Political Rhetoric
Pieter Maeseele
good to know
- At the end of the course, you should have mastered the following…
- Explain the interaction between language, media, and society using the concept of
discourse.
- Analyze how media language contributes to power relations and identity formation.
- Critically reflect on representations in various types of media.
- Conduct a basic discourse analysis of media material.
- Course contents
- Social constructionism
- What is meaning and where does it reside?
- Poststructuralism
- How does discourse shape the possible?
- Critical discourse analysis
- How is power enacted through discourse?
- Cultural media studies
- How do media sustain or challenge discourse?
- Qualitative paradigm
- Lectures: theoretical frameworks and concepts.
- Philosophical questions: can we find meaning in our minds?
- Pragmatic approach: no history of definitions or lineage of authors
- Seminar: application to current media texts, in small groups.
- Self-study: preparation for analysis and exam.
- Written exam: assessment of understanding and reflection.
- There will be no class recordings.
- STUDIEMATERIAAL
- Lecture notes
- Slides (BB)
- Selected articles and chapters (BB)
- Exam: Written examination without oral presentation
- Seminar: group assignment
- During the penultimate class, students complete a group assignment consisting of a
discourse analysis of media material. In the final class, feedback is given on this
assignment. If you are absent, you will not receive points for this assignment. In case of a
justified absence, an alternative assignment will be provided.
1
,LES 2 - 22/10 (week 5)
Social constructionism
From essentialism to constructionism
Essentialism
-> Meaning reflects reality (language represents).
Structuralism
-> Meaning comes from linguistic systems (Saussure).
Constructionism
-> Meaning is produced through discourse; reality is made, not merely reflected.
-> Emerges in 1960s sociology, influenced by:
-> Phenomenology (Husserl, Schutz): experience as intersubjective.
-> Symbolic interactionism (Mead, Blumer): self and society built through interaction.
-> Linguistic turn in philosophy: language as constitutive of reality.
2
,Core Assumptions of Social Constructionism
Examples of Social Constructions
➔ Money: paper or digits become “valuable” through shared belief.
➔ Gender: norms of masculinity/femininity are learned, not biological.
➔ Race: socially defined categories with real social effects.
➔ Mental illness: definitions change across time and culture.
=> Are social constructions “unreal,” or do they have real consequences?
3
, Where can meaning be found?
Traditionally, linguists and philosophers have tried to “locate” meaning in one of two places:
1. In the mind — as mental concepts or ideas that words refer to (a kind of mental
dictionary).
2. In the brain — as neural activity or patterns that correspond to meanings (a cognitive or
neuroscientific approach).
Both views assume that meaning exists inside individuals — either as inner representations or
brain states.
Why not in mental concepts?
➔ We can never directly access another person’s thoughts; we can only interpret what they
say or write.
➔ If meaning were purely mental, communication would be impossible — we’d each be
locked inside our own minds.
➔ The only thing we can access and share are discourses — the socially circulating uses of
language that give words their sense.
So, meaning must be collective, not private.
=> We don’t share meanings by sharing “mental representations”; we share meanings by
participating in public language practices.
Why not in neural activity?
➔ Neural activity can explain how we process language, but not what it means.
➔ Brains don’t “contain” meaning; they enable participation in discourse.
➔ The relation between words and concepts is cultural and historical, not biological.
In other words, neural states are necessary but not sufficient for meaning.
=> Meaning belongs to the social level — the level of discourse — not to the biological
substrate.
A social and discursive phenomenon:
➔ Emerges in discourse, understood as all the texts and talks produced by a speech
community over time.
➔ Is intersubjective — shared, negotiated, and contested between people.
➔ Is historical and contextual — it changes as discursive practices change.
So the “meaning” of a word like freedom, democracy, or love is not in anyone’s head, but in
how it has been used and argued over in public language.
=> Meaning is what a community has made of a word — through its ongoing use in
discourse.
By symbolic interaction in social communication
★ All meaning is symbolic: “Unless I am told, a word means nothing.”
★ Meaning is only in discourse.
★ We have no access to the individual mind or to reality “out there”.
★ The text alone has no meaning in itself.
★ Reality is constructed in discourse.
4
Pieter Maeseele
good to know
- At the end of the course, you should have mastered the following…
- Explain the interaction between language, media, and society using the concept of
discourse.
- Analyze how media language contributes to power relations and identity formation.
- Critically reflect on representations in various types of media.
- Conduct a basic discourse analysis of media material.
- Course contents
- Social constructionism
- What is meaning and where does it reside?
- Poststructuralism
- How does discourse shape the possible?
- Critical discourse analysis
- How is power enacted through discourse?
- Cultural media studies
- How do media sustain or challenge discourse?
- Qualitative paradigm
- Lectures: theoretical frameworks and concepts.
- Philosophical questions: can we find meaning in our minds?
- Pragmatic approach: no history of definitions or lineage of authors
- Seminar: application to current media texts, in small groups.
- Self-study: preparation for analysis and exam.
- Written exam: assessment of understanding and reflection.
- There will be no class recordings.
- STUDIEMATERIAAL
- Lecture notes
- Slides (BB)
- Selected articles and chapters (BB)
- Exam: Written examination without oral presentation
- Seminar: group assignment
- During the penultimate class, students complete a group assignment consisting of a
discourse analysis of media material. In the final class, feedback is given on this
assignment. If you are absent, you will not receive points for this assignment. In case of a
justified absence, an alternative assignment will be provided.
1
,LES 2 - 22/10 (week 5)
Social constructionism
From essentialism to constructionism
Essentialism
-> Meaning reflects reality (language represents).
Structuralism
-> Meaning comes from linguistic systems (Saussure).
Constructionism
-> Meaning is produced through discourse; reality is made, not merely reflected.
-> Emerges in 1960s sociology, influenced by:
-> Phenomenology (Husserl, Schutz): experience as intersubjective.
-> Symbolic interactionism (Mead, Blumer): self and society built through interaction.
-> Linguistic turn in philosophy: language as constitutive of reality.
2
,Core Assumptions of Social Constructionism
Examples of Social Constructions
➔ Money: paper or digits become “valuable” through shared belief.
➔ Gender: norms of masculinity/femininity are learned, not biological.
➔ Race: socially defined categories with real social effects.
➔ Mental illness: definitions change across time and culture.
=> Are social constructions “unreal,” or do they have real consequences?
3
, Where can meaning be found?
Traditionally, linguists and philosophers have tried to “locate” meaning in one of two places:
1. In the mind — as mental concepts or ideas that words refer to (a kind of mental
dictionary).
2. In the brain — as neural activity or patterns that correspond to meanings (a cognitive or
neuroscientific approach).
Both views assume that meaning exists inside individuals — either as inner representations or
brain states.
Why not in mental concepts?
➔ We can never directly access another person’s thoughts; we can only interpret what they
say or write.
➔ If meaning were purely mental, communication would be impossible — we’d each be
locked inside our own minds.
➔ The only thing we can access and share are discourses — the socially circulating uses of
language that give words their sense.
So, meaning must be collective, not private.
=> We don’t share meanings by sharing “mental representations”; we share meanings by
participating in public language practices.
Why not in neural activity?
➔ Neural activity can explain how we process language, but not what it means.
➔ Brains don’t “contain” meaning; they enable participation in discourse.
➔ The relation between words and concepts is cultural and historical, not biological.
In other words, neural states are necessary but not sufficient for meaning.
=> Meaning belongs to the social level — the level of discourse — not to the biological
substrate.
A social and discursive phenomenon:
➔ Emerges in discourse, understood as all the texts and talks produced by a speech
community over time.
➔ Is intersubjective — shared, negotiated, and contested between people.
➔ Is historical and contextual — it changes as discursive practices change.
So the “meaning” of a word like freedom, democracy, or love is not in anyone’s head, but in
how it has been used and argued over in public language.
=> Meaning is what a community has made of a word — through its ongoing use in
discourse.
By symbolic interaction in social communication
★ All meaning is symbolic: “Unless I am told, a word means nothing.”
★ Meaning is only in discourse.
★ We have no access to the individual mind or to reality “out there”.
★ The text alone has no meaning in itself.
★ Reality is constructed in discourse.
4
