Discourses of queer futurity in mainstream and LGBTQI+ news media in Ireland

There is a common assumption that matters relating to gender and sexuality are on a linear progression towards a ‘better’ destination. This thesis explores how such linear understandings of progress are entangled with a pragmatic political agenda, focused on legislative parity, where sanitised LGBTQI+ scripts are foregrounded at the expense of queerer lives and experiences. Operating under the assumption that reality is discursively constructed, this thesis applies a queer utopian lens to the interpretation of linguistic and semiotic constructions of LGBTQI+ people, communities, and values in both mainstream (The Irish Times) and community-led (Gay Community News Magazine) media.

Specifically, this research builds on current scholarship in the area of queer linguistics and proposes a theoretical framework, based on the work of Muñoz (1999; 2009), which foregrounds the notion of futurity and highlights transformative and radical practices that challenge (or have the potential to challenge) problematic representations in mediated discourse contexts. The analysis in this thesis uses established techniques in corpus?assisted discourse studies and draws on both textual and visual data. The discourse contexts under investigation are inherently ideological and the reality that is portrayed therein is contingent on a number of external factors, which include the social positions and interests of the text producers. By examining the choices that are made in the production of texts (both linguistic and semiotic), this thesis reveals how particular representations of the LGBTQI+ community coalesce to endorse particular versions of progress, community, and collectivity, and highlights for whom these are most beneficial.

Notably, this thesis shows; how mediated representations of LGBTQI+ people can act as both normativising and disruptive social forces; how spatialities and community building constitute an important part of a productive form of futurity; how activism, political resistance, and the deployment of disorder are powerful tools for the LGBTQI+ person; how engagement with the arts and popular culture can be perceived as an act of subversion; and finally, how there is radical transformative potential in the representative strategies currently used in the Irish media landscape. These findings are relevant for education, social policy, and journalistic best practice.