Done by 2 FL master students:
Smagulova D., Tleulinova A.

• Defining discourse analysis
• Discourse and Power
• Three key discourse analytical frameworks
– Michel Foucault
– Teun A. van Dijk
– Norman Fairclough
• Flaws of existing frameworks for analysis of news media texts
• Critique of suggested improvements

• Two main definitions
– As social action and interaction between human agents
– As social construction of reality that creates a knowledge system; influences our social practice and relations
• Effective qualitative supplement to quantitative content analysis
• Considers link between media content and wider sociopolitical framework

• Discourse linked to power and social interests
• Language use and social practice framed by institutions
– Institutions determine rules and and positions of agents

• Michel Foucault’s system of representation
• Teun van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach
• Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis

• Discourse as system of representation
• Discourse – Knowledge – Power
• Discursive formation can sustain “regime of truth”
• Subjects constructed through discourse
• Opposes Marxist theory of ideology
• Intertextuality and interdiscursivity

• Criticisms:
– No structured and comprehensive methodology
– Subject as mere product of discursive practices

• Reducing textual info to fundamental themes
• On thematic level:
– Looks at overall description of text/ macrostructures
– Reduces complicated info to macro-propositions
• On schematic level:
– Analyse schematic structures that influence form of the text

• Criticisms:
– Ignores intertextual relations
– Difficult to compare across large number of texts
– Uncritical reproduction of power relations and ideologies

• Discourses influence social relations and knowledge systems through language
• Group together to form discursive order
• Discourse analysis = analysis of discursive event + analysis of discursive order
• Three dimensions:
– Analysis of 1) language texts, 2) discourse practice, 3) discursive events as instances of sociocultural practice
• Impt terms: Discourse practice, intertextuality

• Criticisms:
– Textual-oriented approach
– Over-ambitious methodical frame
– Questionable linkage between textual description and interpretation
– Lack of understanding of human agency

• Shaping presentation of media texts
– Professional ideology of journalists, news organizations
– State and corporate pressures
– Ownership of media
– Profit motivation of news organization

• Key considerations neglected in current frameworks
– Origins of competing discourses
– Presence of divergent social accounts
– Influence of external factors
– Meaning of the text to different audiences

• Other issues
– Accuracy of representations
– Views included/ excluded in a text
– Rhetoric of political stories
– Time-sensitivity
– Interaction between discourse and social realities: Circulation of meaning

• Carvalho (2000)
– Textual analysis
• Language and rhetoric
• Discursive strategies and processes
• Ideological standpoints
• (Surface descriptors, objects, actors)
– Contextual Analysis
• Comparative-synchronic analysis
• Historical-diachronic analysis

• Pros
– Intertextual and contextual
– Time-sensitive
– Accounts for journalistic intervention
• Cons
– Neglects production processes of text and audience reception

• Greg Philo (2007), Glasgow University
Media Group
– Interviews and focus groups with journalists and audiences
– E.g. Coverage of Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the UK

• Reports on killing of young Palestinian boy
Mohd Al-Durrah in Oct 2000
• Images of him and his father crouched against wall widely shown

• Israelis issued statement that boy’s death was unintentional
• Israelis focused on “war on terror”: Israel as threatened and “responding” to attacks
• Palestinians rejected this account
• Israeli view dominant in news

• Influences on UK journalists
– Strong support in US for Israel
– Close political link between UK and US
– Well-organized lobbying and public relations
– Views of political and public figures
– Aim for balance: Sympathetic, acknowledge boy killed by Israelis

• Audience reception of messages
– Reproduced content and structure of news progs
• Little reference to Palestinian viewpoint
– Reproduced structure and sequence of accounts based on news reports
• Reorganized memories to give meaning to the event

• Need to analyze media texts against total system
• Consider processes of production, content, reception and circulation
• Comprehensive discourse analysis: Better understanding of generation and reproduction of social meanings through news media

References
1.
Fairclough, N.L. (1985) Critical and Descriptive Goals in Discourse
Analysis , Journal of Pragmatics 9: 739-63. Fairclough, N. (1989)
Language and Power. London: Longman.
2. Foucault, M. (1980) Power/Knowledge: Selected Writings and
Other Interviews 1972- l977, ed. C. Gordon. New York: Pantheon.
3. Van Dijk, T.A. (1984). Prejudice in Discourse. Amsterdam:
Benjamins. Van Dijk, T.A. (19187a) Communicating Racism.
Newbury Park. CA: Sage.
4.
Van Dijk, T.A. (1987b) Episodic Models in Discourse Processing , in R. t Horowitz and S.J. Samuels (eds) Comprehending Oral and
Written Language, pp. 161-96. New York: Academic Press.
5.
Van Dijk, T.A. (1989a) Social Cognition and Discourse , in H. Giles and R.P. Robinson (eds) Handbook of Social Psychology and
Language, pp. 163-83. Chichester: Wiley.