The good, the bad, and the unexpected: Violating audience expectations in Clint Eastwood’s speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention

ABSTRACT

Courses: Communication Theory, Nonverbal Communication, Public Speaking

Objective: At the end of this activity, students should be able to define key components of expectancy violations theory and apply the theory to analyze violations that occurred in Clint Eastwood’s speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Notes

1 Although Eastwood initially suggested that his idea for using the empty chair came to him after noticing it backstage at the Republican National Convention, in a 2016 interview with Esquire, he claimed the speech was inspired by lyrics from a Neil Diamond song. See Hainey (2016).

2 For a range of responses and critical commentaries of the speech, see Burris (2015), Foxnews.com (2012), Meikle (2012), Murphy (2012), and Petri (2012).