Textual Analysis
Myra Gurney
School of Humanities and Communication Arts
What is textual analysis?
 A research method used to describe and interpret the
characteristics of texts
 Describes the content, structure and functions of a
message in a text
 The choice of elements within a text can offer evidence
of how people make sense of or understand the world. It
can also show how they wish to be understood
 Most commonly uses language as a source of analysis for
the production of meaning but can also use semiotic
systems
 Texts do not exist in isolation and must be read in the
context of speaker, audience, genre and historical
context
What is a ‘text’
 In the context of cultural studies, the idea of a ‘text’
includes written and spoken language but also films,
photographs, television productions, music, artwork etc.
 They can also be ‘read’ as artifacts of ‘ideology’ where the
choice of elements and their composition (how they are
constructed) consciously or unconsciously reflects a
political or ideological position
 Texts are ‘socially constructed’ … that is, they are created
by, as well as reflect and represent, our views of the world
 Linguist MAK Halliday’s definition of a text is ‘a semantic unit
containing specific textual components, which make it
‘internally cohesive’. He was also concerned with studying
‘the relationship between language and other elements
and aspects of social life’ (Fairclough, 2003, 5)
The ‘Humpty Dumpty syndrome’
 ‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in
rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose
it to mean – neither more nor less.’ ‘The question
is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you
can make words mean so many different things.’
‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to
be master – that's all.’
Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland
The study of language
 Language is the predominant channel of communication used
by humans
 Language is learned and imbibed from our social surroundings
 Words are symbols: meaning is in the use and interpretation, not
in the word itself
 Each speaker and reader will bring their own interpretations to
the meaning
 Context can alter meaning
Language as a ‘social
construction’
 Kress: language not something that is “outside time”  Language not a static, fixed system or as something where “the
individual language user meets the system as a monolithic,
immutable given, which he or she may use but cannot alter.”
 Discourses reflect the users’ view of the world and act to
internalise these views via language
 Lakoff (2008): “[s]ince language is used for communicating
thought, our view of language must also reflect our new
understanding of the nature of thought. Language is at once a
surface phenomenon and a source of power. It is a means of
expressing, communicating, accessing, and even shaping
thought”
Language and ‘reality’
 Discourses reflect the users’ view of the world and act to
internalise these views via language
 According to Kress and Hodge (1979), naming and labeling a
phenomenon has the effect of shaping how we think about it:
boat people, illegal immigrants, queue jumpers
 The words we choose to communicate our version of ‘reality’ will
reflect both how we experience these phenomena and also
how we wish others to see it.
 Bill Lutz writes:
 I like my coffee hot; my wife says my coffee is scalding; I say
the handle of the pot is too hot; my wife grabs it with her bare
hand; I say the shirt is red; my wife says it is orange. I say the
car is small; the salesman calls it ‘mid-sized’. What passes for a
mountain in the mid-West is called a ‘foothill’ in the West (1996,
9).
Words as symbols
 Both the sounds and the letters used to represent the
sounds are arbitrary: they have no inherent meaning
 We learn and use particular meanings and they evolve and
change
 Language is not fixed: it evolves and changes
 Words and expressions, forms of speech often act as
historical artifacts eg
 Abraham Lincoln’s ‘Gettysburg Address: “Four score and seven
years ago our ancestors brought forth our fathers brought forth on
this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated
to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
 Churchill’s war speeches: “We will fight them on the beaches … ‘
 Martin Luther King “I have a dream”,
 JF Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country can do for you …”
The notion of ‘discourse’
 Language is more a social than an individual matter and Kress
uses the term discourse to mean the systematic way in which
institutions or social groups habitually talk or write (Mohan et al,
1997, 69)
 “… a group of statements which provide a language for talking
about a topic and a way of producing a particular kind of
knowledge about a topic. Thus the term refers both to the
production of knowledge through language and
representations and the way that knowledge is institutionalized,
shaping social practices and setting new practices into play”
(Du Gay, 1996, 43)
Approaches to textual
analysis: Rhetorical criticism
 Rhetorical criticism: a systematic method for describing,
interpreting, analysing and evaluating the persuasive purpose
of a message (Frey et al, (1999)
 Origins in Classical Rhetoric of Ancient Greeks esp Aristotle
 Asks a range of questions including:
 What is the relationship between a text and its context/
 How does a text construct reality for an audience?
 What does a text suggest about the rhetor?
Three main dimensions of
rhetoric
 Ethos is trustworthiness, credibility, and reliability of the
speaker;
 Pathos is appealing to an audience's most basic, most
deeply held values, attitudes, beliefs and needs;
 Logos is the appeal to evidence through use of logic
and the reasoning process.
 Most messages contain all these dimensions to a
greater or lesser extent
Approaches to textual
analysis: Content analysis
 Content analysis is used to identify, enumerate and analyse
occurrences of specific messages and message characteristics
embedded in texts
 Qualitative: researchers are more interested in the meanings
associated with messages than the number of times messages
occur
 Quantitative involves identifying and coding semantic units like
words or phrases, or thematic units such as topics. Often uses
software programs such as NViVO or Leximancer to code
 Example: Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ):
Sceptical Climate Part 1: http://scepticalclimate.investigate.org.au/part-1/findings/research-designmethodology/
How to ‘do’ textual analysis
from McKee (2014)
 Start with a question you want to answer eg how does the
media represent a certain issue such as climate change
 Locate texts which either directly or indirectly represent the
issue eg media reports, speeches, press releases, advertising
texts, political advertising, parliamentary speeches, film,
television, cartoons
 Narrow your question to focus on one aspect eg What frames
do the texts use to argue for climate change?
 Find previous academic and popular writing on the subject
 What is the cultural or political context of the text? Eg other
texts, genre, intertexts (eg blog posts, letters to the editor), the
‘semiosphere’ (or ‘world of meaning’ within which the text
circulates: what other texts or issues might influence the
interpretation)
How to ‘do’ textual analysis
from McKee (2014)
 Gather examples of the texts
 Examine as many examples as possible in terms of the rules
which govern how they work. What are the themes, styles,
conventions?
 What is NOT said? Omission can be as important as inclusion
 What frames (political positions, focus, structures, choice of
metaphor etc are dominant)?
 What are the linguistic devices (sentence structures,
metaphor, word choices, rhetorical structures) which create
these frames? To what extent are these deliberate or
accidental?
 How might audiences respond? Give examples to support
your contention
15
Example: Climate change: ‘The great
moral challenge of a generation’
 Rhetorical trope first articulated in Rudd speech of
June 2007 at the National Climate Change Summit
 Political speeches have an important strategic role in
the evocation of a position and a politician’s power:
Rudd was establishing his credibility as an alternative
PM
 He was trying use climate change to distinguish himself
from old world values and approach of
John Howard in lead up to 2007 election
 Trying to establish his position within the
ALP
 Taking up a previous position in an earlier
essay “Faith in Politics” (2006)
Research question
 How is the “moral challenge” framed?
 What underlying values does the discourse reflect?
 What are the dominant frames?
 Does the speech work rhetorically to construct the
problem as a moral and ethical one? Why not?
Some competing climate change
frames
From Nisbet (2009)
Frame
Defines science-related issue as …
Social progress
A means of improving quality of life or solving problems; alternative
interpretation as a way to be in harmony with nature instead of
mastering it.
Economic development and
competitiveness
An economic investment; market benefit or risk; or a point of local,
national, or global competitiveness.
Morality and ethics
A matter of right or wrong; or of respect or disrespect for the limits,
thresholds, or boundaries.
Scientific and technical
uncertainty
A matter of expert understanding or consensus; a debate over
what is known versus what is unknown; or peer-reviewed, confirmed
knowledge versus hype or alarmism.
Pandora’s box/Frankenstein’s
monster/runaway science
Research or policy either in the public interest or serving special
interests, emphasising issues of control, transparency, participation,
responsiveness, or ownership; or debate over proper use of science
and expertise in decision-making (“politicisation”).
Middle way/alternative path
A third way between conflicting or polarised views or opinions
Conflict and strategy
A game among elites, such as who is winning or losing the debate;
or a battle of personalities or groups (usually a journalist-driven
interpretation).
What do we mean by ‘moral’ or
‘ethical’?
 Climate change is about more than just ‘weather’, it’s about
fundamental human rights
 Climate shapes and affects all societies and cultures
 Climate affects non human habitats and species
 Climate change will “cost” future generations
 Intergenerational responsibilities
 Who should ‘pay’? How is ‘payment’ calculated and
apportioned?
 Religious notion of “stewardship” of “God’s gift”
 Gaia a “living entity” (Lovelock, 2006) with value for and of itself
 A problem of ‘quantification’ or ‘faith’? A question of ‘values’ but
whose? And measured how?
Findings: Rudd
Rudd and “the greatest moral challenge of a
generation” (June 2007)
 Opening a “call to arms”: repetition of “challenge”
 Diplomatic discourse: Australia has a tradition of
“middle power diplomacy”
 Lists the “challenges” but addresses “moral challenge”
last:
 How you sustain a proposition which says that when the
evidence is in and the scientific evidence is in, the economic
data is accumulating that when that is presented to us in the
year 2007 and we fail to act, how can we look towards the
interests of the generation which comes after us and say, “I’m
sorry, it was too difficult to act”. For me, that is a compelling
argument as well [para 23].
Findings: Rudd
 “Moral” implied rather than articulated, unlike
other frames
 Fifth, the fifth question is, what are the best policy
settings for what might be described as personal
responsibility, corporate responsibility, community responsibility
agenda? How do we individually act as citizens, engage with
the great challenge of climate change to do our bit to reduce
our own carbon footprints? [para 35].
 More weight to economic dimensions: a la Stern
Review
 Conclusion: “… climate change does represent
significant market failure, that’s where Governments
have to enter the field …” [para 43].
Discourse Analysis
Some videos
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpJhICZczU
Q
Florian Schneider introducing Discourse Analysis
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTLUVv0_gJ4
Adrian Coyle (UK) on analysing songs