyik imázshelyreállító stratégiaarzenál alapján írjuk le. Eredményeink szerint az alkalmazható kommunikációs irányok közül a megszólalók elsősorban a következő stratégiákat alkalmazták: áthárítás, kivitelezhetetlenségre hivatkozás, korrigáló cselekvés és beismerés-bocsánatkérés. Meglepő, ugyanakkor végül is érthető módon bizonyos kommunikátorok a vereség tagadásával is próbálkoztak, jóllehet ilyenkor a saját szervezetet elválasztották a tábor egészétől. Ahogyan a kampány során, a kudarc feldolgozásakor is a jobboldal éles bírálata volt a leginkább közös motívum.
... An example of the latter would be British Petroleum's multi-pronged effort (involving both messages and corrective action) following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; for details, see Benoit (2015, 50-8). 20 On political image repair, see Benoit, Gullifor, and Panici (1991); Kennedy and Benoit (1997); Benoit and Nill (1998);Achter (2000); Kramer and Olson (2002); Len-Ríos and Benoit (2004); Sheldon and Sallot (2009);Benoit and Henson (2009);Kaylor (2011);Benoit (2016a; . For similar work that is not based specifically on image repair theory, see ; . ...
... 11 Research on the genres of presidential discourse in the years that followed has developed the form and function of a canon of speeches delivered by America's top leader. The most attention has been given to the inaugural address, 12 followed by presidential apologia, 13 war rhetoric, 14 the national eulogy, 15 the State of the Union address, 16 farewell address, 17 and to a lesser degree other "emerging genres." 18 To this canon, scholars have added and meticulously studied several genres of presidential campaign rhetoric including the announcement speech, 19 nomination acceptance speech, 20 as well as victory and concession speeches. ...
... Second, Achter (2000) claimed that modern rhetorical criticism has for the most part treated apologia as too agent-centered, succeeding or failing due to the responses of the speaker. Achter argued that an audience may judge an apologizer not on the strategies he or she uses, but on how they fit within a larger narrative. ...
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This study sought to explain how President George W. Bush used a unique form of apologia during his first six years in office to minimize accountability for his role in three major political scandals. After selecting appropriate texts for analysis and conducting research to establish the historical context of his remarks, I identified patterns in Bush's use of image repair tactics, made generalizations about his overall strategy, and determined the impact that his unique rhetoric had on his success, and eventual failure, as President. Though Bush's use of simulated atonement allowed him to evade accountability for the Abu Ghraib and WMD scandals, his strategy failed to stem the public backlash following Hurricane Katrina. Several factors explained why simulated atonement might work for certain rhetors, and a few limitations of the strategy were explored. Several implications for rhetorical theory and understanding of the Bush administration emerge from the findings.
... In the case of narrative and apologia, Achter argues that "the apologetic framework should be studied not only from the perspective of altering the perception of material circumstance, but from a perspective that accounts for the web of textual meanings that constitute the context." 43 We situated President Clinton's apology for the TSE within multiple intersecting contexts, including journalists' (re)articulation of the apology and the wider web of apologetic political discourses readily available to audiences. In the mutual interplay of telling and listening, the question of authorship and individual participation in meaningmaking became critical. ...
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The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (TSE) has shaped African Americans' views of the American health care system, contributing to a reluctance to participate in biomedical research and a suspicion of the medical system. This essay examines public discourses surrounding President Clinton's attempt to restore African Americans' trust by apologizing for the TSE. Through a narrative reading, we illustrate the failure of this text as an attempt to reconcile the United States Public Health Service and the African American public. We conclude by noting the limitations of rhetoric when equal prominence is not given to policy proposals in national apologies.
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This essay develops a preliminary synthesis and extension of approaches to defensive discourse articulated by Burke, Ware and Linkugel, and Scott and Lyman. This formulation is applied to President Reagan's discourse on the Iran‐Contra affair. Three phases emerge using different strategies. Reagan's defense is then evaluated. We argue that Reagan's defense developed through three distinct phases and that the final phase, in which he admits making a mistake and takes decisive action to prevent its recurrence, is the most effective.
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This article is concerned with the way apologetics aids politicians in maintaining their authority. Using political systems theory, it focuses upon the three types of legitimacies of a political office holder: structural, ideological, and personal. Application of this theory is made to Nixon's 1973 Watergate apologies in an attempt to discover why, in that instance, apology failed.
Article
The character of Reagan's rhetoric and the response to it can be explained by its narrative form. The dominance of narrative in Reagan's discourse and the nature of the narrative form combine to differentiate the perspective of Reagan's supporters and his opponents. Three characteristics of narrative form—a story‐based truth, an emphasis on morality, and a grounding in common sense—explain the way in which narrative affects political judgment. The analysis reveals the power of narrative form and, in contrast to the assertions of some narrative theorists, its fragility and moral limitations.
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