PS 331 Participation Exercise Edelman
1. The Political Spectacle
a. Edelman defines the political spectacle as, “Accounts of political issues, problems, crises, threats, and leaders now become devices for creating disparate assumptions and beliefs about the social and political world rather than factual statements. The very concept of ‘fact’ becomes irrelevant because every meaningful political object and person is an interpretation that reflects and perpetuates an ideology. Taken together, they compromise the spectacle which varies with the social situation of the spectator and serves as a meaning machine: a generator of points of view and therefore of perceptions, anxieties, aspirations, and strategies” (pg. 10).
b. An example of the political spectacle would be Fox news coverage of a memo as compared to CNN …show more content…
Ambiguous Language
a. Ambiguous language is language that is vague and does not suggest an explicit meaning.
b. An example of ambiguous language is that the economy is doing well. Without any additional information to back this up or any further detail as to why the speaker believes the economy is doing well, there is little room to directly counter the statement. What one person defines as the economy doing well another may not; thus, there is less room for disagreement.
c. Ambiguous language is important because, “Political developments and the language that describes them are ambiguous because the aspects of events, leaders, and policies that most decisively affect current and future well-being are uncertain, unknowable, and the focus of disputed claims and competing symbols. Even when there is consensus about what observably happened or was said, there are conflicting assumptions about the causes of events, the motives of officials and interest groups, and the consequences of courses of action. So it is not what can be seen that shapes political action and support, but what must be supposed, assumed, or constructed.
8. Condensation
1. The Political Spectacle
a. Edelman defines the political spectacle as, “Accounts of political issues, problems, crises, threats, and leaders now become devices for creating disparate assumptions and beliefs about the social and political world rather than factual statements. The very concept of ‘fact’ becomes irrelevant because every meaningful political object and person is an interpretation that reflects and perpetuates an ideology. Taken together, they compromise the spectacle which varies with the social situation of the spectator and serves as a meaning machine: a generator of points of view and therefore of perceptions, anxieties, aspirations, and strategies” (pg. 10).
b. An example of the political spectacle would be Fox news coverage of a memo as compared to CNN …show more content…
Ambiguous Language
a. Ambiguous language is language that is vague and does not suggest an explicit meaning.
b. An example of ambiguous language is that the economy is doing well. Without any additional information to back this up or any further detail as to why the speaker believes the economy is doing well, there is little room to directly counter the statement. What one person defines as the economy doing well another may not; thus, there is less room for disagreement.
c. Ambiguous language is important because, “Political developments and the language that describes them are ambiguous because the aspects of events, leaders, and policies that most decisively affect current and future well-being are uncertain, unknowable, and the focus of disputed claims and competing symbols. Even when there is consensus about what observably happened or was said, there are conflicting assumptions about the causes of events, the motives of officials and interest groups, and the consequences of courses of action. So it is not what can be seen that shapes political action and support, but what must be supposed, assumed, or constructed.
8. Condensation