Description
In the COVID period the Dutch Prime Minister and the Minister of Health regularly announced new measures in live press conferences. An important aim was to create maximum support in society for the measures that were taken. But how to reach the people who did not support any measures, because their opinions fundamentally differed from the claims by the government? How to deal with these ‘deep disagreements’? According to Fogelin (2005), one can only turn to rhetoric when a common ground is lacking.From a deliberative-rhetorical approach, we analyzed a sample of 10 press conferences on major COVID measures, with the focus on the rhetorical strategies that were applied. In our paper, we discuss some of these strategies in the light of the deep disagreements at stake. How should these strategies be evaluated and what (other) rhetorical means can a government, dedicated to the ideal of deliberative democracy, legitimately use?
| Period | 5 Jul 2023 |
|---|---|
| Event title | 10th Conference of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation (ISSA) |
| Event type | Conference |
| Conference number | 10th |
| Location | Leiden, NetherlandsShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |