The smiling politician: The visual rhetoric of party leaders on Swedish election posters

Bengt Johansson, O. Vigsø
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Abstract

One of the most common ways politicians are portrayed in political advertising is with a friendly, smiling face to persuade the voters to cast their votes on him/her on Election Day. This archetypical image of politicians can be found around the globe even if research shows that smiling faces of politicians to some extent are connected to national and party culture. This article takes the theoretical point of departure in rhetoric and seeks to analyse the use of smile as a way to build ethos in relation to the electorate. The analysis builds on a dataset that consists of more than 3000 Swedish election posters from 1907 to 2019 and tracks the use of the smile as facial expression on posters to the late 1960s. Before that, politicians always put up a serious facial expression on posters. After the breakthrough, the smiling politician has become the dominant portrayal of Swedish politicians on election posters in contemporary politics. The explanation of this development is related to the personalization and intimization of politics, which to a large extent was due to the advent of television. However, a general questioning of authorities and a more equal society are probably also important drivers. There are signs of similar developments in other countries, but the authors call for more studies to validate the results.
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微笑的政治家:瑞典选举海报上政党领导人的视觉修辞
在政治广告中,最常见的一种描绘政治家的方式是在选举日用一张友好的、微笑的脸来说服选民把票投给他/她。尽管研究表明,政治家的笑脸在某种程度上与国家和政党文化有关,但这种典型的政治家形象在全球各地都可以找到。本文从修辞学的理论角度出发,试图分析微笑作为一种建立与选民有关的精神气质的方法。该分析建立在一个数据集上,该数据集包括1907年至2019年的3000多张瑞典选举海报,并追踪了20世纪60年代末海报上使用微笑作为面部表情的情况。在此之前,政客们总是在海报上画上严肃的表情。这一突破之后,微笑的政治家成为当代政治中瑞典政治家在选举海报上的主导形象。对这一发展的解释与政治的个性化和亲密化有关,这在很大程度上是由于电视的出现。然而,对当局的普遍质疑和一个更平等的社会可能也是重要的驱动因素。其他国家也有类似的发展迹象,但作者呼吁进行更多的研究来验证这些结果。
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