Political silence, the feminine style, and Aids: The role of surrogate speakers at the 1992 presidential nominating conventions

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.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communication Studies

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Year

2003

Author dc:creator

• Moldenhauer, Rebecca Ruth

Contributors dc:contributor

• Thomas R. Burkholder

Statement dc:rights

• IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/rtds/1497

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:oasis.library.unlv.edu:rtds-2496