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Part of
Doing Politics: Discursivity, performativity and mediation in political discourse
Edited by Michael Kranert and Geraldine Horan
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 80] 2018
► pp. 235–258

Chapter 10
United we diverge

Politician Facebook responses to terror attacks

editor

This chapter investigates what may be termed the responsive aspect of politics in critical situations where ordinary routines are challenged and unexpected events require a political response. Taking the deadly attack on a public meeting and the synagogue in Copenhagen, Denmark on 14 February 2015 as an empirical case, the chapter analyses responses from leading politicians on Facebook in the first days after the attacks. The analysis centres on the way in which the attacks are categorised and evaluated as well as on prevalent topoi and forms of dialogicality. The chapter concludes that the Facebook responses constitute a double articulation of overt unity and potential disagreement.

Keywords: responsive politics, Facebook, discourse analysis, terrorism, categorisation, topoi, timing, dialogicality, epideictic rhetoric
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Conceptualising responsive politics in critical situations
  • Method, research questions and data
  • Analysis
    • Categorisation
    • Evaluations
    • Topoi for political action
    • Dialogicality
  • Conclusion and discussion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 12 December 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.80.10hor
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