portrait of a press secretary a cads investigation in the role of the podium in george w. bush...

Portrait of a Press Secretary

A CADS investigation in the role of the podium in George W. Bush Administration’s press briefings

Giulia RiccioDottorato di Ricerca in Lingua Inglese per Scopi Speciali

(ESP)Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”

[email protected] Conference: Issues of Identity in and across Cultures and Professional Worlds Rome, 26th October 2007

mailto:[email protected]

The present talkThe present talkInvestigating professional identity through

the Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies (CADS) approach:

methodological issues and possible applications

Professional identity: the role of the White House Press Secretary during the first term of

the George W. Bush Presidency (2001-2005)

Investigating professional identity through the Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies

(CADS) approach: methodological issues

and possible applications

Professional identity: the role of the White House Press Secretary during the first term of

the George W. Bush Presidency (2001-2005)

The present talkThe present talk

A brief outline of:• The White House Press Secretary as a role as

opposed to the institutional spokesperson as a role

• Methodological issues: CADS, markup and identity• The White House Press Briefings XML corpus

• Speech representation in the White House Press Briefings XML corpus

• Preliminary results

A brief outline of:• The White House Press Secretary as a role as

opposed to the institutional spokesperson as a role

• Methodological issues: CADS, markup and identity• The White House Press Briefings XML corpus

• Speech representation in the White House Press Briefings XML corpus

• Preliminary results

George W. Bush’s Press Secretaries during his first

term


term

• Ari FleischerJanuary 2001 - July 2003

• Ari FleischerJanuary 2001 - July 2003


term


term

• Scott McClellanJuly 2003 - April 2006

• Scott McClellanJuly 2003 - April 2006

The communications triumvirate at the White

House

The communications triumvirate at the White

HouseWhite House offices focusing on different aspects of Presidential communications:

• the Press Office information• the Office of Communications persuasion• the Office of the Chief of Staff strategy

(Kumar 2000)

White House offices focusing on different aspects of Presidential communications:

• the Press Office information• the Office of Communications persuasion• the Office of the Chief of Staff strategy

(Kumar 2000)

The White House Press Office

The White House Press Office

• Cooperation among reporters and White House officials

• Stability of the position of Press Secretary• Outside constituents housed in the building• President’s public visibility vs. vulnerability

• Three constituents but just one boss

(Kumar 2000)

• Cooperation among reporters and White House officials

• Stability of the position of Press Secretary• Outside constituents housed in the building• President’s public visibility vs. vulnerability

• Three constituents but just one boss

(Kumar 2000)

The White House Press Secretary


…has three constituents:• The President

• White House staff• News organizations

…but has just one boss:• The President

(Kumar 2000)

…has three constituents:• The President

• White House staff• News organizations

…but has just one boss:• The President

(Kumar 2000)


The White House Press Secretary…has four principal roles:

• information conduit • constituent representation

• administration• communications planning

In practical terms: he or she must work together with a variety of White

House officials in creating the portrait of the President and his policies they want to publicly deliver.

(Kumar 2000)

…has four principal roles:

• information conduit • constituent representation

• administration• communications planning

In practical terms: he or she must work together with a variety of White

House officials in creating the portrait of the President and his policies they want to publicly deliver.

(Kumar 2000)

The White House Press Secretary’s golden rules

The White House Press Secretary’s golden rules

“…tell the truth, don’t lie, don’t cover up, put out the bad news yourself, put it out as soon as possible,

put your own explanation on it.”

(former Press Secretary Ron Nessen quoted in Kumar 2000)

“…tell the truth, don’t lie, don’t cover up, put out the bad news yourself, put it out as soon as possible,

put your own explanation on it.”

(former Press Secretary Ron Nessen quoted in Kumar 2000)



Partington 2003: White House Press Briefings in the Clinton years

Commentators’ metaphors for the Press Secretary:• soldier• sailor

• street thug• pugilist

• ambassador• smear artist• spinmeister

Partington 2003: White House Press Briefings in the Clinton years

Commentators’ metaphors for the Press Secretary:• soldier• sailor

• street thug• pugilist

• ambassador• smear artist• spinmeister



Partington’s characterization of the White House Press Secretary in Levinson (1988)’s terms:

White House Press Secretary ≠spokesperson*

*production role: spokesperson =‘speaking for a distant principal or motivator, but in his/her own words. Responsible for the form but not the message’

(Partington 2003: 54)

Levinson: potential vagueness of the participant role of spokesperson associated with the institutional role of

spokesperson(Levinson 1988)

Partington’s characterization of the White House Press Secretary in Levinson (1988)’s terms:

White House Press Secretary ≠spokesperson*

*production role: spokesperson =‘speaking for a distant principal or motivator, but in his/her own words. Responsible for the form but not the message’

(Partington 2003: 54)

Levinson: potential vagueness of the participant role of spokesperson associated with the institutional role of

spokesperson(Levinson 1988)



According to Partington (2003), the White House Press Secretary acts as:

• Relayer when reading announcements

• Spokesperson when he uses his own words to respond to questions in the interests of one of more

principals

• Principal when he adds tactical touches of principalship to messages from a distant source, and

when he personalizes his relationship with the audience

According to Partington (2003), the White House Press Secretary acts as:

• Relayer when reading announcements

• Spokesperson when he uses his own words to respond to questions in the interests of one of more

principals

• Principal when he adds tactical touches of principalship to messages from a distant source, and

when he personalizes his relationship with the audience



Partington calls the White House Press Secretary

‘the podium’

Partington calls the White House Press Secretary

‘the podium’

Theoretical frameworkTheoretical framework

Corpus Linguistics:• Partington 1998

• Tognini-Bonelli 2001• Baker 2006

Studies in political discourse:• Partington 2003• Chilton 2004

Corpus Linguistics:• Partington 1998

• Tognini-Bonelli 2001• Baker 2006

Studies in political discourse:• Partington 2003• Chilton 2004

Theoretical frameworkTheoretical framework

CADS:• Partington 2004

• Partington forthcoming

…but also:• Levinson 1988• Bergler 1991• Cameron 2001• Semino and Short 2004

CADS:• Partington 2004

• Partington forthcoming

…but also:• Levinson 1988• Bergler 1991• Cameron 2001• Semino and Short 2004

Theoretical framework: CADS

Theoretical framework: CADS

CADS (Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies) • Investigate discourse types in order to uncover meanings non-

obvious to the naked eye• Quantitative + qualitative

• Compile your own corpus and ‘make friends’ with it• Detailed knowledge of discourse type• Context not limited to concordance line

• Value of reinforcing introspection with observation

(Partington 2004)(Partington forthcoming)

CADS (Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies) • Investigate discourse types in order to uncover meanings non-

obvious to the naked eye• Quantitative + qualitative

• Compile your own corpus and ‘make friends’ with it• Detailed knowledge of discourse type• Context not limited to concordance line

• Value of reinforcing introspection with observation

(Partington 2004)(Partington forthcoming)

Corpus and softwareCorpus and software

• 698 press briefings and ‘gaggles’

• Dating back to George W. Bush’s first term as President (Jan. 2001 - Jan. 2005)

• More than 3 million running words

• Divided into 4 subsections on a chronological basis

• XML marked-up (TEI-conformant)

• Corpus processing tool: Xaira (XML Aware Indexing and Retrieval Application)

• 698 press briefings and ‘gaggles’

• Dating back to George W. Bush’s first term as President (Jan. 2001 - Jan. 2005)

• More than 3 million running words

• Divided into 4 subsections on a chronological basis

• XML marked-up (TEI-conformant)

• Corpus processing tool: Xaira (XML Aware Indexing and Retrieval Application)

XML mark-upXML mark-up

Mainly based on the schema developed for the CorDis project

(Cirillo, Marchi and Venuti forthcoming)

TEI-conformant: complies with the guidelines of the Text Encoding

Initiative

Mainly based on the schema developed for the CorDis project

(Cirillo, Marchi and Venuti forthcoming)

TEI-conformant: complies with the guidelines of the Text Encoding

Initiative

XML mark-upXML mark-upInformation included in mark-up:

• Title of the briefing

• Date it took place

• Location where it was held

• Type: briefing / gaggle / briefing with guest

• Structure of the briefing: opening statement and other announcements, Q&A, addendum

• Speaker role: podium, press, Cabinet members, Press Office staff, Presidential staff, Department staff, Federal

agency heads, other guests

• Individual speaker

Information included in mark-up:• Title of the briefing

• Date it took place

• Location where it was held

• Type: briefing / gaggle / briefing with guest

• Structure of the briefing: opening statement and other announcements, Q&A, addendum

• Speaker role: podium, press, Cabinet members, Press Office staff, Presidential staff, Department staff, Federal

agency heads, other guests

• Individual speaker

Mark-up and identityMark-up and identity

Mark-up as added value (Leech 2005)

Mark-up for speaker and speaker role in studies of identity:

allows the researcher to compare discourse strategies for different sets of speakers.

Features of podium discourse can be highlighted in this corpus thanks to the XML mark-up.

Mark-up as added value (Leech 2005)

Mark-up for speaker and speaker role in studies of identity:

allows the researcher to compare discourse strategies for different sets of speakers.

Features of podium discourse can be highlighted in this corpus thanks to the XML mark-up.

Some raw data from the corpus


Who is the podium speaking for?

Occurrences of the President in the podium’s discourse remarkably decrease in time


Occurrences of the President in the podium’s discourse remarkably decrease in time

occurrences per 100 words

pre-9/11

pre-Iraq war

initial invasion of Iraq

post-invasion of Iraq

podium 0.78 0.76 0.62 0.48

press 0.27 0.25 0.22 0.24




Occurrences of administration in the podium’s discourse also decrease in time and they are more rare than in the discourse of the press


Occurrences of administration in the podium’s discourse also decrease in time and they are more rare than in the discourse of the press


pre-9/11

pre-Iraq war



podium 0.06 0.04 0.02 0.03

press 0.07 0.06 0.06 0.05




Occurrences of we in the podium’s discourse, in contrast, remarkably increase in time and they are much more frequent than in the discourse

of the press


Occurrences of we in the podium’s discourse, in contrast, remarkably increase in time and they are much more frequent than in the discourse

of the press


pre-9/11

pre-Iraq war



podium 0.24 0.25 0.46 0.85

press 0.09 0.10 0.13 0.09




Occurrences of I in the podium’s discourse increase in time, while the use of the pronoun you in the press’ discourse does not correspondingly increase


Occurrences of I in the podium’s discourse increase in time, while the use of the pronoun you in the press’ discourse does not correspondingly increase

occurrences of I per 100 words

pre-9/11

pre-Iraq war



podium 0.61 0.70 0.75 0.79

occurrences of you per 100 words

pre-9/11

pre-Iraq war



press 0.50 0.45 0.46 0.43

Mark-up and identity: reported discourse

Mark-up and identity: reported discourse

Comparison: patterns in the podium’s and press’ usage of reporting verbs

The briefings as an instance of strategic discourse (oriented to

success) --> competing strategies in reporting the speech (and thought)

of others

Comparison: patterns in the podium’s and press’ usage of reporting verbs

The briefings as an instance of strategic discourse (oriented to

success) --> competing strategies in reporting the speech (and thought)

of others

Speech presentation in the briefings

Speech presentation in the briefings

What can reporting verbs be used for in the briefings?

• To report the podium’s previous statements• To report the President’s previous statements

• To report other people’s (members of the Administration or anyone else) statements

• To report what the media have in turn reported

mainly Indirect Speech Presentation and Narrative Report of Speech Acts (lower degree of faithfulness)

(model based on Semino & Short 2004)


• To report the podium’s previous statements• To report the President’s previous statements

• To report other people’s (members of the Administration or anyone else) statements

• To report what the media have in turn reported

mainly Indirect Speech Presentation and Narrative Report of Speech Acts (lower degree of faithfulness)

(model based on Semino & Short 2004)

Thought presentation in the briefings

Thought presentation in the briefings


To present the opinions, views, beliefs of:• the podium

• the President• the public

etc.

mainly Indirect Thought Presentation(model based on Semino & Short 2004)


To present the opinions, views, beliefs of:• the podium

• the President• the public

etc.

mainly Indirect Thought Presentation(model based on Semino & Short 2004)

A framework for the analysis of reported

discourse

A framework for the analysis of reported

discourseBergler 1991:

semantic dimensions in the semantic field of reporting verbs, extracted from dictionary

entries

Bergler 1991:semantic dimensions

in the semantic field of reporting verbs, extracted from dictionary

entries

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

A subset of the hierarchy of genus terms in the OED (Bergler 1991)

Reporting verbs: frequenciesReporting verbs: frequenciesOccurrences, in the briefings corpus, of verbs contained in

Bergler’s OED hierarchy of genus termsPast tense and past participle forms counted for the sake of

convenience (in the absence of POS-tagging)• Said: 10302 occurrences (of which 6151 podium, 3929 press)

• Announced: 701 occurrences (of which 503 podium, 175 press)

• Agreed: 493 occurrences (of which 377 podium, 90 press)

• Stated: 335 occurrences (of which 288 podium, 40 press) • Confirmed: 188 occurrences (of which 117 podium, 53 press)

• Charged: 98 occurrences (of which 49 podium, 47 press)

• Accepted: 90 occurrences (of which 60 podium, 29 press)

• Declared: 90 occurrences (of which 40 podium, 47 press)

Occurrences, in the briefings corpus, of verbs contained in Bergler’s OED hierarchy of genus terms

Past tense and past participle forms counted for the sake of convenience (in the absence of POS-tagging)

• Said: 10302 occurrences (of which 6151 podium, 3929 press)

• Announced: 701 occurrences (of which 503 podium, 175 press)

• Agreed: 493 occurrences (of which 377 podium, 90 press)

• Stated: 335 occurrences (of which 288 podium, 40 press) • Confirmed: 188 occurrences (of which 117 podium, 53 press)

• Charged: 98 occurrences (of which 49 podium, 47 press)

• Accepted: 90 occurrences (of which 60 podium, 29 press)

• Declared: 90 occurrences (of which 40 podium, 47 press)

Reporting verbs: statedReporting verbs: statedIn the podium’s discourse

• 288 occurrences in the podium’s utterances out of a total of 335 occurrences

in the corpus (86%)• 259 occurrences if uses other than as that

of reporting verb are left out• most occurrences are found

in the post-Iraq invasion phase (71%)

In the podium’s discourse

• 288 occurrences in the podium’s utterances out of a total of 335 occurrences

in the corpus (86%)• 259 occurrences if uses other than as that

of reporting verb are left out• most occurrences are found

in the post-Iraq invasion phase (71%)


• most frequent subjects: the President / we / I• but also world leaders, UN resolutions, Cabinet members, other authoritative sources

• President (or he referred to the President) in subject position: 59 occurrences;

frequent both in the pre-Iraq war and post-invasion phases

• We in subject position: 22 occurrences, 21 of which in the post-invasion phase

• You (journalist) in subject position: 12 occurrences; in early briefings, emphasis on the way something was stated (accurately, correctly);

later, on disagreement with it

• I in subject position: 48 occurrences (46 in the post-Iraq invasion phase)


• most frequent subjects: the President / we / I• but also world leaders, UN resolutions, Cabinet members, other authoritative sources

• President (or he referred to the President) in subject position: 59 occurrences;

frequent both in the pre-Iraq war and post-invasion phases

• We in subject position: 22 occurrences, 21 of which in the post-invasion phase

• You (journalist) in subject position: 12 occurrences; in early briefings, emphasis on the way something was stated (accurately, correctly);

later, on disagreement with it

• I in subject position: 48 occurrences (46 in the post-Iraq invasion phase)


Adverbs that collocate with stated in the podium’s discourse: publicly/privately;

repeatedly/already/always/consistently; clearly/firmly.

Publicly (21 occurrences): used in response to references to “contradictory statements”, “a wink and a nod from the White House”, “some resistance”, “the White House blocked or muscled Congress out

of…” (subject: mainly President or we)

Repeatedly (14 occurrences): mainly used with a direct complement (support/ concern/views/position) (subject: mainly President or the US or

we)


Adverbs that collocate with stated in the podium’s discourse: publicly/privately;

repeatedly/already/always/consistently; clearly/firmly.

Publicly (21 occurrences): used in response to references to “contradictory statements”, “a wink and a nod from the White House”, “some resistance”, “the White House blocked or muscled Congress out

of…” (subject: mainly President or we)

Repeatedly (14 occurrences): mainly used with a direct complement (support/ concern/views/position) (subject: mainly President or the US or

we)


Passive agentless: very rare (12 occurrences) and in 10 of these cases the agent can be inferred from the co-text

The podium is not interested to adopting vagueness strategies when referring to the source of some

previous statement


Passive agentless: very rare (12 occurrences) and in 10 of these cases the agent can be inferred from the co-text

The podium is not interested to adopting vagueness strategies when referring to the source of some

previous statement

Reporting verbs: statedReporting verbs: statedDifferent podiums, different identities?

Ari Fleischer:

subject: President 20 + he 4(support/determination/position/concern etc.)

subject: I 3“You know the President’s position, it is exactly as I stated…”

subject: we 1in official statement

Different podiums, different identities?

Ari Fleischer:

subject: President 20 + he 4(support/determination/position/concern etc.)

subject: I 3“You know the President’s position, it is exactly as I stated…”

subject: we 1in official statement

Reporting verbs: statedReporting verbs: statedDifferent podiums, different identities?

Scott McClellan:

subject: President 14 + he 17(views/position/opposition/policies/remarks)

subject: we 20(opposition/belief/preference/seriousness/views)

subject: I 47“for the reason(s) I (just) stated”

speaking on behalf of unspecified principals (we)

Different podiums, different identities?

Scott McClellan:

subject: President 14 + he 17(views/position/opposition/policies/remarks)

subject: we 20(opposition/belief/preference/seriousness/views)

subject: I 47“for the reason(s) I (just) stated”

speaking on behalf of unspecified principals (we)

Reporting verbs: statedReporting verbs: statedIn the journalists’ discourse:

• 40 occurrences in the journalists’ moves• occurrences are evenly

distributed throughout the corpus• most frequent subjects: the President / you

In the journalists’ discourse:

• 40 occurrences in the journalists’ moves• occurrences are evenly

distributed throughout the corpus• most frequent subjects: the President / you


• President in subject position: 8 occurrences; used to ask for confirmation of previous statements

• You (podium) in subject position: 11 occurrences; references to the past,

including the specification “from this podium”; used to ask for confirmation of previous statements

or clarifications regarding them (courtroom-style)


• President in subject position: 8 occurrences; used to ask for confirmation of previous statements

• You (podium) in subject position: 11 occurrences; references to the past,

including the specification “from this podium”; used to ask for confirmation of previous statements

or clarifications regarding them (courtroom-style)


• Occurrences of state (verb) in journalists’ moves(looking for occurrences of did you state etc.):

only eight occurrences

• Could/would/will you (just) state for the records that […]?• Will you again state for us […]?

• Would you state what it is that […]?• Are you not willing to state from the podium that […]?

• + something unpleasant or something the podium is unwilling to admit


• Occurrences of state (verb) in journalists’ moves(looking for occurrences of did you state etc.):

only eight occurrences

• Could/would/will you (just) state for the records that […]?• Will you again state for us […]?

• Would you state what it is that […]?• Are you not willing to state from the podium that […]?

• + something unpleasant or something the podium is unwilling to admit

Reporting verbs: stated - Preliminary conclusions…Reporting verbs: stated -

Preliminary conclusions…Extensively used by the podium in order to present

statements characterized by a high truth-value, in response to challenges to the truthfulness of

statements

Reference to past statements (both official and less formal ones)

as a proof of coherence in the administration’s policies

Extensively used by the podium in order to present statements characterized by a high truth-value, in response to challenges to the truthfulness of

statements

Reference to past statements (both official and less formal ones)

as a proof of coherence in the administration’s policies

Reporting verbs: stated - Preliminary conclusions…Reporting verbs: stated -

Preliminary conclusions…The podium and the press compete in

constructing their own identity (position of authority)

by making reference to authoritative sources

During the first years of the Bush Presidency, the President was presented as the most authoritative

source.Later on, reference to what we or I (podium) stated

is more frequent --> President’s loss of credibility or new podium’s

stronger personality?

The podium and the press compete in constructing their own identity (position of

authority) by making reference to authoritative sources

During the first years of the Bush Presidency, the President was presented as the most authoritative

source.Later on, reference to what we or I (podium) stated

is more frequent --> President’s loss of credibility or new podium’s

stronger personality?

…and beyond…and beyond• Speech presentation: said (unmarked reporting

verb?)

• Thought presentation: believe, think

• Variation in time and in the discourse of different podiums (disappearance of the President)

• We and I as subjects of reporting verbs

• A complete picture of the usage of reporting verbs in the briefings, based on Bergler’s schema

• Speech presentation: said (unmarked reporting verb?)

• Thought presentation: believe, think

• Variation in time and in the discourse of different podiums (disappearance of the President)

• We and I as subjects of reporting verbs

• A complete picture of the usage of reporting verbs in the briefings, based on Bergler’s schema

WishlistWishlistIn order to be able to extract more detailed

information from the White House Press Briefings XML corpus, I would need:

• POS (part-of-speech)-tagging

• Mark-up for topic of utterances

• Mark-up for speech and thought presentation (Semino and Short 2004)

In order to be able to extract more detailed information from the White House Press Briefings

XML corpus, I would need:

• POS (part-of-speech)-tagging

• Mark-up for topic of utterances

• Mark-up for speech and thought presentation (Semino and Short 2004)

portrait of a press secretary a cads investigation in the role of the podium in george w. bush...

Documents

white house press secretaryhas

white house press secretarys

white house officialsstability

white housewhite house

press office information

bushs press secretaries

press secretary ron

production role