| Abstract [eng] |
Rhetoric – the tool of politicians seeking to gain public support appeared and was developed in times of ancient Greece. In our days political rhetoric still is considered to be powerful tool in political arena and even survives kind of renascence. Politician as any other professional is obliged to be skilled user of methods of political rhetoric. Municipality elections are coming soon in Lithuania. Public discourse is going to be filled of different political speeches, examples of political rhetoric, perfect ones as well as worse ones. Object of this work is Persuasion methods in political rhetoric. The aim of this work – to define theoretical basics for the analysis of persuasion methods ant to research the efficiency of different persuasion methods used in political rhetoric. The main objectives were raised: to define, describe and classify persuasion methods; with the help of focus group method to research the efficiency of these methods used in political rhetoric. The descriptive, focus group and qualitative content analysis methods were used in this work. The results of the research proved the hypothesis that peripheral persuasion methods are more efficient than the methods used for central persuasion in political rhetoric. Focus group agreed that most persuasive speech was the speech where most methods of peripheral persuasion methods were used. Speeches where methods of central persuasion prevailed or methods of peripheral persuasion were used poorly did not persuade the group. Audience expects authority and honour from the orator. Eye contact is essential to attract and keep the attention from audience. Dialog imitation tools are effective when used together with the voice control and nonverbal communication elements. Audience is not disposed to analyse deeply the argumentation of political speech. Even the speech written according the canons of text constructing can be considered as non argumentative and not consistent if there are no facts, numbers and other elements equivalent to reality used in the speech and it is read with poor voice control and nonverbal communication. Elements of colloquial language used naturally are effective for the positive contact with the audience and making and image of expert for orator. Negative formulas can increase the persuasiveness of the critical text. Audience has the ability to perceive nonverbal signals and to evaluate their nature and suitability for corresponding context. Voice control, expressiveness and intonation help to create the positive image of the orator and to keep contact and audience attention Poor voice control and nonverbal communication decrease the clearness, consistency of the speech. Audience evaluates the attractiveness of the orator and ascribes some features to him stereotypically connected with corresponding element of appearance. Orator can be also collated with some well known politicians according common features or characteristics. Outcomes of this work can be useful for wider studies of political communication and rhetoric in Lithuania. It can also be used for the practices of political rhetoric as well as training material for new politicians. |
