Persuasion Analysis

Political persuasion is harder to analyze because it is so often fragmented. We usually see bits and pieces (sound bites, picket signs) on the news -- incomplete, not sequential -- usually edited by others.

Furthermore, as receivers, we also are biased: everyone comes with their own set of attitudes and ideas, emotions and opinions, often a very random inheritance from their early environment. In addition, the content of political persuasion is intrinsically more complex, and emotionally more charged, than the commercial persuasion of advertising. Although analyzing political rhetoric is more difficult than analyzing ads, it's also more important.

Election Rhetoric

The Pep Talk
"Cause Group" Rhetoric

Cause Groups are those which seek committed collective action. Persuasion of any cause group can be analyzed with this predictable four-part pattern of the "Pep Talk," a useful structural framework to identify and to sort out parts of complex, emotional controversies. If you know this pattern, then it helps you to see, or to infer, the rest of the overall picture whenever you encounter bits and fragments of this kind of emotional appeal

1. Threat ----- 2. Bonding ----- 3. Cause ----- 4. Response

Summary (1 pg PDF)

War Propaganda