Title: Using Discourse Analysis on News Media Content
1Using Discourse Analysis on News Media Content
- Issues and Challenges
- By Shan Wu
2Overview
- 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
3Defining 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
4Discourse 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
5Three Key Scholars
- Michel Foucaults system of representation
- Teun van Dijks socio-cognitive approach
- Norman Faircloughs critical discourse analysis
6Foucaults 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
7Foucaults System of Representation
- Criticisms
- No structured and comprehensive methodology
- Subject as mere product of discursive practices
8Van Dijks 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
9Van Dijks Socio-Cognitive Approach
- Criticisms
- Ignores intertextual relations
- Difficult to compare across large number of texts
- Uncritical reproduction of power relations and
ideologies
10Faircloughs 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
11Faircloughs Critical Discourse Analysis
- Criticisms
- Textual-oriented approach
- Over-ambitious methodical frame
- Questionable linkage between textual description
and interpretation - Lack of understanding of human agency
12Discourse 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
13Discourse 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
14Discourse 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
15Suggested 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
16Suggested Improvements
- Pros
- Intertextual and contextual
- Time-sensitive
- Accounts for journalistic intervention
- Cons
- Neglects production processes of text and
audience reception
17Suggested 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
18Israeli-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
19Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
- Israelis issued statement that boys 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
20Israeli-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
21Israeli-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
22Conclusion
- 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