CANALES Y PERFIL DE LOS PRINCIPALES DISTRIBUIDORES

A discourse such as the ‘health diet’ discourse of eating is a knowledge of a particular social practice. The indefinite article is important. It is a knowledge. There are alter- natives, other versions. Eating can be represented as primarily about health, or primarily about pleasure, for instance, and there can also be religious discourses of eating, to mention just some possibilities. This suggests that discourses are never only about what we do, but always also about why we do it. The discourses we use in repre- senting social practices such as eating are versions of those practices plus the ideas and attitudes that attach to them in the contexts in which we use them. These ideas and attitudes are of three kinds:

1 evaluations, for instance evaluations of the food involved – is it tasty, filling, nicely presented, etc. – or the manner of eating it – is it too slow or too fast, are utensils used properly – or some other aspect of the practice;

2 purposes, for instance, curing or preventing heart disease, or celebrating a particular occasion – different discourses can attach different purposes to the same practice; and

3 legitimations, reasons why particular things should be done in particular ways, by particular people, etc., as when it is said that a particular kind of food should be eaten because an expert cardiologist recommends it.

Close reading of texts, for instance the ‘natural fix’ text we have already quoted, soon reveals these aspects of discourse:

The natural fix:

It’s the same exercise and low-saturated-fat diet strategy you’d use to lower blood pressure: exercise aerobically for at least 30 minutes three or four times a week, cut your saturated-fat intake as low as possible, and – crucially – eat more fibre. ‘Monounsaturated fats such as olive oil don’t increase LDL cholesterol,’ said cardiologist Chris Rembold.

This extract contains at least two purposes. The ‘fix’ of the title suggests that we exer- cise not to have a beautiful body, as for example in body-building, or for pleasure, but to ‘fix’ a health problem. Similarly we eat not to satisfy our appetites, but, again, to ‘fix’ a health problem. The term ‘strategy’ in ‘the strategy you’d use … to lower blood pressure’ represents exercising and eating as carefully planned strategies for attaining a specific goal, the lowering of blood pressure. The cardiologist’s expert statement, finally, serves as legitimation, as the answer to an implicit question: ‘Why should we lower our blood pressure in this way?’ And the word ‘natural’ also has a legitimatory function, because it refers us to the view that, in matters of food, ‘natu- ral’ is good, and ‘artificial’ bad. This view is so widely accepted that the word ‘natural’ by itself is sufficient to trigger it. If it is ‘natural’ then it is good.

Evaluations and legitimations can also be realized visually. Figure 5.3 shows a Japanese couple being photographed as part of their Western style wedding. But the photographer has included a stylist who is making some last minute adjustments to the bride’s dress. This is probably not the kind of photo the couple would like to include in their own photo album. Yet the photographer has selected it for inclusion in an exhibi- tion and a book. And I think what he suggests in this way amounts to a negative evalua- tion. This wedding is ‘fake’. They are ‘only posing’. It is ‘style over substance’. In figure 5.4 the same photographer has included two elderly passers-by in a photograph of a newly-married French couple standing on the front steps of a church. Again it is not a standard wedding shot, not the kind of shot the couple would want in their album. But here the evaluation is positive. The photo establishes a kind of kinship between the young and the old couple, and in this way suggests that marriage is for life, that it forms the meaning and fulfilment of life. In both cases the photo represents the practice of wedding plus something else, and that something else brings in the value judgment, and functions as legitimation, or, in the case of figure 5.3, de-legitimation, critique.

I have established that discourses consist of a version of a social practice plus ideas about it and attitudes to it, and I have discussed these ideas and attitudes. What about the ‘versions’ themselves? How does discourse transform reality into a version of that reality? This I need to explain in two steps. First I need to inventorize the elements of social practices, and then I need to look at how they are transformed into discourse.

I list below the elements that must necessarily be part of any social practice as it is actually enacted. Note that this does not include evaluations, purposes and legitimations because these are added in discourse. Note also that a discourse about a given practice need not include all the elements of that practice. Knowledge is selec- tive. For instance, a ‘health diet’ discourse of eating excludes place and manner of eating. It has no interest in where the food is eaten and how. It is concerned only with the food itself and the times when it is eaten. In a ‘dinner party’ discourse, on the other hand, the place where the food is eaten and the way the table is laid are important and do form part of the discourse.

Actions

By actions, I mean the things people do, the activities that make up the social prac- tice, and their chronological order. In the case of exercising, for instance, the actions are the actual physical movements, performed in a specific order. But that order need Figure 5.3 Wedding (Elliott Erwitt, 1978)

not be part of a given discourse about exercising. It may be edited out. Some discourses contain a great deal of detail about the actual actions of the practice, for instance the participant-oriented discourses used in instruction sessions, specialist magazines and books, etc. Other discourses contain only a vague, general knowledge of the actions involved in the practice, and concentrate on evaluations and/or purposes and legitimations.

The ‘natural fix’ text gives us next to no detail about exercising. Exercising is only referred to by the general term ‘exercise aerobically’. This text is about the purposes of exercising and about its medical justification, not about the exercises themselves. Manner

‘Manner’ refers to the way in which (some or all of) the actions are performed, for instance ‘graciously’, ‘efficiently’, ‘slowly’, ‘energetically’, etc. Clearly in some prac- tices this matters a lot – for example, playing music, dancing – while in other cases only the result matters, not the way in which it is achieved.

Actors

The actors are the people – sometimes also animals – involved in the practice, and the different roles in which they are involved, for instance active and passive roles. Again, a discourse about a given social practice may not include all the actors who must of necessity take part in it. Aerobic exercises, for instance, are usually done in groups, and include an instructor. But this is not included in the ‘natural fix’ text, because it is not relevant to the interests of the men’s health magazine from which the piece is taken. What the magazine is primarily interested in here is not the exercises them- selves, but their effect on health. It uses the discourse of the doctor, not of the aerobics instructor, or the cook preparing the healthy food.

Presentation

Presentation is the way in which actors are dressed and groomed. All social practices have their rules of presentation, although they differ in kind and degree of strictness (see chapter 3). But, even though aerobics classes do have their ‘dress code’, this is filtered out from the ‘natural fix’ text.

Resources

By ‘resources’ I mean the tools and materials needed to enact a social practice. Certain things are needed to ‘eat fibre’ – for instance the food itself, perhaps also a plate, a knife and fork, etc. The ‘natural fix’ text does mention the food, but in an abstract way. It refers not to the concrete food itself but to its ingredients and quali- ties. A ‘health diet’ discourse of eating of this kind is not concerned with what you eat or how it tastes, so long as it contains the right ingredients and has the right qualities. Times

Inevitably social practices are timed – they take place at certain times, and they last for certain amounts of time. This aspect of the practice of exercising is included in the ‘natural fix’ text, although still in a relatively vague and open-ended way: ‘for at least 30 minutes three or four times a week.’ Amounts are crucial in any form of health prescription. Just as amounts of food are important in ‘health diet’ discourses – ‘cut your saturated-fat intake as low as possible’ – so amounts of exercise are important in ‘health exercise’ discourses.

Spaces

The final concrete element of the social practice is the space(s) where the action takes place, including the way they should be arranged to make the practice possible. Although aerobic exercises need certain types of space, this aspect is left out in the ‘natural fix’ text.

In reality all these elements must necessarily be part of the way a social practice is actually enacted. But, as I have stressed already, specific texts may include only some of them, and so do the discourses on which these texts draw for their content. Knowl- edge is selective, and what it selects depends on the interests and purposes of the insti- tutions that have fostered the knowledge. It is possible to know everything you need to know about film in order to pass exams in film studies at university, and yet not be able to load film into a magazine. It is also possible to know everything you need to know to be a first-class camera operator and yet be unable to pass an exam in film studies. The social practice is the same in both cases – film making. But the knowledges, informed by the very different interests and purposes of the film industry and university film studies, differ.

Figure 5.5 shows that part of the ‘health diet’ discourse that has been used in the ‘natural fix’ text. These are the kind of ‘statements’ that make up a discourse – state- ments that string together some or all of the elements listed above. Sometimes the statements can be ordered chronologically, and this can then be indicated in the scenario by means of a flowchart type arrow. At other times there is nothing to suggest chronological order. The discourse is de-temporalized and does not include the order of the actions. This is then indicated in the ‘scenario’ with a ‘~’ sign.

The ‘natural fix’ text represents the social practices of ‘health dieting’ and ‘health exercising’. But it is itself also a social practice, the practice of prescribing a remedy for chest pains, as enacted by the men’s health magazine. In chapter 6 we will call this kind of practice a genre. A genre is a social practice that recontextualizes one or more other social practices, that imports these social practices from their own context – actually doing exercises – into another context – that of the magazine – for the purposes of representing them to the participants of that other context, and in the light of the interests and purposes of that other context. Needless to say, the repre- sented practice may itself also be a genre.

actor action resources purpose legitimation

(reader) eats small amounts of saturated fat

to fix chest pains because it’s natural

(reader) eats unsaturated fat to fix chest pains because it’s natural and approved by the cardiologist (reader) eats larger amount of

fibre

to fix chest pains because it’s natural

When we look at a text as an instance of social practice, we look at it as a sequence of actions – in this case speech acts, the kinds of things we do with words. As shown in figure 5.6, the ‘natural fix’ text first identifies the recommended ‘fix’, then makes three suggestions, and finally gives authority to these suggestions by means of an expert opinion, a kind of doctor’s signature. Note that written texts include only two elements of the social practice, the actions and the medium through which they are realized – the magazine. Not represented are the writer and the reader, and the circumstances of writing and reading – time, place, dress and grooming, etc. For a full understanding of the social practice, of what men’s health magazines do to or for their readers, these elements are also important.

We can now move to the second step of the argument. How is reality changed into discourse? I will answer this question in terms of four basic types of transformation, all of which we have in fact already touched on in the discussion above.

Exclusion

Discourses can exclude elements of the social practice, for instance certain kinds of actors. This can have a very distorting effect, for instance in discourses of war that exclude the victims.

actor action resource

(writer) identifies recommended practice (exercise and low-saturated-fat diet strategy)

magazine

(writer) suggests aerobic exercise magazine

(writer) suggests low saturated-fat intake magazine

(writer) suggests eating more fibre magazine

(writer) adduces expert opinion to lend weight to suggestions

magazine

Rearrangement

Discourses can rearrange the elements of social practices, for instances when it ‘de- temporalizes’ elements which in reality have a specific order, or when it imposes a specific order on actions which in reality do not need to take place in any specific order.

Addition

Discourses can add elements to the representation – most notably evaluations, purposes and legitimations.

Substitution

The term ‘substitution’ refers to the fact that discourses substitute concepts for the concrete elements of actual social practices. In the process the concrete can be trans- formed into the abstract, the specific into the general, and ‘doing’ into ‘being’.

I have already given an example of the way in which the concrete can transform into the abstract when I described how the ‘health diet’ discourse substitutes a quality of food – ‘low-saturated-fat’ – for the food itself. The potential for abstracting quali- ties from people, places and things is endless. Which qualities will be abstracted depends on the interests and purposes of the social context that has developed or adopted the discourse. ‘Health diet’ discourses will abstract chemical qualities, other discourses may abstract qualities of colour, taste or texture, or still other qualities such as ‘hearty’, ‘filling’, ‘crunchy’, etc.

I have also discussed an example of generalization, when I indicated how the ‘nat- ural fix’ text substitutes the general term ‘aerobic exercises’ for a wide range of specific physical movements. This substitution is typical of the kind of ‘general knowl- edge’ we find in contexts where social practices are represented to outsiders, rather than to those who are actually involved in them, whether in the media or in education. Generalization can also be realized visually, through a reduction of detail in represen- tation, or through visual stereotypes. This will be discussed in more detail in chapter 8. Another substitution is objectification, ‘representing actions and events, and also qualities, as if they were objects’ (Halliday and Martin: 1993: 52), as when the term ‘aerobic exercise’ substitutes for the actions of exercising. Benjamin Whorf (1956) showed how this transformation, which is possible in many European languages, was not possible in some of the native American languages he was studying. For instance, in Hopi one cannot say ‘This is a wave’. ‘Wave’ must be a verb. As Whorf says:

Without the projection of language no one ever saw a single wave. Some languages cannot say ‘a wave’. They are closer to reality in that respect.

But similar differences can exist within a language. Objectification has played a key role in the development of scientific discourses, in English as well as in other languages. ‘Things’ can be counted, measured – and described in terms of static, permanent qualities. They are more easily manipulated – in practice as well as in discourse. Processes, on the other hand, are fluid and ever-changing and less easy to grasp and control.

These are only some of the possible substitution transformations. The selected readings section in the back of this book refers to some relevant further reading.