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Abstract
Recently there has been interest in examining how language is involved in the phenomenon of ‘manipulation’. This paper suggests that investigators, rather than treating ‘manipulation’ as an entity, should examine how communicators might engage in discursive acts of manipulating. To this end a distinction is made between manipulating information and manipulating people. Examples of both types, taken from the Portuguese Parliamentary Celebration of the April Revolution of 2004, are examined in depth to show how acts of manipulating can be performed in different ways. By focussing on acts, we show that supposed ‘cognitive control’ over the audience's minds is not necessarily involved in manipulating; it is shown how investigators can provide evidence that manipulators act ‘knowingly’ when they mislead. We argue that the study of manipulating, and the distinction between manipulating information and people, provides a critical approach to the topic of political oratory.
Notes
1. Available from http://debates.parlamento.pt/page.aspx?cid=r3.dar&diary=s1l9sl2n80–4376&type=texto (accessed 29 April 2013).
2. Commemorative speeches of each political party over time are available from http://debates.parlamento.pt/search.aspx?cid=r3.dar (accessed 29 April 2013).
Additional information
Michael Billig (author to whom correspondence should be addressed) is professor of social sciences at Loughborough University. He has published on a number of topics, including nationalism, rhetoric, psychoanalysis and fascism. His latest book is Learn to write badly: How to succeed in the social sciences (Cambridge University Press).
Cristina Marinho completed her doctorate in social psychology at the Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University, examining the Portuguese Parliamentary Celebration of the April Revolution. Together with Michael Billig, she has published a chapter in Analysing fascist discourse, edited by R. Wodak and J.E. Richardson.