Representation: Ideology, Discourse and Power

The lecture from last week proved surprisingly easy to understand considering it's audio nature. For me, having the lecture on hand to go back through enabled me to improve and expand on my notes and work. Discussing discourse and power, Long and Walls (2012, 363) tenth chapter of 'Media Power' looks at Michel Foucault's suggestion of the definition of a discourse being 'the assumptions that lie behind what we think, say and do.' and links to 'ideas embedded I what we do..'. The reading supported the lecture well in strengthening our understanding of the concept of a discourse, which is may be difficult. We also look at Foucault's idea of 'where there is power, there is resistance'(Foucault: 2012, 365). It is noted that Foucault's work is not based around the media, and therefore ample case studies are provided in order to contextualise his findings.

The second and third set readings, both written by Machin and Mayr cover critical discourse analysis and how it originated from critical linguistics 'sought to show how language and grammar can be used as ideological instruments. ' (Machin and Mayr, 2012: 2). We go on to see examples of discourses used within the media, and how they can be detected through language and grammar. One example included a fitness article, looking at language and image together. We also go onto look at different approaches, including social semiotic (2012, 18) looking at rules set within communication. Secondly, we look at the next few pages which focuses on articles and examples used within the media, including those from the Daily Mail (Machin and Mayr: 2012, 21).

The sample discourse analysis looked at the US show 'The L Word', introducing us to homosexuality and heterosexuality in characters and their lives . A example used is a character who is call "so gay" by another lesbian, a discourse diffusing tension around her identity. This also may create discourses based around the use of such terms and how it appears differently when said by someone who actually is gay. This discourse analysis looks at both language and image in order to analyse discourses using a critical discourse analysis (CDA), and by doing so we gain insight into a variety of different discourses created by the television show, as well as understanding and beginning to appreciate the identity struggles undertaken by lesbians and bisexuals in the twenty first century. So many discourses are mentioned within this text, some which may not be traditionally associated with lesbians or bisexuals, and some which may traditionally be attached to such a identity, including those of the "femme" lesbian, as mentioned on page (Davies: 2008, 185, 188).

From this, a potential research question may be; 'In what way The L Word display discourses of a discriminatory nature?'. I chose this question as I felt that the text provided ample examples of discourses used, and some may be considered 'taboo', and it would be interesting to delve further into how these are presented. I would undertake a virtual ethnography of the show (streamed via. Netflix or another source) or a focus group of both heterosexual and other audience types.

Bibliography;

DAVIES, FAYE in BEIRNE, REBECCA (2008) Televising queer women, Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 180-191 (Accessed 19th March 2015)

LONG, P and WALL, T (2012) 'Discourse, power and media’ IN Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context (2nd Edition), London: Pearson. pp 363-369 (Accessed 19th March 2015)

MACHIN, D and MAYR, A (2012) How to do a Critical Discourse Analysis, London: Sage. pp 1-29 (Accessed 19th March 2015)