Politics, Media and Campaign Language

Stephanie Brookes

Description

An original, groundbreaking analysis of the story of Australian identity and politics.

‘Politics, Media and Campaign Language’ is an original, groundbreaking analysis of the story of Australian identity, told through Australian election campaign language. It argues that the story of Australian identity is characterised by recurring cycles of anxiety and reassurance, which betray a deep underlying feeling of insecurity. Introducing the concept of identity security, it takes electoral language as its focus, and demonstrates that election campaigns provide a valuable window into an overlooked part of Australia’s political and cultural history.

This book reclaims Australian campaign speech and electoral history to tell the story of changing national values and priorities, and traces the contours of our collective conversations about national identity. Rare in Australian politics, this approach is more common in the United States where campaign language is seen as providing a valuable insight into the continuing cultural negotiation of the collective values, priorities and concerns of the national community. In this conception, political leaders have significant influence but must function within and respond to the complex and shifting dynamics of public and media dialogue, and to changing social, political and economic conditions.

In this way, the book uses elections to provide a fresh perspective on both Australian political history and the development of Australian identity, bringing together, for the first time, a wide range of primary sources from across Australian electoral history: campaign speeches, interviews, press conferences and leaders’ debates. The book grounds analysis of campaign communication in a range of textual examples and detailed case studies. These vivid case studies bring the narrative journey to life, drawing on those leaders who have successfully aligned themselves with the nation’s values, priorities and plans for the future. The book also reintroduces readers to the alternative visions of those who were not successful at the ballot box, tracing campaign battles between competing narratives of what it means to be Australian.

Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; 2. Storytelling; 3. Belonging; 4. Values; 5. Community; 6. Security; 7. Vision; 8. Hearts and Minds; Appendices; References; Index.

Sujets

• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Political opportunity
• Communication studies

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 03 avril 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783086771
• Langue: English

Extrait

Politics, Media and Campaign Language
ANTHEM STUDIES IN AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, ECONOMICS AND SOCIETY
This series showcases the most significant contributions to scholarship on a wide range of social science issues, dealing with the changing politics, economics and society of Australia, while not losing sight of the interplay of other regional and global forces and their influence and impact on this region. Anthem Studies in Australian Politics, Economics and Society is intended as an interdisciplinary series, at the interface of politics, law, sociology, media, policy, political economy, economics, business, criminology and anthropology. It is seeking to publish high quality research which considers issues of power, justice and democracy; and provides a critical contribution to knowledge about Australian politics, economics and society. The series especially welcomes books from emerging scholars which contribute new perspectives on social science.
Editorial Board
Series Editor-in-Chief
Sally Young – University of Melbourne, Australia
Series Editors
Timothy Marjoribanks – La Trobe Business School, Australia
Joo-Cheong Tham – Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Australia
Editorial Board
Iain Campbell – Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Australia
Sara Charlesworth – Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Australia
Kevin Foster – Monash University, Australia
Anika Gauja – The University of Sydney, Australia
John Germov – The University of Newcastle, Australia
Michael Gilding – Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Simon Jackman – Stanford University, USA
Carol Johnson – The University of Adelaide, Australia
Deb King – Flinders University, Australia
Jude McCulloch – Monash University, Australia
Jenny Morgan – University of Melbourne, Australia
Vanessa Ratten – La Trobe University, Australia
Ben Spies-Butcher – Macquarie University, Australia
Ariadne Vromen – The University of Sydney, Australia
John Wanna – Australian National University, Australia
George Williams – The University of New South Wales, Australia
Politics, Media and Campaign Language
Australia’s Identity Anxiety
Stephanie Brookes
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com

This edition first published in UK and USA 2017
by ANTHEM PRESS
75–76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK
or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA

© Stephanie Brookes 2017

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested.

ISBN-13: 978-1-78308-501-9 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78308-501-0 (Hbk)

This title is also available as an e-book.
Modern democratic politicians use words for two main purposes – to simplify and to mystify. They simplify because they cannot describe matters in even half their complexity and expect to be understood or listened to. They use messages: simple one or two-line message which they hope will work like semaphores as they beat their way through the tangle of political life. These messages take on a meaning independent of the complex reality, they become the currency of the debate, the story, in the end they become the reality itself; at least that is the aim.
Don Watson, Recollections of a Bleeding Heart , 2002

Australians and their children will increasingly live lives caught up in the phenomenon of our internationalisation and find jobs in the industry of our region. And their income growth will be guaranteed. We can enter the new century a unique country with a unique future. We can enter it prosperous and dynamic: a diverse and tolerant society, trading actively in Asia and the rest of the world; secure in our identity, the more so because we know that we have met the challenge of our times. It is the greatest challenge we have ever faced as a nation. By the year 2000 we should be able to say that we have learned to live securely, in peace and mutual prosperity among our Asian and Pacific neighbours.
Paul Keating, ALP Policy Launch Speech , 1996
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. Storytelling
3. Belonging
4. Values
5. Community
6. Security
7. Vision
8. Hearts and Minds
Appendix 1. Federal Election Dates Included in Qualitative Discourse Analysis Sample, 1901–2013
Appendix 2. Australian Federal Election Dates and Results, 1901–2016
Appendix 3. Major Australian Political Parties, 1901–2016
Appendix 4. Changes of Government, Prime Minister and Leader, 1901–2015
References
Index
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I completed a PhD thesis, ‘A Generous, Open-Hearted People: Political Constructions of National Identity in Australian Federal Election Campaign Language, 1901–2007’, in the Media and Communications Program at the University of Melbourne in 2009. This book is based on that research but is an extensively rewritten and updated piece of work.
The original research for this book was undertaken with the financial support of an Australian government Australian Postgraduate Award. I would also like to gratefully acknowledge additional financial support for research fieldwork and travel through the Research and Graduate Studies Grant received from the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne, and through the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Project Scheme (DP0663208).
The development of this book project was supported in its early stages by a Manuscript Sponsorship Grant from the Writing Centre for Scholars and Researchers at the University of Melbourne (now the Melbourne Engagement Lab). The advice and support provided by Sybil Nolan during this process was invaluable, and I thank her for her detailed feedback and faith in this project. Thanks also to Simon Clews and the staff at the centre for their support. The final publication of this book was supported by the Publication Support and New Appointees grants from Monash University School of Media, Film and Journalism .
The findings from my original research were presented in a number of forums and publications in the journey from PhD thesis to book. While not directly reproduced here, this book revises and updates insight and analysis from earlier articles written while this research was in development: in conference papers presented over a number of years to the Australian Political Science Association Conference and to the Politics and the Media Conference at the University of Melbourne in 2008; and in the following published articles:

• 2012. ‘“Secure in our Identity”: Regional Threat and Opportunity in Australian Election Discourse, 1993 and 1996’. Australian Journal of Politics and History 58(4): 542–56.
• 2008. “Working Families” and the “Opportunity Society”: Political Rhetoric in the 2007 Australian Federal Election Campaign’ . Communication, Politics and Culture 41(2): 62–83.
I would like to gratefully acknowledge the following people and organizations for their assistance with archival access and research fieldwork: Siobhan Dee at Screensound Australia; Jenny Jeremy at the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Library; Lesley Wallace at the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library; Dr Caitlin Stone at the Malcolm Fraser Collection; Jonathon Tunn at the National Press Club; Andrew Griffin at the National Archives in Melbourne, and William Edwards at the National Archives in Canberra; Marie Dudgeon in the Oral History and Folklore Department at the National Library of Australia; the staff at the Whitlam Institute, Sydney; Lisa Savage in Copyright at Channel Seven; Jenny Guion in Copyright at Channel Nine; Wai Wai Lun and Kim Mussche at the University of Queensland Library.
My deepest thanks to Sally Young, who I have been lucky enough to call supervisor, colleague and friend across my scholarly career, for her unfailing patience, mentorship and support. I would also like to thank the many other friends and colleagues who gave me support and feedback as the project developed, especially Ramaswami Harindranath for his insightful feedback on, and critical reading of, the PhD version of this research. For their help and advice in a variety of ways, thank you to Deb Anderson, Fay Anderson, Phil Chubb, Geoffrey Craig, Brett Hutchins, Carol Johnson, Mia Lindgren, David Nolan and Karen Spitz; and to colleagues past and present from the Media and Communications Program at the University of Melbourne and in the Journalism Section at Monash University.
My thanks also to Kiran Bolla, Katy Miller, Abi Pandey and the editorial staff at Anthem Press.
And finally, thank you to my wonderful family for your unfailing support, willingness to engage in political discussion, and f