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
File Size
2211.84 KB
Degree Grantor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Language
English
Permissions
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Repository Citation
Moldenhauer, Rebecca Ruth, "Political silence, the feminine style, and Aids: The role of surrogate speakers at the 1992 presidential nominating conventions" (2003). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 1497.
http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/o4qd-qbhv
Rights
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