To Örebro University

Denna bok beskriver mediernas rapportering och kriskommunikationen efter katastrofen i Fukushima 2011 och gör en jämförelse mellan svenska och tyska förhållningssätt. Analyserna visar att reaktionerna på kärnkarftsolyckan var närmast diametralt olika i de undersökta  publik service-kanalerna Deutschlandfunk och Sveriges radio, där det tyska mediet förhöll sig betydligt mera kritisk till kärnkraftsfrågan än det svenska.

Artikeln tar sin utgångspunkt i hur rätten att tala alltid har varit en fråga om makt. Med särskilt fokus på genus undersöks olika sätt att konceptualisera frågor om makt och retoriskt motstånd, så till exempel i form av tigandets retorik, av humor med mera. Utifrån dessa perspektiv synas debatten om näthat mot kvinnor, och vilka motståndsstrategier som formulerats.

The tsunami disaster of Christmas 2004 struck without warning and many countries were faced with totally unforeseen problems. One of theese was how the citizens in the tourists’ home countries should be informed and how the political leaders should act in order to create as much trust as possible for the crisis management and for the actions taken in response to the catastrophe. This task was, as known, dealt with in different ways in the countries that were affected and among others Sweden received extensive critic for failure to act and for lacking in communicative ability. In this study one of the positive examples shall be in focus, more precisely the German government’s communicative actons taken the days after the catastrophe.

Rhetorical criticism refers primarily to studying and critically analyzing explicit expressions of actors in rhetorical situ ations: arguments, stylistic approaches, visual messages, etc. It can also refer to additionally mapping a more implicit, unspoken and elusive level of implications, for instance, as well as underlying va lues and premises. This article presents a discussion on yet ano ther elusive but often decisive communication level that has re ceived little attention within the study of rhetoric, namely communication attitudes and how they manifest themselves, verbally as well as non-verbally. Within a rhetoric context, Kenneth Burke discusses the concept of attitude in interesting but undeveloped lines of reasoning. He suggests that his own model of dramatism, the pentad (Act, Scene, Agent, Agency, Purpose), be complemented with attitude as a sixth element. Burke seems to even see attitudes as the core of rhetorical, symbolic action. In this article, in relation to Burke but also to Michael Billig, a line of thought is developed regarding attitudes and attitude expressions as rhetorical means, that is communicative factors that can certainly be un conscious but can also be chosen just like other rhetorical strate gies can.

This study examines the rhetoric battle between the suffrage movement on the one side and its enemies on the other, through analyses of examples of arguments and counterarguments as well as a more in-depth analysis of two longer speeches – one from 1891 by temperance and peace activist and journalist Emilie Rathou, and the other from 1911 by Nobel prize-winning author Selma Lagerlöf.