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Using Discourse Analysis on News Media Content
Issues and Challenges
By Shan Wu
Overview
• 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
Defining Discourse Analysis
• 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 and Power
• Discourse linked to power and social interests
• Language use and social practice framed by institutions– Institutions determine rules and and positions
of agents
Three Key Scholars
• Michel Foucault’s system of representation
• Teun van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach
• Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis
Foucault’s System of Representation
• 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
Foucault’s System of Representation
• Criticisms:– No structured and comprehensive methodology– Subject as mere product of discursive practices
Van Dijk’s Socio-Cognitive Approach
• 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
Van Dijk’s Socio-Cognitive Approach
• Criticisms:– Ignores intertextual relations– Difficult to compare across large number of
texts– Uncritical reproduction of power relations and
ideologies
Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis
• 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
Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis
• Criticisms:– Textual-oriented approach– Over-ambitious methodical frame– Questionable linkage between textual
description and interpretation– Lack of understanding of human agency
Discourse Analysis for News
• Shaping presentation of media texts– Professional ideology of journalists, news
organizations– State and corporate pressures– Ownership of media– Profit motivation of news organization
Discourse Analysis for News
• 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
Discourse Analysis for News
• 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
Suggested Improvements
• 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
Suggested Improvements
• Pros– Intertextual and contextual– Time-sensitive– Accounts for journalistic intervention
• Cons– Neglects production processes of text and
audience reception
Suggested Improvements
• 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
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
• Reports on killing of young Palestinian boy Mohd Al-Durrah in Oct 2000
• Images of him and his father crouched against wall widely shown
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
• 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
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
• 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
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
• 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
Conclusion
• 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