The Rhetoric of Donald Trump identifies and analyzes the nationalist and populist themes that dominate the rhetoric of President Trump and links those themes to a persona that has evolved from celebrity outsider to presidential strongman. In the process Robert C. Rowland explains how the nationalist populism and strongman persona in turn demands a vernacular rhetorical style unlike any previous modern president-a style that makes no attempt to lay out a case, requires constant lies, and breaks every norm for how a presidential candidate or president should talk. In stark contrast, our most effective presidents have used rhetoric to present a positive vision of what the nation could achieve. The three most effective presidential uses of rhetoric in the past century-FDR, Reagan, and Obama-all presented a coherent ideological message that, while focused on problems of the moment, was also rooted in a fundamental optimism. In contrast, Trump's message is fundamentally negative. The Rhetoric of Donald Trump explores how the nation could so abruptly shift from a president such as Barack Obama, who emphasized the audacity of hope, to one who in his inaugural address spoke about 'American carnage.' At its core Trump's message is well designed to appeal to voters with an authoritarian personality structure, especially in the white working-class, who feel threatened by the pace of societal change, especially demographic change. Rowland's work illustrates how President Trump's ceremonial speeches violate norms calling for a message of national unity and instead present a divisive message designed to create strongly negative emotions, especially fear and hate. It further reveals how Trump sustains those strong visceral reactions with his use of Twitter to make the rally atmosphere a daily reality for his supporters, a prime example being the Coronavirus Task Force briefings which he transformed from an exercise in desperately needed public health education into a partisan rally. The Rhetoric of Donald Trump is essential reading for scholars, students, and the informed citizen to understand how Trump's rhetoric of nationalist populism with a strongman persona undermines basic principles at the heart of American democracy.

The ability to connect with an audience is an essential element of public speaking. While an effective presentation can have all the elements of good pace, pitch and body language, it can still leave an audience unaffected or unmoved. Rob Parson believes even the most proficient speakers can enhance their public speaking by focusing on the heart of communication: connection. For the first time, Rob Parsons shares his insights from over fifty years of experience. He unpacks methods that will help any public speaker - from how to prepare well and utilise the power of story, to giving top tips on avoiding common distractions. Readers will come away with a better grasp on public speaking - not only how to speak to the head, but to the heart. Having spoken to over a million people around the world, from multinational organisations to church congregations, Rob has fine-tuned approaches that can help anyone wanting to grow in this area.

Barred from political engagement and legal advocacy, the second sophists composed and performed epideictic works for audiences across the Mediterranean world during the early centuries of the Common Era. In a wide-ranging study, author Susan C. Jarratt argues that these artfully wrought discourses, formerly considered vacuous entertainments, constitute intricate negotiations with the absolute power of the Roman Empire. Positioning culturally Greek but geographically diverse sophists as colonial subjects, Jarratt offers readings that highlight ancient debates over free speech and figured discourse, revealing the subtly coded commentary on Roman authority and governance embedded in these works. Through allusions to classical Greek literature, sophists such as Dio Chrysostom, Aelius Aristides, and Philostratus slipped oblique challenges to empire into otherwise innocuous works. Such figures protected their creators from the danger of direct confrontation but nonetheless would have been recognized by elite audiences, Roman and Greek alike, by virtue of their common education. Focusing on such moments, Jarratt presents close readings of city encomia, biography, and texts in hybrid genres from key second sophistic figures, setting each in its geographical context. Although all the authors considered are male, the analyses here bring to light reflections on gender, ethnicity, skin color, language differences, and sexuality, revealing an underrecognized diversity in the rhetorical activity of this period. While US scholars of ancient rhetoric have focused largely on the pedagogical, Jarratt brings a geopolitical lens to her study of the subject. Her inclusion of fourth-century texts-the Greek novel Ethiopian Story, by Heliodorus, and the political orations of Libanius of Antioch-extends the temporal boundary of the period. She concludes with speculations about the pressures brought to bear on sophistic political subjectivity by the rise of Christianity and with ruminations on a third sophistic in ancient and contemporary eras of empire.

"Splashy slides, confident body language, and a lot of eye contact are fine and well. But if a speech is rambling, illogical, or just plain boring, the impact will be lost. Now everyone can learn to give powerful, on-target speeches that capture an audience's attention and drive home a message. The key is not just in the delivery techniques, but in tapping into the power of language.

Prepared by an award-winning writer, this authoritative speech-writing guide covers every essential element of a great speech, including outlining and organizing, beginning with a bang, making use of action verbs and vivid nouns, and handling questions from the audience. Plus, the book includes excerpts from some of history's most memorable speeches--eloquent words to contemplate and emulate."

Patsy Rodenburg is the leading acting coach in the UK (she has worked with Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen and Cate Blanchett). Patsy has discovered the principles of speech in theatre apply extremely effectively when transferred into the workplace. Do you want to be more persuasive? Do you want to enthuse and inpsire and feel good whenever you present or speak in public? This practical programme will make you as effective as Judi Dench is on screen in every meeting, pitch and conversation in person or on the phone. You will learn how to impress your boss without being overbearing, connect with people if you are introvert and you will have true confidence in all your communication. There are practical exercises and example throughout and Patsy's results are amazing.

Michelle Obama: First Lady, American Rhetor is an edited anthology that explores the persona and speech-making of the country's first African American first lady. The result of these thought-provoking essays is an interdisciplinary text that explores the First Lady from a rhetorical and cultural point of view. Authors analyze her Democratic National Convention speeches, her brand as First Lady, her communication from her latest trip to Africa, her agenda rhetoric in Let's Move! and Reach Higher, and her coming out as a Black feminist intellectual when she spoke at Maya Angelou's memorial service. Readers will recognize Michelle Obama as a rhetor of our times-a woman who influences America at the intersections of gender, race, and class and who is representative of what women are today.

Assessments of the audience of traditional mass media have existed for decades and have been widely studied, but the quantification of the Internet audience is a recent and barely known phenomenon. An audience is an essential requirement for the existence of any mass media: first, there is no medium without an audience, and second, the audience has become a commodity fundamental to the functioning of commercial media systems. It is the application of measurement procedures that allows the audience to play this dual institutional role. The Internet Audience is the first book to focus on the transformation of the Internet into a mass communication medium thanks to the constitution of its audience through measurement. Starting with a historical analysis of this transformation, it goes on to analyze in detail the methods used for the measurement of the Internet audience, their limits and their possibilities. It concludes with an inquiry into the logic and interests behind the creation of an online audience measurement industry. The result is the first comprehensive look at the question of not what the Internet audience does with the medium, but rather what the medium does with its audience.