discourse in social change ideology is the prime means of manufacturing consent (fairclough 2001)

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?