Sound Bites that Bite Back: Rhetorical Agency, Circulation and Affect

TY - CHAP

T1 - Sound Bites that Bite Back

T2 - Rhetorical Agency, Circulation and Affect

AU - Villadsen, Lisa Storm

PY - 2017/9/22

Y1 - 2017/9/22

N2 - In 2012 the Danish Minister for Economic Affairs and the Interior, Margrethe Vestager, spoke four words that would haunt her for weeks and months to come. At a press conference she concluded an answer to a touchy political question with the words: ‘That’s the way it is’ [Sådan er det jo]. This laconic comment was an instant, albeit accidental sound bite. Newspapers quoted it and used it in headlines in the days and weeks to follow. Reactions on social media were numerous and mostly negative. Within a few days, one Facebook comment criticizing Vestager for being an ‘arrogant’ and ‘cynical’ person was ‘liked’ by 30,000 other Facebook users (a number that later rose to over 45,000 ‘likes’). Vestager’s party’s numbers in the polls went down from 10.3 % to 8.8 %, and her personal popularity dropped 8 %: from 53 % to 45 %. In this paper, I ask how an off-hand observation of fact could inspire such massive rhetorical fallout, and I consider Vestager’s attempt at re-appropriating the sound bite as I engage ancient and contemporary rhetorical theory. In a time where a main concern is with the seeming triumph of emotion over reason in political debate, this case illustrates the dangers of over-relying on reason alone in politics and speaks to the protean nature of rhetorical agency in the age of social media.

AB - In 2012 the Danish Minister for Economic Affairs and the Interior, Margrethe Vestager, spoke four words that would haunt her for weeks and months to come. At a press conference she concluded an answer to a touchy political question with the words: ‘That’s the way it is’ [Sådan er det jo]. This laconic comment was an instant, albeit accidental sound bite. Newspapers quoted it and used it in headlines in the days and weeks to follow. Reactions on social media were numerous and mostly negative. Within a few days, one Facebook comment criticizing Vestager for being an ‘arrogant’ and ‘cynical’ person was ‘liked’ by 30,000 other Facebook users (a number that later rose to over 45,000 ‘likes’). Vestager’s party’s numbers in the polls went down from 10.3 % to 8.8 %, and her personal popularity dropped 8 %: from 53 % to 45 %. In this paper, I ask how an off-hand observation of fact could inspire such massive rhetorical fallout, and I consider Vestager’s attempt at re-appropriating the sound bite as I engage ancient and contemporary rhetorical theory. In a time where a main concern is with the seeming triumph of emotion over reason in political debate, this case illustrates the dangers of over-relying on reason alone in politics and speaks to the protean nature of rhetorical agency in the age of social media.

M3 - Book chapter

BT - Thucydides to Twitter

A2 - Rubinstein, Lene

A2 - Kremmydas, Christos

A2 - Rhodes, Peter

A2 - Kock, Christian

ER -