“Discourses are the stuff of meaning and meaningfulness; they constitute the ‘shape’ and

‘order’ of the world. We enact them and they enact us.” (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006, p. 71)

Particular uses of language (as discourses) do not just arise out of an ideology or social

practice but help to constitute it. Thus people’s thinking (both their ideologies and their

argumentation), their social actions and attitudes and even their very sense of self are

shaped by discourses (Morgan, 2003, p. 2)

“New media have been used for disseminating counter discourses, for mobilising

opposition, for questioning and destabilising power.” (Janks, 2012, p. 150).

Power, in this sense, incltudes but goes beyond the call for institutional chnge or for

the distribution of political and economic resources; it also signifies a level of conflict and

struggle that plays itself out around the exchange of discourse and the lived experiences

that such discourse produces, mediates, and legitimates. (Giroux, 1997, p. 121).

Another major assumption here is that discourse is both a medium and a product of

power. In this sense, discourse is intimately connected with those ideological and material

forces out of which individuals and groups fashion a "voice," (Giroux, 1997, p. 121).

“Speakers and writers use the resources of grammar to design their sentences and

texts in ways that communicate their perspectives on reality, carry out various social

activities, and allows them to enact different social identities” (Gee, 2005, p. 5)