ABSTRACT
We need to understand that there is a dimension of news discourse over and above its hegemonic or ideological function. The graphic representation of a snowstorm moving up the righthand side of a map of the United States cannot, Foucauldians would argue, be adequately explained in terms of the hegemony of the bureau of meteorology; rather, it is a discourse engaged in the production of knowledge and as such requires us to understand it in terms of the matrix of knowledge-powerpleasure. The framed images of the storm growing out of Atlanta or Washington or New York are not the agents of class power, but of discursive power. They are there to be enjoyed not for what they say, but for their ability to say it. Similarly, the studio anchor exerting his power to claim a relationship between the Beirut kidnappings and the West German general election when the reporter in Frankfurt says that “nobody is making the kidnappings an issue in this Sunday’s election” is more than a hegemonic agent, he is a discursive power producing knowledge, a truth in power relations with competing truths.
