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How Does A Prime Minister Speak? Kevin Rudd’s discourse, habitus, and negotiation of the journalistic and political fields

Craig, Geoffrey (2013) How Does A Prime Minister Speak? Kevin Rudd’s discourse, habitus, and negotiation of the journalistic and political fields. Journal of Language and Politics, 12 (4). pp. 485-507. ISSN 1569-2159. E-ISSN 1569-9862. (doi:10.1075/jlp.12.4.01cra) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:41898)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/jlp.12.4.01cra

Abstract

This paper investigates how political subjectivity is framed and expressed through language use in television political interviews. The paper argues that Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and field provide a useful framework for analyses of political subjectivity in news media interviews, but it also argues that the more sociological emphasis of Bourdieu’s theory cannot sufficiently account for the constitutive importance of discourse in the agency of the habitus and the boundaries and authority of different fields. As such, the analysis also draws on critical discourse analysis to demonstrate how Prime Ministerial discourse involves negotiations of different constitutive features of an individual subjectivity, and also negotiations between a particular habitus and the exigencies of the journalistic and political fields. Through an analysis of interviews of former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on influential Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) programmes, Insiders and the 7.30 Report, it is argued that the Prime Minister attempts to exercise political authority through an ensemble of discourses, initiating different relations with the interviewers, political colleagues and opponents, leading public figures in other fields, and the Australian public.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1075/jlp.12.4.01cra
Uncontrolled keywords: Television interviews, subjectivity, political style, habitus, fields, discourse, journalism, Rudd, Australia
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN4699 Journalism
P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics > P95.8 Communication. Political aspects.
P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics > P87 Communication. Mass Media
J Political Science
P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1990 Broadcasting
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Centre for Journalism
Depositing User: Geoffrey Craig
Date Deposited: 19 Jul 2014 15:34 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Feb 2021 12:54 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/41898 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Craig, Geoffrey.

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