Discourse Power Address The Politics of Public Communication

'Discourse Power Address' identifies the existence of 'directive' address, a form of strategic communication which is employed in a number of dominant practices, including Advertising, Politics, Public Relations and Corporate representation. Stuart Price argues that the simulation of intimacy in authoritarian address masks a drive to power, in which the creation of propositions by powerful social actors is based on the 'timeliness' of utterance rather than any real adherence to truth or genuine explanation. Election broadcasts, political speeches, TV commercials and corporate advertisements are all scrutinised in order to evaluate competing perspectives on the creation and circulation of meaning; particular reference is made to theories of discourse, ideology and address. In the course of his argument, the author proposes an original method for determining how authoritarian address attempts to make an impact on audiences. Providing a cross-disciplinary contribution to the fields of Communication, Language, Media and Political Studies, this book provides an original, clear-sighted contribution to the debate on language and power, and will provide an essential resource for lecturers, researchers, students, activists and policy-makers.

Contents: Introduction: Definitions and perspectives; Theoretical background: critical theory and commercial culture; Discourse and ideology; Discourse and modernity; Advertising and corporate address; Ideology, commerce and politics; Politics and electoral address; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Stuart Price is Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Production, and Research Associate in the International Cultural Planning and Policy Unit, at De Montfort University, UK. He produced the first mass-market media studies book for the higher education sector and went on to write a series of books on communication and media. His current research includes work on rhetoric and the 'war on terror' and studies of gendered identity and film.