Dissecting the war metaphors and messaging in president’s speech

The World

With the help of Kathleen Hall Jamieson, professor of communications and director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, we take a look at President Obama’s Oval Office speech from last night. Jamieson analyzes the president’s rhetoric, looking at whether it was effective in communicating his control over the Gulf oil crisis and setting up the changes in the country’s energy policy.

She says that with it’s focus on the here and now, this speech may be the opening act of a number of speeches culminating in an explanation in how he will get us to the clean energy future. However, she adds that this specific speech was light on detail.

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