This conference is supported by awards from the UMass RLA Program and the National Science Foundation (SES 0903886). Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Massachusetts or the National Science Foundation.
An Interdisciplinary Conference Hosted By the University of Massachusetts Amherst
“I’m In!”:
Hillary Clinton’s 2008 Democratic Primary Campaign on YouTube
Abstract
This study looks at the strategies present in ten YouTube videos from Hillary Clinton’s official Democratic Primary campaign. The research used a rhetorical framework to understand the persuasive aspects of these videos, and situate the candidate’s rhetorical choices in relationship to the social constraints facing female presidential candidates. The results show that while Clinton’s early attempts at a dialogue approach failed, the candidate’s later videos using humorous and documentary style approaches allowed her to overcome a lot of issues facing the campaign. Clinton’s rhetorical choices offer insight to future candidates attempting to use new media technologies. (23 votes)
Comments
Congrats with the poster!
Congrats with the poster! Again, very fancy video. What program did you use again?
Good luck with your future research and hope to see again during the youTube and 2012 elections conference, or much sooner.
Methods
There is no singular way of deciding what makes a text worthy of rhetorical inquiry. That is really a decision that is made by the rhetorician. In my case I was interested in finding 2-3 different strategies to compare. The first set of videos represented videos that were considered "unsuccessful" and the other two sets of videos represent different types of success. I made these decisions based on what I was looking for in the texts. I make no claim in my research to being representative of all the strategies Clinton attempted on YouTube, only that I wanted to understand how some of the different strategies operated in a variety of environments online.
In the methods section,
In the methods section, explain why you chose the videos you did. What makes a speech in the world of rhetoricians "worthy" of being examined.
In the methods section,
In the methods section, explain why you chose the videos you did. What makes a speech in the world of rhetoricians "worthy" of being examined.