Bodies of Resistance: Resisting discourse
, Discourse (Mills, 2004)
• Many ways to conceptualise discourse(s)
• Depends on discipline and focus
• Discourses are inter-related sets of texts (including the practices of production,
dissemination and reception: i.e., language) that bring an object into being.
• They establish a means to categorise and understand the social world
• Usually understood to be an ‘accepted world view’ (Howson, 2002)- usually one dominant
discourse or set of discourses that are only challenged by a small number of people
• Discourses are embodied (demonstrated/shown) and enacted (active process, not just static,
can be reproduced) in a number of ways, text, talk, images, film, tv, advertisements
• Discourses are used to bring meaning to people’s personal and social worlds
• They are purposeful-there is a social consequence to the way language is used
• Discourses can be overarching and impact on many areas of life
• Discourses can be specific/specifically interpretated within the phenomenon itself
• Discourses can co-exist and interact
Media and Discourse (Lafrance et al., 2015)
• Media is one of the main ways that knowledge is communicated and shaped.
• Media therefore engage in (re)creating wider social discourses
• Review and analysis article focussing on dominant discourses of obesity within the media
• Media can act as a form of “life lessons” (bio-pedagogy) (p. 350), Tries to teach the viewer
about the body, acts as a force or education around the body, especially regarding exercise
and healthy eating
• Media draws on neoliberal concepts, such as,
• The biocitizen, individual responsibility, and risk and risk-aversion
• Taught though
• Moralism, sensationalism, and scientism
• Intersectional concerns
• Gender. Class, and race
Playing with Discourse? Advertising4
, Discourse (Mills, 2004)
• Many ways to conceptualise discourse(s)
• Depends on discipline and focus
• Discourses are inter-related sets of texts (including the practices of production,
dissemination and reception: i.e., language) that bring an object into being.
• They establish a means to categorise and understand the social world
• Usually understood to be an ‘accepted world view’ (Howson, 2002)- usually one dominant
discourse or set of discourses that are only challenged by a small number of people
• Discourses are embodied (demonstrated/shown) and enacted (active process, not just static,
can be reproduced) in a number of ways, text, talk, images, film, tv, advertisements
• Discourses are used to bring meaning to people’s personal and social worlds
• They are purposeful-there is a social consequence to the way language is used
• Discourses can be overarching and impact on many areas of life
• Discourses can be specific/specifically interpretated within the phenomenon itself
• Discourses can co-exist and interact
Media and Discourse (Lafrance et al., 2015)
• Media is one of the main ways that knowledge is communicated and shaped.
• Media therefore engage in (re)creating wider social discourses
• Review and analysis article focussing on dominant discourses of obesity within the media
• Media can act as a form of “life lessons” (bio-pedagogy) (p. 350), Tries to teach the viewer
about the body, acts as a force or education around the body, especially regarding exercise
and healthy eating
• Media draws on neoliberal concepts, such as,
• The biocitizen, individual responsibility, and risk and risk-aversion
• Taught though
• Moralism, sensationalism, and scientism
• Intersectional concerns
• Gender. Class, and race
Playing with Discourse? Advertising4
