It's not what you say, but how you say it. Solving problems with words
is the essence of politics, and finding the right words for the moment
can make or break a politician's career. Yet very little has been said
in political science about the elusive element of tone.
In Political Tone, Roderick P. Hart, Jay P. Childers, and Colene J.
Lind analyze a range of texts--from speeches and debates to advertising
and print and broadcast campaign coverage-- using a sophisticated
computer program, DICTION, that parses their content for semantic
features like realism, commonality, and certainty, as well as references
to religion, party, or patriotic terms. Beginning with a look at how
societal forces like diversity and modernity manifest themselves as
political tones in the contexts of particular leaders and events, the
authors proceed to consider how individual leaders have used tone to
convey their messages: How did Bill Clinton's clever dexterity help him
recover from the Monica Lewinsky scandal? How did Barack Obama draw on
his experience as a talented community activist to overcome his
inexperience as a national leader? And how does Sarah Palin's wandering
tone indicate that she trusts her listeners and is open to their ideas?
By focusing not on the substance of political arguments but on how they
were phrased, Political Tone provides powerful and unexpected insights
into American politics.
