Abstract

This research articlediscusses the negative effects of media discourse and consumerism onthe characters living in the postmodern age, in Delillo’s White Noise.Employing Fairclough’s idea of politicized mediatization of discourseand Wodak’s concept of visual communication, it has been arguedthat consumerism hasa far reaching physical as well as psychological effects on the postmodern individuals’ lives.Under theoverwhelming influence of media discourse and visual communication, the crisisof legitimization is determined by effectively blurring the distinction between media and politics and between fiction and reality,and accordingly, the postmodern community has been deprived of the ability to locate differences between signifier andsignified. To conclude, Delillo’s White Noisenot only offers a clear picture of the postmodern world marked with uncertaintybut also reinstates that people’s identity, their minds and their actions all are predisposed by the logic provided by media discourse and consumerism.

Key words: media discourse, images, visual communication, consumerism, critical discourse, postmodernism