CRISTINA FERNANDEZ DE KIRCHNER'S COMMUNICATION STRATEGY IN THE SPEECHES AT HER SWEARING-IN CEREMONIES

This article aims to investigate Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's communication strategy when she was President of the Republic of Argentina (2007-2015), through the analysis of the two speeches given on both swearing-in ceremonies. We identified the populist characteristics that are present in these speeches, according to the concepts proposed by Patrick Charaudeau (catastrophic description, denouncing of culpable parts, exaltation of values and the emergence of the rescuer of society), so as to evaluate the image that the President wants to transmit of herself and of the receiving public. To do this, we used the method of quantitative and qualitative content analysis and applied the theory of framing, according to which political leaders construct reality in a selective way, emphasizing and omitting crucial aspects in their public interventions. The findings show that President presents herself as a rescuer of society, who mentions herself frequently and always in a positive way, who mentions the receiving audience less frequently than herself and that she attributes mainly passive qualities to them.