A Critical Discourse Analysis of the 2012 American Presidential Election Debates

Abstract

This study discusses the Critical Discourse Analysis of 2012 American Presidential Election Debate’. The researcher adopts a model proposed by Van Dijk’s (2006 d). Six ideological categories have been selected within the overall strategies of the ideological square are used. The categories are of three levels of discourse structure : (the meaning, the argumentation, and the rhetoric) .They have shown effective criteria for detecting the most disguised systems of racism and manipulation.

            Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that the elite discourses of candidates contribute to the reproduction of domination, Orientalism, and Islamophobia. This can be applied to the three levels of discourse structures by focusing on the ideological polarized structures of positive self-presentation  of ῾us’ (civilized and peaceful) and negative other-presentation of ῾them’ (barbarian and terrorists) as means of mind controlling and manipulating the audience.