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Gender, Power and Political Speech pp 79–112Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Reception and Representation

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Abstract

This chapter examines the representation of the three female party leaders in a sample of election coverage taken from UK national newspapers. The analysis identifies a number of key themes in this coverage—noting that both gender and gendered styles of speaking were among press commentators’ preoccupations—and discusses some of the rhetorical and linguistic devices that recurred in commentary on the women. While the personalized, trivializing, and stereotypical representations found by other researchers were a salient feature of the press discourse sampled, there was also a clear trend towards positive representations of women’s performances in the debates, which can be related to the ‘different voice’ ideology of gender, language, and politics.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Worcester College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Deborah Cameron

  2. Media Department, Middlesex University, London, UK

    Sylvia Shaw

Authors
  1. Deborah Cameron
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  2. Sylvia Shaw
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© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)

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Cameron, D., Shaw, S. (2016). Reception and Representation. In: Gender, Power and Political Speech. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58752-7_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58752-7_3

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-58751-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-58752-7

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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