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Multimodal Argumentation and Rhetoric in Media Genres
Edited by Assimakis Tseronis and Charles Forceville
[Argumentation in Context 14] 2017
► pp. 217–238

Chapter 8
Employing film form and style in the argumentative analysis of political advertising

In this chapter I propose incorporating concepts from film studies in order to better analyze multimodal argumentation in audio-visual texts. I do so by examining the argumentation of a particular advertisement appealing to fear. The core argument in the chapter is that argumentation studies can benefit from appropriating or importing methods and concepts from film studies in order to supplement the interpretation and analysis of argumentation in moving images. In the chapter, I introduce a selection of methods and concepts from film analysis before exemplifying how they can be employed through describing the film style of a political ad produced by a Swedish right wing populist party.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.A rhetorical perspective on argument
  • 3.On political advertising and fear appeals
  • 4.On the theory of film analysis
  • 5.Questions for the analysis
    • 5.1What is the central organizing principle of the film?
    • 5.2How has the filmmaker staged some event for filming? (mise-en-scène)
    • 5.3How is the event filmed? (cinematography)
    • 5.4How are the different shots put together and coordinated? (editing)
    • 5.5How are sound effects and music used for narrative structure, narrative support or for cueing emotions or moods? (sound)
  • 6.Case study: Style and argument in a fear ad
    • 6.1 Mise-en-scène
    • 6.2Cinematography and editing
    • 6.3Sound
    • 6.4Functions of film form and style
  • 7.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
  • List of primary sources
Published online: 20 December 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aic.14.09hoe
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List of primary sources

Dangerous
Retrieved 11 April 2017 from [URL].
Peace Little Girl (Daisy)
Retrieved 11 April 2017 from [URL].
Sverigedemokratneras valfilm
2010 [Sweden Democrats Election Film 2010]. Retrieved 11 April 2017 from [URL].
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Pan, Molly Xie & Dennis Tay
2023. Individual differences in identifying creative metaphors from video Ads. Metaphor and the Social World 13:2 ► pp. 221 ff. DOI logo

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