Cover not available

In:The Construction of ‘Ordinariness’ across Media Genres
Edited by Anita Fetzer and Elda Weizman
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 307] 2019
► pp. 51–72

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

“You bring the steaks, I’ll bring the salad”

Presenting ordinariness in PM Netanyahu’s public talks

 | Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Published online: 12 December 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.307.03liv
Abstract
In line with theories of charismatic leadership (Weber 1947, Shamir et al. 1994), and drawing on Goffman’s approach (1959) regarding impression management as well as on Sacks’ concept (1984) of (extra)ordinariness as a work done through discourse, this study defines and analyzes a discursive practice employed by Israeli PM Netanyahu in his public talks, namely the construction of an image that on the one hand, all citizens can identify and empathize with, and on the other, presents him as so unique as to be irreplaceable. The examples demonstrate the stylistic, discursive and thematic aspects of Netanyahu’s public discourse on the background of culture-specific norms and expectations.
The analysis identifies two types of ordinariness that Netanyahu communicates to the audience: The positive ordinariness that Weizman and Fetzer (2018) associate with the fulfillment of civic duties, and being “all-Israeli” in the sense of being an average, down-to-earth member of Israeli society.
Article outline
  • 1.Constructing ordinariness
  • 2.Between the ordinary and the epic
  • 3.Benjamin Netanyahu as a case study
  • 4.Netanyahu’s staged and communicated ordinariness
    • 4.1Linguistic tools
    • 4.2Reference to ordinary lifestyle and preferences
  • 5.Constructing Netanyahu’s life as an epic
  • 6.Problematizing the concept of ordinariness: The social-cultural perspective
  • 7.Concluding remarks
  • References
References (35)
References
Aristotle. 1982. Rhetoric. Freese, J. H. (trans.), Cambridge: MA.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davies, Brown, and Rom Harré. 1990. “Positioning: The Discursive Production of Selves.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 20 (1): 43–63. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dori-Hacohen, Gonen. 2009. Citizens Talk about Public Affairs: The Description of the Political Phone-in Program on Israeli Public Radio. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Haifa [In Hebrew].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dori–Hacohen, Gonen and Nimrod Shavit. 2013. “The Cultural Meanings of Israeli Tokbek (Talk–Back Online Commenting) and their Relevance to the Online Democratic Public Sphere.” International Journal of Electronic Governance 6 (4): 361–379. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Penguin Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1974. Frame Analysis. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gruber, Helmut. This volume. “Are Austrian Presidential Candidates Ordinary People? Candidates’ Self-Presentation Strategies on Twitter during the 2016 Austrian Presidential Campaign.”
Fetzer, Anita, and Elda Weizman. 2018. “‘What I would say to John and everyone like John is …’: The Construction of Ordinariness through Quotations in Mediated Political Discourse.” Discourse & Society 29 (5): 1–19. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
House, Robert J. 1977. “A 1976 Theory of Charismatic Leadership.” In Leadership: The Cutting Edge, ed. by James G. Hunt, and Lars L. Larson, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johansson, Marjut. 2015. “Bravo for this Editorial: Writer’s Opinions in Comment Sections.” In Follow-Ups in Political Discourse, ed. by Elda Weizman, and Anita Fetzer, 219–243. John Benjamins, Amsterdam. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Katriel, Tamar. 1986. Talking Straight: Dugri Speech in Israeli Sabra Culture. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. Milot mafteach: dfusey tarbut vetikshoret beisrael (‘Key Words: Patterns of Culture and Communication in Israel’). Tel Aviv: Haifa University Press and Zmora Bitan. [Hebrew].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. Dialogic Moments: From Soul Talks to Talk Radio in Israeli Culture. Detroit: Wayne State University Press (Raphael Patai series on Jewish Folklore and Ethnography).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kimhi, Shaul. 2001. “Benjamin Netanyahu: A Psychological Profile Using Behavior Analysis.”In Profiling Political Leaders: Cross-Cultural Studies of Personality and Behavior, ed. by Ofer Feldman and Linda O. Valenty, 149–164.Westport, Connecticut & London: Praeger.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kleinke, Sonja. 2010. “Interactive Aspects of Computer-Mediated Communication. Disagreement in an English and German Public News Group.” In Discourses in Interaction, ed. by Sanna-Kaisa Tanskanen, Marja-Liisa Helasvuo, Marjut Johansson, and Mia Raitaniemi, 195–222. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lewin, Beverly A. and Zohar Livnat. 2016. “‘Like everyone else in the nation, I was also moved’: Reinforcing Solidarity in PM Netanyahu’s Hebrew speeches.” Israel Studies in Language and Society 9: 29-51. [Hebrew]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Netanyahu, Yonathan. 2001. The Letters of Jonathan Netanyahu: The Commander of the Entebbe Rescue Operation, Gefen Publishing house.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Neuman, Yair, and Iris Tabak. 2003. “Inconsistency as an Interactional Problem: A Lesson from Political Rhetoric.” Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 32 (3): 251–267. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Perelman, Chaïm and Olbrechts-Tyteca, Lucie. 1958. The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation. J. Wilkinson and P. Weaver (trans.). Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. 1969.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reisigl, Martin. 2010. “Rhetoric of Political Speeches.” In Handbook of Communication in the Public Sphere, ed. by Ruth Wodak and Veronika Koller, 243–269. Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reyes, Antonio. 2011. “Palin vs Biden: The Right for Credibility in Political Discourse.” Issues in Political Discourse Analysis 3 (1): 75–94.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey. 1984. “On Doing ‘Being Ordinary’.” In Structures of Social Action, ed. by J. Maxwell Atkinson and John Heritage, 413–429. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shamir, Boas, Michael Arthur, and Robert House. 1994. “The Rhetoric of Charismatic Leadership: A Theoretical Extension, a Case Study, and Implications for Research.” The Leadership Quarterly 5 (1): 25–42. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shamir, Boas, Robert House, and Michael Arthur. 1993. “The Motivational Effects of Charismatic Leadership: A Self-Concept Based Theory.” Organization Science 4 (4): 577–594. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shefer, Gabi, Oren Barak, and Amiram Oren (eds.). 2008. Tsava sheyesh lo medina? Mabat mexudash al yaxasei hatxum vbitxoni vehatxum hamedini beisrael (‘An Army That Has a State: New Approaches to Civil-Security Relations in Israel’). Jerusalem: Carmel Publishing House. [Hebrew].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shukrun-Nagar, Pnina. 2013. “The Construction of Paradoxes in News Discourse: The Coverage of the Israeli Haredi Community as a Case in Point.” Discourse Studies 15 (4): 463–480. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Snow, David A., E. Burke Rochford, Steven K. Worden, and Robert D. Benford. 1986. “Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization and Movement Participation.” American Sociological Review 51: 464–481. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Turner, Graeme. 2010. Ordinary People and the Media: The Demotic Turn. Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Upadhyay, Shiv R. 2010. “Identity and Impoliteness in Computer-Mediated Reader Responses.” Journal of Politeness Research 6 (1): 105–127. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1947. The Theory of Social and Economic Organization, trans.: A. M. Henderson and Talcott Parsons, Glenco, Illinois: The Free Press & Falcon’s Wing Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weizman, Elda, and Gonen Dori-Hacohen. 2017. “On-Line Commenting on Opinion Editorials: A Cross-Cultural Examination of Face Work in the Washington Post (USA) and NRG (Israel).” Discourse, Context & Media 19: 39–48. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weizman, Elda, and Anita Fetzer. 2018. “Constructing Ordinariness in Online Journals: A Corpus-Based Study in the Israeli Context.” Israel Studies in Language and Society 11 (1): 22–48.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weizman, Elda, and Marjut Johansson. This volume. “Constructing Ordinariness in Online Commenting in Hebrew and Finnish.”
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Kohn, Ayelet
2023. Props as visual arguments in the political speeches of Binyamin Netanyahu. Social Semiotics 33:2 ► pp. 373 ff. DOI logo
Niebuhr, Oliver & Vered Silber-Varod
2021. How versatility performance influences perception of charismatic speech. Interaction Studies. Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems 22:3 ► pp. 303 ff. DOI logo
Shukrun-Nagar, Pnina
2019. “Well, Yair? When will you be prime minister?”. In The Construction of ‘Ordinariness’ across Media Genres [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 307], ► pp. 103 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue