michel foucault, a French jurist, first put forward the view that "discourse is power" in The Order of Discourse. Since then, the right to speak has become a hot issue in research.

In Foucault's view, discourse is a practical activity, which develops in writing, reading and exchange. He believes that in any society, the production of discourse will be controlled, selected, organized and re-disseminated according to certain procedures. There is a complicated power relationship hidden in it. Any discourse is the product of the operation of power relations. Foucault believes that the key to the power problem is not who holds the power, but how it happens, or how it works. This is the technology, strategy and mechanism of power. Foucault pointed out that in the western industrialized society, people have been paying close attention to the question of "who exercises power over whom." He believes that the problem of "who exercises power" cannot be solved separately from the problem of "how power occurs", and the problem of how power occurs and operates is far more important than the problem of who exercises power.