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Guerra e comunicazione politica: un’analisi lasswelliana della retorica di Volodomyr Zelensky
War and political communication: a Lasswell-style analysis of Volodomyr Zelensky’s rhetorical speeches
Chiapponi, Flavio
2023
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e-ISSN
2611-2914
Abstract
In the field of classical studies on political communication, Harold Lasswell occupies a position of undisputed authority. Reviewing the major contributions that he has made to the study of political rhetoric, the article focuses on the link between the language of political leaders and the struggle for political power. According to Lasswell, the link is even more evident when violence bursts onto the political scene, leading to a rise in the “degree of crisis” and, therefore, to a modification of the political language of leaders engaged in conflict, pri marily because of the growing expectation in the (actual or threatened) employment of violence (armies and weapons) in the international arena. On the theoretical level, these connections have been brought into focus in political science literature; however, there are still few empirical analyses aimed at assessing their sound ness in the context of a war crisis, especially during the 21st century. The case of Volodomyr Zelensky offers an inviting test case for whether the main traits of his war propaganda go towards confirming Lasswell’s theory, as well as to ascertain whether his political discourse proposes a different framing of the conflict with Russia, depending on the target audiences to which it is addressed. The present essay aims to offer some feedback to these research hypotheses by analysing a representative sample of Zelensky’s war speeches.
Nell’ambito degli studi classici sopra la comunicazione politica, Harold Lasswell occupa una posizione di indiscussa autorità. Ripercorrendo i principali contributi che il politologo americano ha apportato allo studio della retorica politica, l’articolo pone l’accento sul nesso tra il linguaggio dei leader politici e le dinamiche di potere. Seguendo Lasswell, il legame risulta ancora più evidente allorché le risorse di violenza irrompono sul proscenio politico, determinando un innalzamento del “grado di crisi” e, perciò, una modificazione del discorso dei leader impegnati nel conflitto, principalmente a causa della crescente aspettativa del ricorso (effettivo o minacciato) all’impiego della violenza (eserciti e armi) nell’arena interstatale. Se, sul piano teorico, queste connessioni sono state messe a fuoco dalla lettera tura politologica, sono ancora poche le analisi empiriche volte a saggiarne la solidità nel quadro di una crisi bellica, specialmente durante il XXI secolo.Il caso di Volodomyr Zelensky offre un invitante banco di prova per verificare se i tratti essenziali della sua propaganda bellica vadano nella direzione di con fermare la teoria lasswelliana, nonché per appurare se il suo discorso politico proponga un differente framing del conflitto con la Russia, a seocnda dei destinatari a cui appare rivolto. Il presente saggio si propone di offrire qualche riscontro a queste ipotesi di ricerca, analizzando un campione rappresen tativo dei discorsi di guerra di Zelensky secondo una metodologia semplificata di content analysis, di derivazione lasswelliana e di matrice quali-quantitativa.
In the field of classical studies on political communication, Harold Lasswell occupies a position of undisputed authority. Reviewing the major contributions that he has made to the study of political rhetoric, the article focuses on the link between the language of political leaders and the struggle for political power. According to Lasswell, the link is even more evident when violence bursts onto the political scene, leading to a rise in the “degree of crisis” and, therefore, to a modification of the political language of leaders engaged in conflict, pri marily because of the growing expectation in the (actual or threatened) employment of violence (armies and weapons) in the international arena. On the theoretical level, these connections have been brought into focus in political science literature; however, there are still few empirical analyses aimed at assessing their sound ness in the context of a war crisis, especially during the 21st century. The case of Volodomyr Zelensky offers an inviting test case for whether the main traits of his war propaganda go towards confirming Lasswell’s theory, as well as to ascertain whether his political discourse proposes a different framing of the conflict with Russia, depending on the target audiences to which it is addressed. The present essay aims to offer some feedback to these research hypotheses by analysing a representative sample of Zelensky’s war speeches.
Journal
Source
Flavio Chiapponi, "Guerra e comunicazione politica: un’analisi lasswelliana della retorica di Volodomyr Zelensky" in: "Poliarchie/Polyarchies volume 6 n. 2/2023 ", EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, Trieste, 2023, pp. 254-281
Languages
it
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