A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of the 2018 US Senate Mid-term Election Debates

Abstract

The present study aims at detecting and unveiling the subtle discursive structures and (non/verbal) persuasive strategies employed within the transcripts of fourteen prospective Republican and Democrats candidates in seven selected debates in the 2018 US Senate midterm elections. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, this study applies a multimodal critical discourse analysis framework based on an eclectic model, comprising different models and approaches: Van Dijk’s notion of ideological square (1995; 2006), modality types and degrees from Halliday’s Systemic-functional Grammar approach (2014), the argumentative patterns adopted from Reisigl & Wodak’s Discourse - Historical approach (DHA) (2001), Norman Fairclough’s “Intertextuality" from Critical Discourse Analysis model (2003) and Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen’s Visual Grammar framework (2006). Major conclusions exhibit that the self-other binary is strongly evidenced in the fourteen nominees’ discourse and that they employed ideological polarized structures of positive self-presentation of ῾US’ and negative other-presentation of ῾THEM’ as means of mind controlling and manipulating the audience through their verbal and nonverbal modalities to win the elections. The data analysis demonstrates that, in open races, losing candidates count more on ‘positive self-presentation’ whereas winning ones rely more on ‘negative other-presentation’. In contested races, winning nominees utilize both ‘positive self-presentation’ and ‘negative other-presentation’ strategies more than their adversaries to distort their political images, impress and win the public consensus. The study also proves those winners’ multimodal resources, namely facial expressions; gestures, and colors are employed simultaneously and synchronized with their words to enhance their positive image. Conversely, losers’ excessive dependence on multimodal resources that are not in alignment with the verbal message being delivered result in weakening their message, perceiving them as less- confident and reliable than their counterparts and losing the race later on.