Are you talking to me? A case of specific reply by means of election campaign advertisements

Abstract

The article aims at an analytic description of a specific type of exchange occurring during political campaigns. The candidates often engage in a virtual dialogue; that is, an exchange of points made by means of campaign advertisements. The specific type of exchange or reply is, in certain aspects, no different to an ordinary conversation. However, what influences it most is the context of public/mass communication. The main concern of the presentation is to investigate, within the framework of Relevance Theory, ways in which a candidate’s reply to the opponent’s advertisement is actually a message to the viewers and prospective voters rather than to the rival themselves. The analysis is carried out on selected advertisements for Mitt Romney and Barack Obama broadcast during the U.S. presidential election campaign in 2012.