This paper proposes a comparative analysis of final televised debates for presidential elections in Romania, in December 2009 and November 2014, from perspective of functional theory of political campaign discourse (Benoit 2014). In this article the functional theory of political discourse is seen as strategic positioning of social actors in the semiotic act of televised debate. The results obtained in this study could suggest a political communication culture focused more on attack rather than on defense strategy. In the metabolism of debate we can see discursive behaviour models that generalise in the verbal interactions in the public space. Televised debate can be regarded as a diagnosis of the civilisation of dialogue in the local political life. From this standpoint, the work is a plea for the reconfiguration of dialogue in dialogic interactions in the Romanian public space (particularly in televised political debates), for the construction of an authentic dialogue, where normality and the deliberative aspect should be considered discursive rules.
Key words:
presidential debate, functional theory, discursive positioning, political semiotics, political communication culture
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