COMM 318001 Communication

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COMM 3180-01Communication Social Behavior

• May 25, 2005
• Language and Discourse, Continued

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Discourse, Power, KnowledgeIntroducing Michel
Foucault

• Different take on the relationship between power
  and knowledge
• Population, discipline, and governmentality
• Example Panopticism
• Power and Resistance
• Power as productive, rather than repressive

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Discourse and Ideology

• Ideology as false consciousness
• From a Social Constructionist perspective
• Ideology as Power/Knowledge (Foucault)
• Ideology as Lived Experience (Althusser)
• Ideology as Dillematic (Billig)

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Discourse and Reality

• Two Helpful Concepts from Burke
• The Negative
• Selection and Deflection
• Men seek for vocabularies that will be
  faithful reflections of reality. To this end,
  they must develop vocabularies that are
  selections of reality. And any selection of
  reality must, in certain circumstances, function
  as a deflection of reality.
• -- Kenneth Burke, A Grammar of Motives

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Discourse, Reality, and Hotel Rwanda
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Discourse and RealityRelativist and Realist
Positions

• Realism(s)
• Naive Realism (Modernism)
• Critical Realism (Critical Modernism)
• Relativism(s)
• Epistemological Relativism (Skeptical
  Postmodernism)
• Ontological Relativism (Appreciative
  Postmodernism)

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Discourse and RealityClouds Fighting Words

• How would you characterize Clouds argument?
  What view of ideology does she take? How does
  she view the relationship between discourse and
  reality?
• If you were to adopt a different perspective on
  ideology and the relationship between discourse
  and reality, how might you make sense of the
  strike at Staley?
• Which take to agree with more? What are the
  strengths and weaknesses of approaching the
  Staley strike from these perspectives?