Between Words and Deeds: Crisis Narratives of Politicians and Citizens

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between the culture of political leaders and citizens and the linguistic patterns employed by each group during a crisis event by looking at the research question of: How does the culture of political leaders and citizens influence their communicative patterns during natural disasters? In order to study this question, a Critical Discourse Analysis is employed to analyze the statements of political leaders and citizens by identifying explicit performative utterances in the form of personal pronouns and analyzing their function. The case study selected for the exploration of the topic is Greece and specifically two crisis events are examined: Storm Daniel in 2023 and the fire in Mati in 2018, representing two of the most severe crisis examples that took place in the country. The study reveals that there is a close relationship between culture and the linguistic patterns employed by each cultural group, shedding light to a view of the concept of culture which focuses on communicative patterns and their effects during a crisis situation.Moreover, it provides an intriguing perspective with regards to the way key crisis events are portrayed and communicated differently by citizens directly affected and by politicians that need to design a course of action.