Understanding power : a critical discourse approach to the study of oppositional politics on Facebook in Singapore.

• Main Author: Gunalan, Ashwinii.
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/51730
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In recent times, Facebook has become a highly contested space for political discussion and contestation to occur. Given the tight regulation and control of the media industry in Singapore, the advent Facebook has fundamentally changed the nature of production and circulation of political discourse. With an increasingly educated electorate, the availability of alternative political discourses could potentially alter existing power relations as citizens have access to new forms of meaning-making. By adopting a cultural approach to study the impact of Facebook on politics in Singapore, I use critical discourse analysis to uncover the ways in which Opposition parties and the ruling party, PAP engage in different discursive formations to produce contrasting visions of social reality in their attempts to reconstruct and reproduce power relations.