Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis

Nordic Journal of English Studies, 2011

The aim of this paper is to see what Critical Discourse Analysis is. This implies scrutinising its origins, what it has meant to the academic world as a whole, how it encapsulates various trends with different theoretical backgrounds and methodological approaches, what are its limitations and its new developments. A simple practical example will show its potential.

Indonesian EFL Journal, 2018

The precarious and critical period of the initiation of Discourse Analysis was populer at the end of the 1990s and the beginning of 2000s. Various approaches and frameworks were proposed during the time especially in the field of Applied Linguistics. This is including Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as one of its leading areas.� This present study aimed at exploring and catching out how the CDA� presentation in overall related to Media studies and how it can be applicable to uncover an unseen ideologies while examining the existence of media discourse studies. The study is considering 25 journal studies to scrutinize the ways and methods used in discern social phenomena while illuminating the true characteristics of the social actors. As result, it was revealed that� CDA is used openly to expose ideologies that somehow differentiate oppressed groups by offering a dummy image used by the highest authority or elite.Keywords: CDA; ideology; media discourse; social actors; power.

This paper is based on the premise that discourse is always under the influence of different ideological readings which not only formulate its meaning but inspire various interpretations as well; hence, it needs a theoretical cover that could justify its multiplicity of meaning. This paper, therefore, discusses the possibility of introducing a deconstructive, reader-oriented approach (DRA) to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as a model of discourse interpretation. The paper tries to appraise the theoretical framework of CDA and to offer an overview of the fundamental propels of its interpretative task in the light of two poststructuralist literary theories: the deconstruction theory and the reception theory. The paper also endeavours to emphasize the deconstructive nature of CDA by shedding lights on its relationship with the above mentioned theories. The conclusion drawn from this paper shows that introducing a deconstructive, reader-oriented approach to CDA is relevant to the latter's interpretative nature enough to diminish a part of the criticism levelled against its interpretative framework concerning plurality of meaning; and to establish some sort of exoneration for its theoretical shortcomings. The paper recommends that DRA will bridge the gap between theory and practice as it offers a theoretical base to discourse which could advocate its critiques regarding diversity of interpretation.

Revisions to the theory of political discourse analysis, 2022

This article describes classical approaches to understanding political discourse analysis as one of the most promising methods of political analysis. The article examines both the critical discourse analysis approaches proposed by G. Kress and L. Сhouliaraki (socio-semantic approach), N. Fairclough and R. Wodak (socio-cultural approach), and T. Van Dijk (sociocognitive approach), as well as the postmodern theory of discourse analysis proposed by M. Foucault and developed by his followers, in particular E. Laclau and S. Mouffe. The objective of this essay is to compare and contrast different methodologies for the advancement of political discourse analysis. There are a number of factors that make this article relevant. In the first place, modern methods of studying political reality are in crisis. They are no longer as effective at comprehending the social processes of our time as they once were. Secondly, the popularity of interdisciplinary research methods is growing every day, and political discourse analysis is seen as a vivid example of such a method. Thirdly, consciousness, which is still considered an insufficiently studied phenomenon in the social sciences, can finally be replaced by language. Language or discourse is considered here as the bricks of which consciousness is composed and thanks to which it can perform in the social space. This approach allows us to ignore the physical and biological manifestations of consciousness in favor of social ones, which allows us to interpret the socio-political reality of our time as accurately as possible and predict future changes. As a result, we define political discourse analysis as a kind of general political analysis based on postmodern discourse theory. We are sure that this type of analysis has the greatest prospects for the study of such social processes and social relations as power, conflicts, inequality, political identity, etc. This article will be interesting for those who are engaged in political discourse analysis and developing it, as well as for other scholars who study the philosophy of science, methodology, political psychology, and quantitative and qualitative research methods in the social sciences.

2015

This article aims to review the body of research on ceremonial speeches of popular world leaders and their genre of persuasive discourse—ceremonial speech that includes special occasion, religious, political, and editorial rhetoric. The review of related past studies revealed that some studies lack a clear explication of the theoretical framework which informs the study. It was also found that the outcomes of other studies were not fully discussed within the theoretical framework adopted. Yet other studies appeared to be confined to the application of single theory/approach to explore the multifaceted phenomenon of persuasive discourse. Despite these somewhat limited orientations to the research, much of the critical work concerned show that the persuasive strategies and devices employed by the dominant social actors include a range of rhetorical proofs, questions, and figures of speech, as well as the speech acts of directives, assertives, representatives, and expressives as the wa...

2015

This article aims to present detailed accounts of central approaches to Critical Discourse Analysis. It focuses on the work of three prominent scholars such as Fairclough's critical approach, Wodak's discourse-historical approach and Van Dijk's socio-cognitive approach. This study concludes that a combination of these three approaches can be useful to critical analysis of texts.

Organizational Research Methods, 2008

Critical discourse analysis has become an increasingly popular methodology in organization and management studies. In this article, the authors explore the potential for this methodology to be more widely used in strategic management research. They begin by identifying three research approaches that, to a greater or lesser extent, share a concern with the relationship between language and the formulation and implementation of strategy-strategy as a system of shared meaning, strategy as text and talk, and strategy as truth. They then discuss how critical discourse analysis can be used to extend and develop these approaches by exploiting their underlying complementarities. Finally, using the example of a recently completed case study of strategic change in a large banking and financial services institution, they explore the practical implications of applying critical discourse analysis in strategic management research.

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a theory and method of discourse analysis that focuses on the study of the dialectical relations between discourse and social, cultural, and political developments in different social domains. CDA makes a distinction between the discursive and the nondiscursive in social life, albeit accounting for exchange between the two realms. It views written, spoken, and visual (and other forms of multimodal) discourse—language use in speech, writing, and visuals (and other forms of modality)—as an important form of social practice that contributes to the constitution of the social world, including social identities and social relations, and that is in turn constituted by social practices such as the structure of the political system or the institutional structure of the media. Hence in CDA, discourse constitutes social practice and is simultaneously constituted by it (Wodak, de Cillia, Reisigl, & Liebhart, 2009, p. 8). The aim of CDA is to shed light on the discursive dimension of social and cultural phenomena and processes of change in late modernity. CDA builds its understanding of language on Halliday's (1978) systemic-functionalist approach, according to which language systems and language use are deeply connected to fulfill social functions. The meanings delivered through language can offer information on the social foundations of language. The theoretical premises of the approach go back to Althusser's theory of ideology, Bakhtin's game theory, and in particular the Western Marxist tradition ranging from Foucauldian poststructuralism to the philosophical traditions of Gramsci and the Frankfurt School. Theory and basic assumptions The influence of the Frankfurt School and Jürgen Habermas is particularly visible in studies that employ CDA. CDA's employment of the term " critical " as in the critical theory of the Frankfurt School assumes that research should produce knowledge that will help in the emancipation of humans from various modes of domination (Wodak & Meyer, 2009, p. 7). Hence the word " critical " in critical discourse analysis does not mean negative as understood in the common sense, but implies the need to challenge common knowledge that is taken for granted. Such a theoretical standing leads to a focus on the role of language in power relations, processes of exclusion, racism, inequality, and identity-building in works that place themselves under the CDA umbrella. CDA adopts an emancipatory mission for radical social change geared toward empowering oppressed groups. In doing that, it aims to uncover obfuscated structures of power

JEES (Journal of English Educators Society), 2018

Discussing the period of critical in discourse analysis, it has appeared at variety of analytical conceptual frameworks and approaches. This paper focuses to find out how Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) that has an important role in the ideologies, in other side observing the power of media discourse studi investigate how and why the social interaction from critical view. This study reviewed ten journal articles for checking the ways and methods used CDA to invent the social phenomenon. It has been used to unmask m keep giving the highest authority to a group that is positive images. While the social actors have their own ways of using CDA.