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Article published In: Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 6:3 (2007) ► pp.377–399

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Media-ted political oratory following terrorist events

International political responses to the 2005 London bombing

 | University of Queensland Business School, Australia
 | University of Queensland Business School, Australia
Published online: 15 January 2008
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https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.6.3.06mck
Using a computer-assisted content analysis, this study analyzes a 32,000 word corpus drawn from mediated political statements made in response to the July 2005 London bombing. This grounded research led to a focus on the deontic nature of these statements, and also revealed a relative absence of condoling. Although condemnatory, statements did not specifically attribute the ‘evil’ to particular people. Particularly mindful of Widdowson’s (2004) distinction between analysis (text) and interpretation (discourse), the paper first identifies the textual features, but then “hermeneutically” interprets their meaning within a wider context of international political discourse. The paper concludes that the statements performed a positive epideictic purpose, although it tended to occlude the compassionate element of public grieving.
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