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 Foucaults system of representation
Teun van Dijks socio-cognitive approach
Norman Faircloughs critical discourse
analysis
 Foucaults 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
 Foucaults System of
Representation
Criticisms:
No structured and comprehensive methodology
Subject as mere product of discursive practices
 Van 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
 Van Dijks Socio-Cognitive
Approach
Criticisms:
Ignores intertextual relations
Difficult to compare across large number of
texts
Uncritical reproduction of power relations and
ideologies
 Faircloughs 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
 Faircloughs 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 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
 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