Marianna Patrona

Bio: Marianna Patrona is an academic researcher from Hellenic Military Academy. The author has contributed to research in topics: Journalism & Conversation analysis. The author has an hindex of 8, co-authored 19 publications receiving 239 citations. Previous affiliations of Marianna Patrona include Army and Navy Academy & Athens University of Economics and Business.

Right-wing populism and the dynamics of style: a discourse-analytic perspective on mediated political performances

Abstract: This article offers new ways of conceptualising style in right wing populist communicative performances, by foregrounding a structured and conceptually informed use of “style” that moves beyond the descriptive sense routinely employed in political communication. Specifically, it explores how a discourse-analytic approach to mediated populist discourse can inform and advance the current understanding of populist ‘style’ by analysing some contextually produced linguistic and discursive choices in populist rhetorical repertoires—i.e., the communicative strategies that are deployed in mediated contexts for right-wing populist political communication. Taking three illustrative examples of right wing populist party performances on TV news and current affairs broadcasts in Greece (GD), France (FN) and the UK (UKIP), the speakers’ use of a range of rhetorical devices is examined using models from socio-linguistics and discourse analysis: aspects of register shifts by GD in blame attribution speeches, interactional ‘bad manners’ in a French political debate, and Nigel Farage speaking ‘candidly’ in three different contexts of news reporting from the UK. In taking such a qualitative approach, it is argued that populist style cannot be defined in terms of one single feature, or set of features, common to all right wing populists and transferrable from one socio-cultural context to another, but more usefully as a set of motivated choices among alternative semiotic resources (linguistic/discursive, interactional and visual), which have social and cultural resonance. This focus on micro-level features of mediated interaction thus offers a more fine-grained understanding of style than is currently the case, as it shows how right-wing populist politicians’ performative styles are situated within specific (here European) socio-cultural and political communicative contexts; in this study, this is to say, the various television broadcasts in which they occur.

Talking politics in broadcast media : cross-cultural perspectives on political interviewing, journalism and accountability

Abstract: 1. Contributors 2. Appendix 3. Talking politics in broadcast media: An introduction (by Ekstrom, Mats) 4. Part I. Conversational strategies in political interviewing and political news discourse 5. Chapter 1. Questioning candidates (by Clayman, Steven E.) 6. Chapter 2. The accountability interview, politics and change in UK public service broadcasting (by Montgomery, Martin) 7. Chapter 3. Political discourse in TV news: Conversational presentation and the politics of 'trust' (by Tolson, Andrew) 8. Chapter 4. Political television formats as strategic resources in achieving journalists' roles (by Smedt, Eva De) 9. Chapter 5. Address terms in the Australian political news interview (by Rendle-Short, Johanna) 10. Part II. Neutralism and hybridity in contemporary broadcast journalism 11. Chapter 6. Doing non-neutral: Belligerent interaction in the hybrid political interview (by Hutchby, Ian) 12. Chapter 7. Hybridity as a resource and challenge in a talk show political interview (by Ekstrom, Mats) 13. Chapter 8. Neutralism revisited: When journalists set new rules in political news discourse (by Patrona, Marianna) 14. Chapter 9. When the watchdog bites: Insulting politicians on air (by Kampf, Zohar) 15. Part III. Discourse patterns for displaying accountability in citizen participation programmes 16. Chapter 10. "I have one question for you Mr. President": Doing accountability in "citizen interviews" (by Lorenzo-Dus, Nuria) 17. Chapter 11. Officials' accountability performance on Hong Kong talk radio: The case of the Financial Secretary Hotline (by Lee, Francis L.F.)

Conversationalization and media empowerment in Greek television discussion programs

Abstract: This article explores the conversational practices of the hosts of Greek television discussion programs vis-a-vis experts. The aim is to discover, first, the extent to which media talk in Greece echoes the attested conversationalization of western media discourse, and, second, the discourse manifestations of this tendency in the Greek television media. It is shown that the discourse of hosts does indeed display an affinity to informal conversation. More specifically, far from sustaining a formally neutral stance, the presenters engage in overt alignment-building in support of experts, or, conversely, issue direct challenges toward them. In this framework, politicians are positioned as defendants in a courtroom hearing. It is argued that the hosts' strategies of personal involvement illustrate the celebration of personality by the media, and supply evidence of the empowerment of media actors and media institutions. Furthermore, the discursive practices of moderators help constitute the mediated political s...

The normalization of the populist radical right in news interviews: a study of journalistic reporting on the Swedish democrats

Abstract: Focusing on the salient case of news interviewing, this paper investigates the role of journalism in the normalization of radical right-wing politics and the discourses of nationalism and nativism....

Speaking authoritatively: On the modality and factuality of expert talk in Greek television studio discussion programs

Abstract: Taking Hunston's (1994) model of evaluation in written academic discourse as a point of departure, this paper explores the ways in which experts in Greek television studio discussion programs evaluate the 'status' of their statements on-line in terms of the truth and reliability ascribed to them. Analytically, the evaluation of status is examined by studying the type of statements (factual vs. nonfactual) and modal elements (absent, high, low) used in expert turns. Through both qualitative analysis and quantitative findings, it is shown that experts modulate the factuality and modality design of their talk so as to attend to an important aspect of the mediated context at hand: the institutional goals of communication aimed at by different programs. More specifically, in the adversarial context of debates, experts recurrently draw on factual statements, specific types of nonfactual statements, and high modality, thus constructing credible versions of reality and shaping their identity as authoritative and knowledgeable public speakers. By contrast, in informational discussions, experts use nonfactual statements and low modal elements much more often and, in this way, orient to the supportive environment of talk and the preference for consensus.

Science in action

Abstract: Ecological Engineering: Journal of Ecotechnology. Editor-in-chief William J. Mitsch. Elsevier. 4/yr. DFL 361, $195.

Political Discourse Analysis

Abstract: Defining political discourse as talk and text produced in regard to concrete political issues (language in politics) or the actual language use of institutional political actors (language of politicians), this article outlines traditionally recognized and newly identified links between language and politics. After clarifying some conceptual ambiguities and elaborating the historical roots of political language research, the article surveys themes, actors, methods, data, and research goals of PDA, based on key texts and the latest studies in the field. Keywords: argument and persuasion; language and social interaction; political communication; political media content

Newspapers, Facebook and Twitter

Abstract: Social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and many other services, have established themselves as part of the networked and increasingly hybrid public sphere, extending and transforming it to allow for and facilitate access to all kinds of content and participants. By their sheer ubiquity, these media contribute to changing media ecologies and open new ways and forms of communications between citizens and their representatives. During election campaigns, political parties and their candidates have a number of ways of seeking to mobilise voters by attracting attention to the parties' issues and top candidates. Many of these involve processes of mediatisation, that is, parties and politicians adapt their practices and messages to formats, deadlines and genres that are journalistically attractive. This study seeks to map and understand intermedial agenda setting between social media and traditional news media by analysing data from both local journalism and the social media activity of local politicia...