Award Date

1-1-2003

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Communication Studies

First Committee Member

Thomas R. Burkholder

Number of Pages

86

Abstract

By the 1992 presidential campaign, AIDS had become a national health crisis and a highly publicized political issue that each party knew had to be addressed. Until this point, presidential candidates had remained relatively silent on the issue without consequence. Due to the nature of the subjects relating to AIDS (i.e. sex, homosexuality, drug use, etc.), the candidates, Bill Clinton and George Bush, felt it an unwise political decision to openly discuss it. Surrogate speakers, therefore, were chosen to address the AIDS issue at the 1992 national nominating conventions. Bob Hattoy, Elizabeth Glaser, and Mary Fisher delivered speeches about AIDS to replace the silence by Clinton and Bush; Through analysis of their speeches, this project illustrates the use of the feminine style of communication in political discourse. It also demonstrates the advantage of using this style in a campaign setting. Finally, it concludes that the feminine style may offer political candidates a more desirable technique of appealing to voters and voters a superior approach to making political decisions.

Keywords

Aids; Convention; Feminine; Immune Deficiency; Nominating; Political; Presidential; Role; Silence; Speakers; Style; Surrogate

Controlled Subject

Rhetoric; Political science; Women's studies

File Format

pdf

File Size

2211.84 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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