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Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 15:6 (2016) ► pp.667–687

Infelicitous talk

Politicians’ words and the media ecology in three British political gaffes

| University of Leicester

This article explores how the mediatisation of politics is evolving by analysing the different ways in which three political “gaffes” in recent British politics have been configured by the media environment. The article draws on theories suggesting that contemporary political action is enveloped by media scrutiny and the technological forms of mediation are diversified and hybridised rather than concentrated and uniform. Using case studies, the analysis examines the varying ways in which the broadcast interview can be part of a wider ecology of media technologies that afford an expanding range of discursive strategies for the negative construal of political actions.

Keywords: gaffes, media hybridity, mediatisation, news interviews, political communication
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Total mediatisation and infelicitous talk
  • 3.Data and method
  • 4.Gaffe configuration 1: Television and the press
  • 5.Gaffe configuration 2: Television, radio, the press, “the tape” and the net
  • 6.Gaffe configuration 3: Television, the press, the net, bloggery and tweetery
  • 7.Total mediatisation, media management and media ethics
  • References
Published online: 9 February 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.15.6.01hut
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