Sarah Palin RNC Speech: A Media Artifact Rhetorical Analysis
I have attached a final paper for my Communication 300 (Foundations of Public Communication) fall semester of 2013. I definitely toiled many, many hours over writing the paper on analyzing Sarah Palin’s RNC speech in rhetorical criticism terms, but I enjoyed the process immensely. This paper evaluated and explained how my chosen artifact (Palin’s RNC speech) met it’s media impact goals as well as incorporated rhetorical analysis themes such as gender criticism and traditional cultural ideologies.
Enjoy!
Abstract: The purpose of the Sarah Palin’s speech, given at the Republican National Convention during the presidential campaign in 2008, served two principles: to introduce herself to the world as the nation’s first female Conservative vice president, and also demonstrate her loyalty and dedication to John McCain in this pioneer role. The artifact was framed by media as the ideology of “lipstick feminism,” reinforced by third wave feminism, by focusing on comparing traditional concepts of femininity and the sexual power of women to Sarah Palin. The repercussions of Palin’s media image included the attempt to destructing “traditional” gender role norms beliefs of trait generalization and cultural feminism in the patriarchal dominated world of politics.
Paper 2 COMM 300 (click on link to open document)