“Activism in paradise”: A critical discourse analysis of a public
Tracking number
relations campaign against genetic engineering.
ICA-15-10063
7
representing the world, but of signifying the world, constituting and constructing the world in
meaning" (Fairclough, 1992, p. 64). Furthermore, power and privilege may be maintained
through language. Political actors use slogans and campaigns, for example, to construct and
impose their view of the world and seek the support of the publics on whom their power
depends (Bourdieu, cited in Thompson, 1991).
Habermas (1996) uses the term “legitimacy” to explain how liberal democracies depend on
gaining a degree of citizen approval for policy positions based on laws of reason. Political
rights
give citizens the opportunity to assert their private interests in such a way that by means of
elections, the composition of parliamentary bodies, and the formation of a government, these
interests are finally aggregated into a political will that makes an impact on the administration.
(Habermas, 1996, p. 22)
Voting decisions then legitimate or "license access to the positions of power that political
parties fight over" (Habermas, 1996, p. 23). If a political interest group can gain recognition
for the position it holds on a public issue like the use of genetic engineering technologies,
then it may succeed in legitimating the use of that power. Alternatively, groups such as the
GE Free coalition may seek to resist the official government discourse by articulating a
counter-debate. In this campaign, citizen activism was designed to de-legitimate the
government stance.
The ways in which public issues are signified in discourse then both represent and institute
power and resource allocation, through public policy decisions, and the enactment of those
policies through regulation by legal institutions. The communication processes of the Royal
Commission on Genetic Modification provide an example of how discourses about genetic
Convention