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Fear Appeals in Political Rhetoric about Terrorism: An Analysis of Speeches by Australian Prime Minister Howard

De Castella, Krista; McGarty, Craig; Musgrove, Luke

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This paper explores fear-arousing content in Australian former Prime Minister John Howard's political rhetoric about terrorism. We coded 27 speeches delivered between September 2001 and November 2007 for the presence of statements promoting fear-consistent appraisals (Smith & Lazarus, 1993). Fear-arousing content was present in 24 of these speeches, but the amount of fear-arousing content varied markedly. In particular, rhetoric that raised doubts about the capacity of Australia and its allies...[Show more]

dc.contributor.authorDe Castella, Krista
dc.contributor.authorMcGarty, Craig
dc.contributor.authorMusgrove, Luke
dc.date.accessioned2015-12-08T22:29:25Z
dc.identifier.issn0162-895X
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1885/34090
dc.description.abstractThis paper explores fear-arousing content in Australian former Prime Minister John Howard's political rhetoric about terrorism. We coded 27 speeches delivered between September 2001 and November 2007 for the presence of statements promoting fear-consistent appraisals (Smith & Lazarus, 1993). Fear-arousing content was present in 24 of these speeches, but the amount of fear-arousing content varied markedly. In particular, rhetoric that raised doubts about the capacity of Australia and its allies to cope with terrorism was most strongly present in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq and at times of declining support for government policies. Textual analysis of three key speeches confirmed a marked difference between Howard's speech given immediately after the attacks on September 11, 2001, and the second and third speeches presented prior to and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. These findings indicate that Howard has not consistently employed fear-inducing rhetoric in his speeches about terrorism, but that particular speeches appear to take this form, raising the possibility that fear-arousing rhetoric may have been selectively deployed to support his political purposes at those times.
dc.publisherBlackwell Publishing Ltd
dc.rightsCopyright Information: © 2009 International Society of Political Psychology
dc.sourcePolitical Psychology
dc.subjectKeywords: Australia; Fear; Iraq; Prime Ministers; Rhetoric; September 11th 2001; Speeches; Terrorism Appraisal theory; Emotion; Fear; Rhetoric; Speeches; Terrorism
dc.titleFear Appeals in Political Rhetoric about Terrorism: An Analysis of Speeches by Australian Prime Minister Howard
dc.typeJournal article
local.description.notesImported from ARIES
local.identifier.citationvolume30
dc.date.issued2009
local.identifier.absfor160609 - Political Theory and Political Philosophy
local.identifier.ariespublicationu4326120xPUB109
local.type.statusPublished Version
local.contributor.affiliationDe Castella, Krista, College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, ANU
local.contributor.affiliationMcGarty, Craig, College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, ANU
local.contributor.affiliationMusgrove, Luke, Murdoch University
local.description.embargo2037-12-31
local.bibliographicCitation.issue1
local.bibliographicCitation.startpage1
local.bibliographicCitation.lastpage26
local.identifier.doi10.1111/j.1467-9221.2008.00678.x
dc.date.updated2016-02-24T10:54:52Z
local.identifier.scopusID2-s2.0-58449087885
CollectionsANU Research Publications

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