Succumbing to the Burden of Foreignness: A Social Constructionist Analysis of Australian Print Media Representations of Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo

Abstract

Using a combination of social constructionism, dramaturgy, discourse analytic method, and share-price-based observation of trends in “market sentiment,” we examine the Australian print media’s discursive agency during Sol Trujillo’s 4-year (2005-2009) tenure as the U.S.-recruited chief executive officer of the largest Australian telecommunications firm, Telstra. Our analysis illustrates the dramaturgical frames, discursive shifts, and dominant culturally charged metaphors associated with five discernable acts in the Trujillo leadership drama: from a short-lived honeymoon; through a period of public conflict driven by national cultural stereotyping; to transient adjustment and recovery; to stalemate; and, finally, to cultural regression and departure. We find that Trujillo ultimately came to act out the stereotypical “foreignness” scripted for him by a hostile Australian media.