Language and Power Flashcards
What are Wareings 3 classifications of power
1) Political
2) Personal
3) Social Group
What is Wareings political power
Power held by politicians, police and those working in the law courts in a position to enforce the law
What is Wareings personal power
Power held by those as a result of their occupation or role, such as teachers and employers
What is Wareings social group power
Power held as a result of social variables such as class, age and gender
What is ideology
A set of belief systems, attitudes or a world view held by an individual or group
What is the purpose of the power being used
The purpose of language power techniques is used to get the reader/listener to act. E.g. A teacher using forced explicitness continuously, (go on, do what you can) encourages their students to partake in classroom discussion.
What does it mean to evaluate how successful the subject is in demonstrating power
To determine whether or not the subject has successfully achieved what they wanted through language power techniques. E.g. A teacher keeps a classroom environment controlled.
What is instrumental power
Language that is used by individuals or groups to maintain or enforce authority, e.g. road signs or legal instructions
What is synthetic personalisation
The construction of a relationship between producer and receiver by using personalised language such as second person ‘you’
What is influential power
Language that is used to influence or persuade others. E.g. adverts, newspapers/magazines, posters
Introduction to independent research essay
- Explain the videos are uploaded to YouTube, on ‘The Body Coach TV’ channel.
- Explain how long the fitness instruction videos are. (10 - 20 minutes)
- Explain when they were uploaded. (Between 2020 and 2022)
- Talk about Joe’s experience as an online fitness instructor, giving him plenty of experience in the field. Because of his experience, he is also able to establish his ethos as a fitness instructor.
Paragraph on ethos
Quote - “Your heart and your lungs are working so hard”
- Medical lexis used by Joe when concluding a 20 minute full - body workout.
- Medical lexis used to inform and praise his audience, which they will appreciate because of Joe’s experience and knowledge.
- By doing this, he gets his audience to think about their exercise in a different way compared to their usual way of thinking about just their physical appearance, not their internal organs.
- People doing frequent exercise will focus on their physical appearance, yet when Joe raises the point about their internal organs, they will look at their exercise from a new perspective and perhaps treat their workouts differently.
- Joe establishes his ethos as a fitness instructor because he comes across as knowledgeable and as an expert in his field. Link to Wareings ‘personal’ power.
Paragraph with quote one - “Hello and welcome to the Body Coach TV”
- Talk about how Joe often begins his videos with a slight variation of the simple introduction to each video - it creates a sense of familiarity and community for the audience.
- The friendly and welcoming introduction establishes a good relationship and rapport with himself and his audience.
- The introduction creates the impression that his channel is a communal space on social media which furthers the appeal of his channel to his audience.
- The introduction is a conceptual metaphor as described by Labov, which is that the internet is a physical space. This is because he welcomes his audience to the Body Coach TV as if it is a place. Other examples - “hit the channel” and “come back again”.
Paragraph with quote two - “for those of you that are in a rush that wanna do something to lift your energy to lift your vibe”
- In the ten - minute full - body workout, he engages with his audience by explaining what this particular video will achieve.
- Joe encouraging his relationship through use of colloquial grammar - “wanna” - it establishes the equal tenor between Joe and his audience.
- Joe attempts to converge with his audience, a concept that Giles developed in his accommodation theory, by producing shorter, more accessible videos.
- He uses language that belongs to the themes of ‘empowerment’ and ‘mind and body connection’ which Karageorgu, who identified in her research as the main themes that run through fitness instruction on Instagram, along with ‘physical strength’ and ‘fitness is a journey’.
- “To lift your energy to lift your vibe” - Joe refers to the relationship between physical exercise and mental wellbeing. These are important aspects of Joe’s life which he promotes through his channel.
Paragraph with quote three - “So well done, I hope you’ve enjoyed that workout I’ve got loads beginner, intermediate advanced”
- “Well done” - acts as positive reinforcement as he’s praising his audience for completing the workout, which, because of the context, he can only assume as he can’t physically see them.
- “I hope you’ve enjoyed that workout” - Using the language of gratitude, which was identified by Claire Mellor during her investigation of language used by fitness instructors on social media.
- “I’ve got loads beginner intermediate advanced” - Joe labels the differing levels of difficulty in the workouts he has to offer on his channel. He isn’t labelling the ability of the participants, which professionals at ACE would praise because it’s more inclusive and less threatening towards his audience.
