Discourse Analysis

Discourse Analysis 1: understanding our surroundings
Like rose puts it in Visual methodology, discourse “refers to groups of statements which structure the way a thing is thought, and the way we act on the basis of that thinking. In other words, discourse is a particular knowledge about the world which shapes how the world is understood and how things are done in it”. For instance, the classical discourse on masculinity contains ideas like “virility, strength, independance, restricted emotions etc..” such ideas reinforce patriarchy and homophobic thinking relating to the idea that men have to behave a certain way, having an interest in aesthetics and looking good or a great emotional sensitivity are seen as abnormal by many because of the discourse of masculinity.

This idea was first coined by Foucault to express his concept that “knowledge is power”, to put it simply, the one knowing the most about a situation has the most power over it, or at least is the one that is the most likely to influence or solve it. When he studied crazyness, he wanted to explore the discourse on this concept, to understand how power was exerced on the ones society decided to class ‘abnormals’.

Sodas owned by Coca-Cola all have a specific discourse too: Fanta is not serious, it is fun; Sprite is sporty and refreshing and Coca-Cola is bringing happiness; the sugar rush coming from drinking those sodas are presented in different ways for the audience.

Rose presented a 7 step method for doing a discourse analysis:

1 looking at your sources with fresh eyes.

2 immersing yourself in your sources.

3 identifying key themes in your sources.

4 examining their effects of truth.

5 paying attention to their complexity and contradictions.

6 looking for the invisible as well as the visible.

7 paying attention to details.

Another example provided by Charlene Eliott is her article “Consuming Caffeine: The Discourse of Starbucks and Coffee” In Consumption, Markets and Culture”. Strabucks use exotism as a discourse on their product: the sizes are presented with italian names while the brewed coffees have imaginary names relating to certain areas of the world. Trying to prove a certain authenticity which is actually absent, starbucks blends coffees from several areas of the world for the Arabic or the Indian one, they create made up names to make it look official. They also add adjectives to the products like “bright” or “wild” which make them look like specialists while this is only a marketting strategy built on racial stereotypes, for instance “wild” goes to the arabic coffee.

They appropriate the cultures of struggling communities in developing countries misleadingly without ever rewarding them, they take the exotism without the substance. Like on a commercial for vacations Turkey, the country is presented under a certain aspect but all the negative ones are hidden. One should pay attention to the way things are presented to him and analyze what really constitutes them. The notion of realness is extremely relative once it is related to commercial purposes.

Discourse analysis provides a way to do so, by doing it properly, one should be able to discover the intentions behind a commercial or even just a press article, the vocabulary being used is always subjectively used in order to provide a certain idea of the text. Discourse analysis is about undersanding what is presented to you as true. Even in a discussion with someone, things can be said in various ways, each of them relying oncertain intentions. Taking time to understand what is presented to us rather than taking it for granted is a crucial skill in today’s society of consumption and political controversies.

Donald Trump and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ‘s power resides mainly in their discourse. By using a more familiar and accessible discourse than the classic medias or politcians, relying on people’s feelings and providing them with theories that would reassure them, the consistency of what they are saying does not even matter anymore, whether it is true or not, they somehow manage through their vocabulary and gestures to be more appealing than their opponents. Knowledge is power but in this case, this is not about academic knowledge but knowing how to take advantage of people’s fears and weaknesses.

Bibliography:

Rose, G. (2001). Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Researching with Visual Materials. Sage. (chapter 6)

Elliott, C. (2001). “Consuming Caffeine: The Discourse of Starbucks and Coffee” In Consumption, Markets and Culture, 4 (4).

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