Pre-campaign discourse in the Romanian presidential election of 2024: An analysis of characterisations

Abstract

This paper analyses presidential election pre-campaign communication highlighting the main themes in the descriptions made by candidates about themselves and their opponents, via online news media. The discourse selected for analysis was collected between August and October 2024. The dataset is composed of extracts from public statements and interviews of top candidates focused on image crafting, i.e. self- and other-characterisation, examined through a 3D lens: componential analysis of speech acts, lexical semantics and Critical Discourse Analysis CDA – agency and representation (van Leeuwen 2008). Starting from a landmark profile of the ‘desirable candidate’, the study outlines the subjective representations of what the candidates consider important themes of self-definition in the preparatory phase of the pre-campaign, in an aim to highlight a general image of ‘the public from the mind of the candidate’.