Power, Discursive

Discursive power is played out through the construction and popularization of meanings designed to advance particular interests. More generally, power is a central dynamic in society; it provides the rationale for all of our institutional arrangements as well as our day-to-day interactions. Discursive power is also a central dynamic within public relations practice and, therefore, a central concept for public relations theory and research. Through the exercise of discursive power, public relations practitioners act on behalf of governments, organizations, and individuals to influence or transform sociopolitical regimes and effect sociocultural change.

Stewart Clegg, David Courpasson, and Nelson Phillips (2006) contend that power may be understood both as the capability to do certain things and as a source of control over others. The latter understanding of power has strongly negative connotations that are linked to wars, despotic regimes, and the petty tyrannies exercised within organizations. However, power as a capability can be viewed more positively, as is the case, for example, when we think of the empowerment of individuals. As Michel Foucault (1980) argued, power can be perceived as positive and productive as well as repressive and destructive. Our view of power is thus highly contextual and may change depending on the circumstances in which it is exercised.

Discursive power is relational and is played out in a myriad of processes and practices. As Foucault (1980) argued, power is “not something that is acquired, seized or shared, something that one holds on to or allows to slip away; power is exercised from innumerable points, in the interplay of non-egalitarian relations” (Clegg et al., 2006, p. 94). This conception of discursive power leads us to focus on [Page 672]the relationships between and the strategies deployed by the actors within a discourse. The objective for actors engaged in discursive power struggles is to normalize certain ideas and thereby establish particular regimes of meaning that support the interests of those actors.

Power becomes visible when it is enacted, and discursive power is often enacted through the discursive practices of public relations practitioners. Drawing on Norman Fairclough (1992), discursive practice is understood as the practice, “not just of representing the world, but of signifying the world, constituting and constructing the world in meaning” (p. 64). Such social constructions, resulting from discursive processes, create a textual justification of power and power resources.

The art of signifying the world within texts is central to the work of public relations practitioners. In crafting texts—such as speeches, webpages, media releases, and tweets—practitioners are not neutrally reflecting a preexisting reality. Instead, they are engaged in the active process of attempting to legitimize and popularize particular ways of understanding the concepts, causes, individuals, and organizations they represent. From this perspective, public relations practitioners may be seen as engaged in discursive contests over meaning through the production of texts.

Ian Parker (1992) was one of the first theorists to suggest that discourses are made up of chains of associated texts, which draw on one another to establish, maintain, and contest particular meanings. As Nelson Phillips and Cynthia Hardy (2002)

...