[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-589927-105":59,"doc-detail-589927-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","apologia-image-repair-and-rhetoric-in-the-defence-of-electoral-defeat-article","Apologia, Image Repair and Rhetoric in the Defence of Electoral Defeat - Article","","This paper applies apologia, image repair, and rhetoric to examine how Ghana’s former president addressed reputational damage after losing the 2016 general elections and campaigned for re-election. It shows he avoided direct responsibility for the electoral defeat while using indirect strategies to deny blame. The study identifies bolstering, accusation/attack, victimhood, challenge, and a “God’swill” factor as core defence tools, supported by Aristotelian appeals and rhetorical devices such as metaphor, allusion, rhetorical questions, and parallelism, with implications for political discourse analysis.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/apologia-image-repair-and-rhetoric-in-the-defence-of-electoral-defeat-article/589927/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/apologia-image-repair-and-rhetoric-in-the-defence-of-electoral-defeat-article/589927.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Cart","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":29},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"How does the paper explain the former president’s response to the 2016 electoral loss?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It argues that he did not accept responsibility directly, instead using indirect denial strategies to defend his reputation after defeat.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Which defence strategies are identified as key to his image repair?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The paper highlights bolstering, accusation/attack, playing the victim, throwing a challenge, and the “God’swill” factor.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What rhetorical approaches support the defence and persuasion in the speeches?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The analysis emphasizes Aristotelian appeals of logos, ethos, and pathos, reinforced through tools such as metaphor, allusion, rhetorical questions, and parallelism.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},589927,1792119683,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":29,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":52,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},18829141979164,"https://eur-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","Advances in Language and Literary Studies  \nISSN: 2203-4714  \n[www.alls.aiac.org.au](www.alls.aiac.org.au)  \n| Apologia, Image Repair and Rhetoric in the Defence of Electoral Defeat\u003Cbr>Kwabena Sarfo Sarfo-Kantankah*\u003Cbr>Department of English, Faculty of Arts, College of Humanities and Legal Studies, University of Cape Coast Corresponding Author: Kwabena Sarfo Sarfo-Kantankah, E-mail: [esarfo@ucc.edu.gh](esarfo@ucc.edu.gh) |  |\n| --- | --- |\n| ARTICLE INFO | ABSTRACT\u003Cbr>Using the concepts of apologia, image repair and rhetoric, this paper examines the strategies employed by a former president of the Republic of Ghana to simultaneously maintain his reputation after losing the 2016 Ghanaian general elections and campaign for re-lection as the standard bearer of his party. The paper finds that the former president did not accept responsibility for the electoral loss, but used several indirect ways to deny responsibility for the defeat. He employed bolstering, accusation/attack, playing the victim, throwing a challenge and the God’swill factor as defence strategies in order to repair his image. He exploited the Aristotelian appeals of logos, ethos and pathos to boost his persuasion. In doing so, he deployed several rhetorical tools such as metaphor, allusion, rhetorical questions and parallelism to enhance the expression of the defence strategies. The analysis reveals that, as noted in the literature, some of the image repair strategies espoused by Benoit (1995, 2015), for example, outright denial and mortification, hardly apply to political contexts – the former President’s defence was indirectly expressed. Thus, the paper concludes that combining the concepts of apologia, image repair and rhetoric in the analysis of political discourse can illuminate political discourse analysis. The paper has implications for communicating defence, reputation repair and political rhetoric. |\n| Article history\u003Cbr>Received: January 12, 2019\u003Cbr>Accepted: April 04, 2019\u003Cbr>Published: June 30, 2019\u003Cbr>Volume: 10 Issue: 3\u003Cbr>Advance access: May 2019 |  |\n| Conflicts of interest: None\u003Cbr>Funding: None |  |\n| Key words:\u003Cbr>Apologia, Image Repair, Rhetoric, Defence, Electoral Defeat |  |\n\nINTRODUCTION  \nIn December 2016, Ghana saw one of the most keenly contested presidential and parliamentary elections in Ghana’s fourth republican democracy (since December 1992) . It was the first time an incumbent president and government lost an election in the first round of polls. The defeat was blamed on the then President and presidential candidate John Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) . The Ghanaian media were inundated with reasons why the NDC, led by President Mahama, lost the elections, with a large number of people, including his own political party members accusing him for the electoral defeat. The attacks and accusations against Mahama became more intense when he declared his intention to re-contest the NDC’s standard bearer race. Prior to Mahama declaring his intention to contest again, the NDChad organised several Unity Walks in all the ten regions of Ghana. As noted by President Mahama,“the purpose of this walk is a solidarity walk; it is a unity walk; it is to raise the morale of our party; it is to engage our party members so that they are conscious of the re-organization that is taking place”(NDC Unity Walk, Wa, Upper-West region, 7th April, 2018) . At each of the Unity Walks, John Mahama gave a speech in which he sought to give reasons why the NDC lost the 2016 elections and how they should prepare and bounce back to contest and win the 2020 elections. Each of the speeches can  \nbe considered as multi-purposed, since Mahama sought to defend himself, repair his damaged reputation and campaign for re-election as the NDC’s standard bearer for the 2020 elections. Thus, a close examination of the speeches brings to bear how the concepts of apologia, image repair and rhetoric come into play. Based on these concepts, this paper examines seven","cbCaidwVgYIgn8Wa","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaidwVgYIgn8Wa","pdf",395200,"English","# Article info\n# Introduction\n# Apologia, Image Repair and Rhetorical Theories","[{\"question\":\"How does the paper explain the former president’s response to the 2016 electoral loss?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that he did not accept responsibility directly, instead using indirect denial strategies to defend his reputation after defeat.\"},{\"question\":\"Which defence strategies are identified as key to his image repair?\",\"answer\":\"The paper highlights bolstering, accusation/attack, playing the victim, throwing a challenge, and the “God’swill” factor.\"},{\"question\":\"What rhetorical approaches support the defence and persuasion in the speeches?\",\"answer\":\"The analysis emphasizes Aristotelian appeals of logos, ethos, and pathos, reinforced through tools such as metaphor, allusion, rhetorical questions, and parallelism.\"}]","Apologia, Image Repair and Rhetoric in the Defence of Electoral Defeat - Article | PDF",1792068416,25]