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?