Whether I’m teaching or posting on my own Facebook page, I love to ask everyone to: “Watch this! With a communications director's hat on.”
I may make this role play format the basis of an ongoing series, on this temporary blog and the one soon to follow it.
For today’s edition: Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana. Interviewed by Chuck Todd. The venue is Meet the Press (March 13, 2011, NBC)
What narrative is Governor Daniels offering in this brief discussion, intentionally or not? Do you feel a folksy sort of honesty from him? Or a well-calculated sort of hedge strategy? Or do you sense a bit of both?
How does that strike you, now – and how might it strike you later? What is your own evolving context frame for Governor Daniels, who might perhaps be a near term US Presidential candidate?
If you have time - watch this, and for that matter all interviews of its type, six times.
· Straight through, beginning to end;
· Then audio only;
· Then video only with sound off;
· A fourth time straight through again;
· The fifth time, break it up and put it into a grid. I use an excel spreadsheet, breaking it up by time and frame, and enabling crosstab search;
· The sixth time, straight through again.
By this point you have diagrammed thematics, felt and analyzed potential intent, and noted repeat words/phrases.
On that last note, how many times does Daniels say "I don't know” or some version of it?
Is this familiar and comforting? Is it a substitute for saying "um?" Is it indicative of a wider hedge strategy, of taking two sides for the moment, rather than betting on just one?
I think it's all three of these. However Daniels' CPAC speech (February 11, 2011) was very direct, so this may be a balance. Or I may be ascribing too much to it; it may be simplified to keep the interview within MTP’s relatively brief program segment time. Enjoy.
Governor Mitch Daniels website: http://www.in.gov/gov/
Full text of Governor Daniels’ speech (CPAC; February 11, 2011) http://dailycaller.com/2011/02/11/full-text-mitch-daniels-speech-to-cpac/