Discourse in social change
Ideology is the prime
means of manufacturing
consent (Fairclough 2001)
Text is ideologically creative and
it appears as:
• Individual
• Commonsensical
Texts should be thought in terms
of:
• one’s position in society
• how society positions
individuals over time
Foucault’s notion of technologies of
themselves
• Academic discourse
types are
instrumentals in
framing our identity
and our subjectivity
Discourse and social struggle
• Physical struggle (revolution, war,
demonstrations, protests, elections)
• Ideological struggle in language
• Ideological power (having power to
legitimize and to naturalize)
Discourse types
• Ideologically particular or ideologically
variable (one position or another)
• Determined by different economic and
political realities (elite and dominant block)
• Naturalization and universality of
discourses (sustaining power in social
institutions)
Alternative discourses
• Conscious (against dominant
discourse)
• Oppositional (resistance)
• Marginal to political and
economic dominance
Presentation of experiential
values through words
• Coded in vocabulary
• Significance of ideology
in words (subversive,
democratic forces, etc)
The Contra war in Nicaragua
• Depending on the discourse they are freedom
fighters or murderers
Relations between words in
discourse
• Ideologically contested
• Meaning depending on the discourse
• Depending on the relation of some words
with others (communism and evil Empire
versus communism and solidarity)
Contemporary capitalism is
characterized by a degree of
colonization of peoples’ lives by
systems such as the economy and
state institutions in which
discourse is the most important
tool.
Two ways of colonization of
people’s lives
• Consumerism(economy
and commodity markets)
• Institutional control
(bureaucracy, social order)
Social tendencies
• Imposed by the dominant block
• They change according to the change of
these tendencies
• Discourse of consumerism: re-structuring of
other discourse types
Strategic discourse versus
communicative discourse
• Strategic discourse: discourse oriented to
instrumental goals, to getting results
(advertising)
• Communicative discourse: oriented to
reaching understanding between
participants
The dimensions of ideological
work in advertising
• The relationship advertising discourse construct
between the producer/advertiser and the consumer
• The way advertising discourse builds an imagine
for the product (predicated on the ideology
(freedom, richness, efficiency, etc)
• The way it constructs subject positions for
consumers
Cultural capitalism
The process of industrialization
and urbanization that has
destroyed traditional cultural
ties: Traditional ties (extended
families, religion or ethnic
community) are replaced (ties
of class)
How does advertising construct
consumption communities?
It does it indirectly
• Through ideology
• Superficial view of the relationship between
truth and fiction
• Commons sense assumptions
How does advertisement work
ideologically?
Works ideologically through
• Building relations
• Building images
• Building the consumer
Give an example of a common
sense assumption in a power
relationship. How can this
common sense assumption
contribute to sustaining unequal
power relations?