Paper 3

• For my research, I have explored the style of language and persuasive techniques that opposition parties use to exert influencial power. I did this using qualitative and quantitative data including the 28th April 1997 Labour film, the 1950’s sci-fi ‘spoof’ from 2014 and the Liberal Democrat broadcast from 2017.
• Furthermore, I carried out secondary research including the regulations put in place, such as the Communication Act of 2003, and how that might have played a part in the language used. Due to the time slots, they would’ve been allotted it meant I could link to Grice’s Maxims, power theories by Wareing, as well as accommodation theory and the formal/informal register they use to address the audience.
• BBC radio took over the PPB's, giving each party 20 mins for a speech to the public


  1924
• The first party election broadcasts took place on BBC Radio during the 1924 election, with leader each giving a 20-minute speech to the public
• Television


  • Dominates as primary news source for citizens (71%)
  • Followed at a distance by online press and news platforms (42%)
  • Radio and social media platforms share the third position with 37% each
• PEBs, PPBs and RCBs on TV

  Must be carried out between 5.30pm and 11.30pm (aimed after a workday and closer to the watershed time)
• PEBs and RCBs on radio


  Must be carried out between 6.00am and 10.00pm
• The Communications Act of 2003 means that all political advertising is prohibited from being broadcast on tv or radio
• These traditional post-teatime news slots make up for the ban the parties face on buying other TV and radio advertising
• Electoral law was written long before campaigning went digital, so rather than one channel with one guaranteed audience, you are looking at internet advertising with spending on the rise across multiple platforms - especially social media
• Couldn't move too much on screen (single person sitting/standing) because of broadcasting capabilities
• General election when PPB were carried out by the BBC until

  1924
• Running time of PPB

  • 2 mins 40 secs
  • 3 mins 40 secs
  • 4 mins 40 secs
• Attack adverts


  Adverts used in the US
• Purpose of PPB


  • To offset the differential ability of parties to attract campaign funds (reduces any advantage a party might have and evens the playing field)
• ‘That’s Why you have to vote’ – frequent repetition of the main message (labour, 1997)
• ‘How’s she gonna learn in an overcrowded classroom?’ – mix of fear appeal about the future generations as well as a rhetorical question to make sure the audience says engaged. (Labour, 1997)
• ‘What’s next? Food? Kiddies clothing? Books?’ – asyndetic listing and rule of three of the publics concerns – shows they’re listening to the needs. (Labour, 1997)
• ‘It’s too late!’ – exclamative, conveys urgency of the matter/urgency of the deadline to vote. (Labour, 1997)
• ‘Oh good, that’ll be popular’ – sarcasm, more relatable, divergence? (Labour, 2014)
• ‘Shall we lay off some HNS nurses’ – fear appeal (what could happen), colloquial language could be divergence, mitigates personal power. (Labour, 2014)
• ‘So join us.’ – imperative, and order, FTA (Brown and Levinson) (Lib Dem, 2017)
• ‘People who believe what you believe are joining’ – prosodic emphasis of personal pronoun, direct address – synthetic personalisation (Fairclough) (Lib Dem, 2017)
• ‘Our country and our world’ – collective pronouns – synthetic personalisation, mitigate personal power (Lib Dem, 2017)
• ‘I don’t know. I’ll check the fridge.’  - an attempt at humour, likeability? FSA? (Lib Dem, 2017)
• Labour

  28th April 1997
• Multi-modal devices


  • Using 'integrated TV codes & culture so as to blend with the media background'
• Peter Mandelson: 'PEB's went through a 'transformative' process in the 1980s – Neil Kinnock brought in a famous director to make his (Hugh Hudson – directed chariots of Fire)'
• Celebrity influence


  • Pete Postlethwaite – influential power (trusted). Power of celebrity.
• Fear appeal


  • asyndetic list – " what's next? Food? Kiddies clothes?"
• Conveying a very pessimistic forecast for if the conservatives get into power
• Exerting influential power through a fictional character


  • Conveying a working class identity. Can those clear northern accent – omission of 'h' phoneme in "have". "Yer" - use IPA to show. Colloquial register plus dialect is made clear in spite of negative attitudes towards regional accent (freeborne)
• The party are using a character with a clear northern identity
• Ellipsis


  • And tag questions " doesn't bear Thinking about, does it?"
• Informal proper noun


  " Tories" prejudice (less respectful)
• Presents themselves as the party of the working classes (goes back to their original ideology of labour)
• Idioms


  • they give with one hand…
• Mild expletive


  • " flippin taxi driver" – reflects his passion (but not in an offensive way)
• Negative face saving acts


  • demanding – emphasises the importance of this election: interrogative plus auxiliary verb " just got to face it" + pronouns " your children are your future"
• Playful parody


  Heightened RP accent