Politics & International Relations
Symbolic Speech
Symbolic speech refers to nonverbal communication that conveys a message or idea. This can include actions, gestures, clothing, or other forms of expression that are protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Symbolic speech is often used in political protests and demonstrations as a way to express dissent or support for a particular cause.
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4 Key excerpts on "Symbolic Speech"
- Karen Sanders(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Red Globe Press(Publisher)
Verbal symbols and non-verbal symbols generate attention. They reduce the complexity of political problems, communicate a certain way of looking at the world and stimulate emotions. Great political leader-ship is often about having a sensitivity to symbols and mastery of their use. Ritual functions well where there is consensus. These occur, for example, in relation to the high feastdays and the everyday rubric of political life. Symbolic action, of which they are both examples, can also be used in a structured, purposeful but non-ritualized way to communicate specific messages. I will look at an example of each next and the concern that sym-bolic action has become a surrogate for ‘real’ action. High feastdays. These include events such as in Britain, the State opening of parliament and the monarch’s annual Christmas address to the nation. Delivered traditionally by radio, Queen Elizabeth II became the first English monarch to use television and, in 2007, her broadcast was made available on YouTube, continuing even in this modern ‘scene’ simultaneously to symbolise and enact national unity and identity. High feastdays include elections, resignations and presidential debates. Everyday rubric. Ordinary political life is shot through with symbolic action. From the symbol-festooned presidential podium, to the tradition of bowing to the Speaker on entering the chamber of the House of Commons, the minis-terial red boxes used to present Britain’s annual budget and the conventions of parliamentary debates and the dress styles adopted by leaders. Purposeful symbolic action. This is often employed as a way of communi-cating salient aspects of political policy, style or character. The wearing of indigenous-style dress by South American leaders such as Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, for example, had huge symbolic sig-nificance as a way of communicating both men’s identification with their indigenous communities.
eBook - PDF- Robert Trager, Donna L. Dickerson(Authors)
- 1999(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
The students say their clothing is a form of expression. Is there a distinction between wearing an armband to protest a government's policy and wearing distinctive clothing to express asso-ciation with other students? Are both activities forms of symbolic expression? In neither instance is there the pure speech of written or oral communication, which more traditionally has been protected by 22 / Chapter One systems of free speech. Nor is there a confusion of expression with forbidden action. No student turned over a shelf of library books in protest. Is there an argument that symbolic expression involves action that is not included in protected speech? The student put on the armband and walked through the school grounds while wearing it. Students engaged in action when putting on their clothes. But if freedom of expression is lost any time action is entwined in speech, there would be no free speech. It could be said that speaking involves the act of moving one's mouth and tongue and writing involves moving one's hands. Why, then, should wearing armbands or certain clothing not be included in a concept of freedom of expression (Haiman, 1993)? I A demonstration is being held in front of City Hall in Dallas, Texas, to protest the United States sending troops to Kuwait and engaging in the Gulf War. A young man in the crowd | grabs an American flag being held by a counterprotester, stands on the City Hall steps, and sets fire to the flag. He says no words, holds no signs, just burns the flag. (Texas v. Johnson, 1989) Is the flag burner engaged in expression? Is flag burning a political protest? What if members of an American Legion post burn a soiled American flag, abiding by standards for disposing of such flags? Is burning a soiled flag a form of expression? Is burning a flag expression only if a person says why he or she is burning it? U.S.
eBook - PDFThe Media and Peace
From Vietnam to the 'War on Terror'
- G. Spencer(Author)
- 2005(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
The priorty with high-context communication is to ‘avoid an abrupt and abrasive presentation, to maintain harmony, and to save the face of the interlocutor. Meaning is imparted by hints and nuances’ (ibid: 492). Meaning, in other words, is suggested through the symbolism of images and signals. Symbolism and politics The relationship between symbolism and political power is convinc- ingly interrogated by Elderman in his classic text The Symbolic Uses of Diplomacy and Signalling 45 Politics. For Elderman the important political act is embodied within a symbolic framework which ‘evokes a quiescent or an aroused mass response because it symbolizes a threat or reassurance’ (1967: 7). Ideally, the basis of such a response is constructed through the use of symbols which have little to do with reality, but which meet public expectations and desire for gratification (ibid: 9). However, gratification is increased if psychological distance is maintained between symbols and the per- ceptions they evoke. Emotions are intensified through distance and dis- tance is created by dramatic emphasis which the symbol encapsulates (ibid: 11). But, argues Elderman, meanings are not instrinsic to symbols themselves, rather they are in society and people, and they ‘bring out in concentrated form those particular meanings and emotions which the members of a group create and reinforce in each other’ (ibid: 11). What is being stressed here is that reactions and meanings derive from symbols which emphasize drama, and that responses occur in relation to symbols precisely because they provoke an emotional reaction which inspires action. ‘For the spectators of the political scene’, notes Elder- man, ‘every act contributes to a pattern of ongoing events that spells threat or reassurance’ (ibid: 13). The duality of theat and reassurance underpins the need for engagement because the threat is always present, so requiring vigilance from those groups with perceived interest.
eBook - PDFThe Powers of Law
A Comparative Analysis of Sociopolitical Legal Studies
- Mauricio García-Villegas(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
It is in this deficit where we find the political dimension of the law. The law is thus a cultural system of meaning as well as a system of instrumental controls. Its force lies not only in the threat or reward it promises but also in its ability to produce speech that people perceive as legitimate, true, and authoritative. While the instrumental efficacy of legal language determines conduct as a result of its obligatory character or its technical capacity to regulate and organize society, the symbolic efficacy of legal language achieves its objectives through the communi- cation of images of justice, equity, security, and other values perceived as essential for social life. The symbolic efficacy of law determines the symbolic uses of law – that is, the utilization of legal language for political purposes. The symbolic uses of law are therefore an essential part of the sociopolitical vision of law. A good portion of both socio-legal scholarship and legal mobilization consists of fights for rights as banners of political mobiliza- tion used by social movements. Rather than simply law, rights are political and moral symbols whose interpretation depends on a political struggle for the final meaning of legal texts. Such a meaning is reached at the intersection of several discourses and approaches: “Most of what is articulated as ‘law’ and ‘rights,’” Jeffrey Dudas et al. explain, is “a complex mix of generically legal, moral, religious, technical, and other logics” (Dudas, Goldberg-Hiller, & McCann, 2015, p. 369). THE SYMBOLIC USES OF LAW 20 The symbolic idea of law is a concept that goes beyond the practice of interpreting rules and standards in the process of legal adjudication. 2 This is why the difference between law’s symbolic efficacy and its instrumental efficacy does not necessarily coincide with the difference between an internal (technical) point of view and an external one (Hart, 1961).
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