Assessment of Lebanese celebrity politicians’ speeches from a dramaturgy perspective

Abstract

This research paper explores the concept of celebrity politicians. Three case studies are selected according to the literature’s definition and characterization. They are Lebanese basketballer Fadi El Khatib, Member of Parliament Gebran Bassil, and Prime Minister and deputy Saad El Hariri. Three qualitative methods are adopted to obtain insightful results: discourse analysis of the celebrity politicians’ speeches during Lebanon’s 17 October revolution, focus groups with young adults aged between 21 and 26, as well as four in-depth interviews with two of the celebrity politicians selected as cases, Khatib, and Bassil, along with media and communication experts. This study assumes that speeches delivered by celebrity politicians are planned performances. Therefore, the theories adopted are “Dramaturgy” and “Impression Management” developed by Erving Goffman. The findings uncovered the staging and scripting techniques, like nonverbal messages, gestures, and facial expressions employed by every speaker, as well as the impressions reflected in each. Results also showed that political affiliations and prejudices influence the perception of an impression and the interpretation of a message. Finally, the interviews further explained this phenomenon and the implementation of different Dramaturgy tactics in political discourses.