Publication details
Hidden Bias in the Discourse of American Presidential Candidates
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| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | The paper focuses on the analysis of the use of hidden bias in American presidential debates in the years 2000, 2004 and 2008. Hidden bias is one of the most common forms of doublespeak, i.e. language that is used in order to manipulate people’s thought and influence their perception of reality. Words can be considered as biased or loaded when they imply a positive or a negative attitude or evaluate reality in a particular way. The paper deals with positive and negative bias in adjectives, nouns, verbs and adverbs used by all presidential candidates – Al Gore, George W. Bush, John Kerry, John McCain and Barack Obama. Its aim is to find out how this form of doublespeak is used in order to promote the presidential candidates’ viewpoints on particular issues and mainly whether there is any difference in the use of hidden bias between Republican and Democratic candidates, taking into consideration the context of the elections as well as the topics discussed. |