Reading Agricultural Power

Many forms of rural geography include investigations of power. Lately some researchers have achieved this through studies of discourse. This paper presents a reading of agricultural power as it occurs in several examples of Australian and New Zealand print-media. Initially, I review the importance of discourse in the study of power - arguing that a ‘geography of discourse’ enables key questions and objects of analysis (spaces and processes) to be investigated. I then analyse coverage of agriculture in selected rural print-media forms. I argue that hegemonic discourses of masculinity and agriculture are used in the construction of reports, reinforcing the power of certain knowledges and truths. Finally, I propose more study is needed of the sites and processes through which meaning is constructed. Using the case of a farm women's conference I argue that the media involves a number of sites and processes which must be negotiated if discursive change is to occur in our understanding of agricuture.