The Twitter Presidency explores the rhetorical style of President Donald J. Trump

The Twitter Presidency explores the rhetorical style of President Donald J. Trump, attending to both his general manner of speaking as well as to his preferred modality. Trump’s manner, the authors argue, reflects an aesthetics of white rage, and it is rooted in authoritarianism, narcissism, and demagoguery. His preferred modality of speaking, namely through Twitter, effectively channels and transmits the affective dimensions of white rage by taking advantage of the platform’s defining characteristics, which include simplicity, impulsivity, and incivility.

There is, then, a structural homology between Trump’s general communication practices and the specific platform (Twitter) he uses to communicate with his base. This commonality between communication practices and communication platform (manner and modality) struck a powerful emotive chord with his followers, who feel aggrieved at the decentering of white masculinity. In addition to charting the defining characteristics of Trump’s discourse, The Twitter Presidency exposes how Trump’s rhetorical style threatens democratic norms, principles, and institutions.

Publication Data:

The Twitter Presidency

ISBN: 9780367149758| Hardback | 110 Pages| £45.00| February 2, 2019

Available via www.routledge.com/9780367149758

To request a copy for review, please complete our online form: pages.email.taylorandfrancis.com/review-copy-request

About the Authors:

Brian L. Ott is Professor of Communication Studies and Director of the TTU Press at Texas Tech University, USA.

Greg Dickinson is Professor and Chair of Communication Studies at Colorado State University, USA.

Endorsement:

‘Ott and Dickinson remind us that even in an age of digital communication and social media rhetoric matters. Their analysis of the rhetorical dynamics within Donald Trump’s use of Twitter is insightful and provocative. This is a book anyone interested in the state of American rhetoric, politics, and culture should read.’ –Kendall R. Phillips, Syracuse University, USA

About The National Communication Association

The National Communication Association (NCA) advances Communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media, and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific, and aesthetic inquiry. NCA serves the scholars, teachers, and practitioners who are its members by enabling and supporting their professional interests in research and teaching. Dedicated to fostering and promoting free and ethical communication, NCA promotes the widespread appreciation of the importance of communication in public and private life, the application of competent communication to improve the quality of human life and relationships, and the use of knowledge about communication to solve human problems. NCA supports inclusiveness and diversity among our faculties, within our membership, in the workplace, and in the classroom; NCA supports and promotes policies that fairly encourage this diversity and inclusion.

The Twitter Presidency is the first release of the National Communication Association’s short form series, NCA Focus on Communication Studies, being published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis. 

For more information, visit natcom.org, follow us on Twitter at @natcomm, and find us on Facebook.

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