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A Functional Analysis of Visual and Verbal Symbols in Presidential Campaign Posters, 1828–2012
Author(s) -
Benoit William L.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
presidential studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.337
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1741-5705
pISSN - 0360-4918
DOI - 10.1111/psq.12503
Subject(s) - character (mathematics) , presidential system , functional theory , presidential campaign , politics , psychology , political science , law , mathematics , density functional theory , chemistry , geometry , computational chemistry
This study analyzes American presidential campaign posters from 1828 to 2012 using the Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse. It advances the theory by investigating a hitherto unexplored medium, posters; more importantly, visual elements (e.g., the bald eagle) were analyzed along with words. Acclaims were more frequent than attacks; no difference occurred in the functions of early and recent posters. Visual symbols used acclaims even more than verbal symbols. Character was a more frequent topic than policy; the relative proportion of these two topics did not change over time. Visual symbols discussed character even more than verbal symbols.