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THE POWER OF IMAGES A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE COGNITIVE VIEWPOINT

THE POWER OF IMAGES A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE COGNITIVE VIEWPOINT A discourse analysis of the cognitive viewpoint in library and information science identifies seven discursive strategies which constitute information as a commodity, and persons as surveyable information consumers, within market economy conditions. These strategies are a universality of theory, b referentiality and reification of images, c internalisation of representations, d radical individualism and erasure of the social dimension of theory, e insistence upon knowledge, f constitution of the information scientist as an expert in image negotiation, and g instrumental reason, ruled by efficiency, standardisation, predictability, and determination of effects. The discourse is guided throughout by a yearning for naturalscientific theory. The effect of the cognitive viewpoint's discursive strategy is to enable knowledge acquisition of information processes only when users' and generators' images are constituted as objectively given naturalscientific entities, and to disable knowledge of the same processes when considered as products of social practices. By its constitution of users as free creators of images, of the information scientist as an expert in image interpretation and delivery, and of databases as repositories of unmediated models of the world, the cognitive viewpoint performs ideological labour for modern capitalist image markets. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Documentation Emerald Publishing

THE POWER OF IMAGES A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE COGNITIVE VIEWPOINT

FROHMANN, BERND
Journal of Documentation , Volume 48 (4): 22 – Apr 1, 1992
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References (36)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
0022-0418
DOI
10.1108/eb026904
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

A discourse analysis of the cognitive viewpoint in library and information science identifies seven discursive strategies which constitute information as a commodity, and persons as surveyable information consumers, within market economy conditions. These strategies are a universality of theory, b referentiality and reification of images, c internalisation of representations, d radical individualism and erasure of the social dimension of theory, e insistence upon knowledge, f constitution of the information scientist as an expert in image negotiation, and g instrumental reason, ruled by efficiency, standardisation, predictability, and determination of effects. The discourse is guided throughout by a yearning for naturalscientific theory. The effect of the cognitive viewpoint's discursive strategy is to enable knowledge acquisition of information processes only when users' and generators' images are constituted as objectively given naturalscientific entities, and to disable knowledge of the same processes when considered as products of social practices. By its constitution of users as free creators of images, of the information scientist as an expert in image interpretation and delivery, and of databases as repositories of unmediated models of the world, the cognitive viewpoint performs ideological labour for modern capitalist image markets.

Journal

Journal of Documentation – Emerald Publishing

Published: Apr 1, 1992

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