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Remedies against the Pandemic: How politicians communicate crisis management
Edited by Nadine Thielemann and Daniel Weiss
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 102] 2023
► pp. 75–101

Linguistic strategies to present complexity in a time of crisis

How European leaders discussed the Covid-19 pandemic

| University of Iceland

During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, world leaders were expected to discuss complex notions with their constituents. In this paper, I analyze how four European leaders – Erna Solberg (Norway), Giuseppe Conte (Italy), Emmanuel Macron (Macron), Boris Johnson (UK) – broke down the complexity associated with Covid-19 measures. I look at 57 speeches given in the period of March 2020 – October 2020. Solberg chose to tackle complexity through oversimplification, for instance by overusing numbered lists and the intensifier mange (‘many’). Macron used self-directed questions to structure the discourse into more manageable units. Johnson made extensive use of signposting, slogans and catchphrases. No particular strategy was used by Conte to tackle complexity; this highlights the effect of increased time pressure in communicating a crisis.

Keywords: complexity, communicative strategies, Covid-19, Erna Solberg, Giuseppe Conte, Emmanuel Macron, Boris Johnson, European Politics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.2Complex vs. Complicated
      • 1.2.1Complicated Notions
      • 1.2.2Complex Notions
      • 1.2.3Focus and structure of this article
  • 2.The dataset
  • 3.Erna Solberg
  • 4.Emmanuel Macron
  • 5.Boris Johnson
  • 6.Giuseppe Conte
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 24 July 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.102.03cal
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