Another way of understanding power is associated with Michel Foucault. In this understanding power is exercised rather than owned. It is a process. It produces and limits potential meanings simultaneously. We will continue our discussion of these different ways of understanding power as we move through the topic.
Power operates within a network of cultural, social and institutional contexts.
Power may be exercised through cultural constraints such as morals, mores and laws, it is institutionalised through social values and regulations. Individuals and groups in a position to define such social codes and values yield a great deal of power over language. We discussed propaganda in Topic 6 paying particular regard to the use of the image as a form of persuasion. Much of what we considered there is of importance here. You may like to refer back to the relevant notes in the Study Guid e and to your own notes on propaganda.