Critical Discourse Analysis as a Framework for an Analytical Study of Angela Merkel and Donald

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has marked the 21st century as the most dangerous and widespread pandemic. In order to protect their nations, raise awareness, comfort their people, and contain the proliferation of the virus, world leaders from all over the world had to address their people in lengthy official speeches. The aim of this study is to investigate how President Donald Trump and Chancellor Angela Merkel framed their speeches delivered amidst the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, and how their speeches mirrored their ideology, style of leadership, and crisis management and communication strategies. Furthermore, this study endeavors to examine the most prevalent discursive strategies and most dominant thematic dimensions in Merkel and Trump’s speeches and how such discursive strategies and themes are a testament of Merkel and Trump’s true ideologies and leadership styles. This analytical and critical study will make use of Critical Discourse Analysis in order to dissect the multifaced layers of Merkel and Trumps speeches. Fairclough’s Three-Dimensional CDA Framework was applied in order to critically and thoroughly analyze Donald Trump and Angela from the lenses of Fairclough’s second and Third dimension. The analysis yielded numerous findings that further highlighted the distinct differences between Trump and Merkel as world leaders. Angela Merkel’s speech was heavily shaped by her leadership with subtle hints to her ideological beliefs. Her speech was a testament of her conscientious, pragmatic, democratic, and accommodating leadership style, as well as her democratic ideology. However, Trump’s speech was a pure manifestation of his firm ideological beliefs in American Exceptionalism and his populist, nationalist, and capitalist ideologies. Though Trump and Merkel were addressing the same pandemic and targeting the same issue, they adopted distinct narrative approaches. Merkel’s speech radiated a motherly demeanor, characterized by compassion, unity, and a sincere acknowledgment of her people’s tribulations and gratitude for their sacrifices. In contrast, Trump narrative conveyed assurance of America’s exceptionalism, affirming the country’s robust economy and its considerable financial relief and medical assistance to its citizens. Nevertheless, Trump and Merkel tackled some common points in their speech as they were both in a position of power and they both had to protect their respective nations. This analysis will shed light on how in times of crisis, the leader’s true and unembellished motives, ideologies, and leadership styles are paramount factors in shaping their crisis communication and political speeches.