Multimodal Argumentation and Rhetoric in Media Genres

Given its role in leaders’ persuasive skills, “charisma” is a relevant field for multimodal rhetoric. This chapter investigates Mussolini’s charisma in his speeches and multimodal communication. According to a socio-cognitive model, charisma is a set of a person’s internal features, manifested by external displays – words, voice, gestures, facial expression – that have an important role in persuasion since, triggering positive emotions, they induce others to pursue goals in a convinced