Beyond Public Speech and Symbols: Explorations in the Rhetoric of Politicians and the Media

De Landtsheer and Feldman draw together a collection of research essays examining the nature, characteristics, content, and reception of public rhetoric in various cultures and social settings. The volume focuses on three concerns. First, it examines public speech and symbols in various countries in both the East and the West. Second, it details various methods to study political discourse. Third, it reviews public speech and symbols in relationship to citizenship.

As a unique study of the ways in which public speech works in a variety of nations to liberate and educate when it bridges the gaps between political elites and regular citizens, this volume should appeal to anyone, including scholars and researchers, with an interest in better understanding the burgeoning world of political communication.

CHRIST'L DE LANDTSHEER is Associate Professor at the Amsterdam School of Communications Research of the University of Amsterdam. Her numerous publications and international lectures focus on political communications, rhetoric, European integration, and political psychology. She is coeditor, with Ofer Feldman, of Politically Speaking: A Worldwide Examination of Language Used in the Public Sphere (Praeger, 1998).

OFER FELDMAN is Associate Professor at Naruto University of Education, Japan. The author or editor of numerous books and articles, he is the executive editor of Politics and the News Media in Japan (1993). His present work focuses on political discourse and metaphors in Japan.