Discourse can be seen as the use of language (spoken or written) by social actors
in specific settings (Wodak 2008) and is the means by which people represent their view of the world (Fairclough 2003). However, people do not arrive at their world view in a vacuum; individuals are deeply embedded in social, cultural and historical contexts. Discourses are described as being both socially constructed and socially constitutive (Wodak 2009), in other words they emerge from the social action of groups of people, but at the same time they also mould the social world, shaping people’s perceptions and behaviours. Hence the significance of discourse lies in its social function, and in the way in which power and control can be mediated through discourse