What different power concepts and theory would you refer to if you were writing about this speech?

I have look at a speech done by Gorden Brown when he became prime minster of Britain and come up with some ideas to answer the question above:

• A speech is an example on influential power as the language devices used gains power for the speaker as it can be influential over the audience to be on the speakers side and agree with what they are saying.
• Using the personal pronoun of "I" would be important to use on a speech as it gives a sense that the speech is directly coming from the person speaking to the audience and making it clear that they have this power and will use it wisely. "I want the best of chances for everyone"
• There is also a collective pronoun used of "we" and that brings the audience into the speech and makes them feel like they can get involved in what the speaker is saying. "that if we can fulfil the potential"
• Both use of pronouns support the theory that Fairclough represented of Synthetic Personalisation that they are used to make the audince feel there is a relatioship between them and the speaker when they don't even know each other making the auidnce gain trust for the speaker and the speaker gaining power over the audience.
• Modal verbs like "will" and "can" are important as they give a sense of certainty on what the speaker is saying and that they can and will change try and change the future for the best of the audience. "I will be strong in purpose". It it makes the points they make very strong and forceful so therefore seem believable.  
• Repetition of words or phrases like "Change in our NHS, change in our schools, change with affordable housing". This helps to emphasis the point that the speaker is trying to make that they can see the things that need improving and they can help to do something about it.  

Half Term Homework!

Here is my half term homework of an analysis on a chairty advert that demonsteates how language is affected by power:
(picture of advert included)

This Save the Children advert persuades its readers in a number of different ways that I will discuss in this answer. One of the most noticeable features is it use of graphology as its picture is central to the advert and therefore is very striking. It is of a mother and child and is emotive towards the audience as this child is being comforted by his mother. There is a little caption with gives a small background check on what this picture is showing the audience too. Both of these things help to suggest that one of the audiences this advert is trying to appeal to is parents as the bond between mother and a child is strong and the fact this child is crying can hit emotions for parents in the fact they don't want their children to have a life like this. Therefore gaining power very the audience as using emotive pictures can be persuasive towards getting the audience on their side to give money towards their charity. Also, one the captions to the picture is a rhetorical question “How many more must die before this stops?” which make a powerful point which gets the audience thinking about the context of this advert and gives power to the writer as then it gives the message that the audiences money can help people who are hurt during bombing in places like Gaza can start to get a better life.

The emotive language is also shown in the lexis chosen. The use of negative words like “bombing”, “fight”, “attacks”, “death”, “horror” and “danger” which are all very strong words that are very truthful when relating to this matter and give a sense of despair which only the audience can help make better which is persuading which is primary purpose of the text and getting the audience to understand this matter more about what is going on with the help of adjectives like “damaging” and “terrified”.

Influential power is apparent in this text as it is very persuasive towards the reader and this is shown through the Lexis, grammar and discourse structure of the text. Personal pronouns are used as another persuasive feature of the text such as “We have to act now” and “Will you?”. This helps the text produces to address the audience as if they know them also known as synthetic personalisation which linguist Norman Fairclough made a point when linking language and power. Here he says an artificial relationship is created even though the reader has never met the writer before a sense of trust can be established. This gains power to the writer as it gets the audience on the adverts side and helps get money towards their charity. The imperative “We have to act now” has a forceful and blunt tone to it and does sound like the writer is talking directly to the audience to get the audience to help their charity. Lots of simple sentences like “Ambulances can't get to the injured” are also used which are easy to read and get the point out in a blunt tone as if the truth couldn't be any simpler but are still horrible to realise that this is the truth.

Modal verbs are also used as a persuasive technique for this text such as “Every person can make a difference.” They are used in the section where the adverts talks about how people at home can help the crisis and get involved. So the use as “can” as a modal verb is important in persuasion as it gives a sense of certainty to the reader that what they do to help can help make a difference to mothers and children who have been caught up in this violence. It gives a sense of little is more in this world and the writer here is gaining power over the audience as they are getting a sense of trust from the audience that their money will go to good use in this charity.