Media Studies

Media Discourse (I)

MA I, American Studies

Media Discourse
LECTURE OUTLINE
What is discourse?
How can we analyze media
discourse?
The functions of language
The micro-level of analysis
grammar and vocabulary

Media Discourse
What is discourse?
language in use in society (social practices,
public or private domains) / meaning making
through language (Fairclough 2003, among
others)
all the phenomena of symbolic interaction
and communication between people, usually
through spoken or written language or visual
representation (Bloor&Bloor 2007: 6)
uncountable

Media Discourse
Discourse can also be used as a countable noun to reflect
a particular worldview, position or ideology, such as
liberal
discourse, conservative discourse etc.
(Fairclough 2003, drawing on Foucault) discourses
Text is a product of discourse. It is normally used to
describe a linguistic record (a text) of a communicative
event. This may be an electronic recording or a written
text, which may or may not incorporate visual materials
or, in the case of an electronic text, music. (Bloor & Bloor
2007: 7)
Texts draw upon various discourses, instantiate particular
types of interaction/genres, and incorporate other texts
(intertextuality).

Media Discourse
Discourses structure and are structured by
social practices (dialectical relationship).
Social practices discourses
Social event texts
Media practices media discourses
Media events texts (particular news stories,
editorials, columns, features etc.)

Media Discourse
When we analyze media texts (and any type of text, for
that matter), we have to examine them as products of:
institutional media practices: the production and
consumption of media texts (see the professionalorganizational approach)
social, cultural and political practices
the situational context (the event) and the larger sociocultural context

In the case of media texts, it is essential to keep in mind

that they also mediate other practices (for example
shopping, elections, education, etc.).

Media Discourse
Richardson (2007: 39):
Encoding
Producer:
Newspaper

TEXT

Shaping belief
Consumer:
Reader

Conventions of genre Reading/decoding

Media Discourse
Richardson (2007: 42):
Social structuration
Society

Maintain/transform

Newspaper-Text-Reader

Resistance

Recalcitrance

Society

Media Discourse
A macro-level of analysis:
Discourses
Genres
Identities

A micro-level of analysis:
Vocabulary
Grammar
Cohesion, coherence

(following Fairclough 2003, Fowler 1990, Richardson

2007 Critical Discourse Analysis)

Media Discourse
At both levels, semiosis is viewed as performing
three
metafunctions
(M.A.K.
Hallidays
metafunctions of language):
the ideational metafunction represention
the interpersonal metafunction positioning
the textual metafunction texturing
We will be concerned with the first two
metafunctions. They are co-exist in texts at all
times.

Media Discourse
(1) the content of the message, i.e. the aspects of the
social world that the text producers refer to in
various ways, also
called representation or
construction of social reality;
(2) the modalities in which the text producers position
themselves in relation to this content (they
evaluate it as positive or negative, for example)
and position readers/viewers in relation to it (they
expect us to agree with them, believe them, be
persuaded
by
them,
etc.),
also
called
positioning/point of view.

Media Discourse
(1) Representation at a micro-level:
Any aspect of a social practice (actors, action/processes,
circumstances time, place, means, social relations)
can be represented or constructed in language by
using words to refer to it. Whenever we use words, we
are confronted with making a choice. Shall we say
the old man or the senior citizen or
grandfather? Shall we say I broke the vase or the
vase was broken?
Representation illustrates the text producers knowledge
and beliefs about the world worldviews. If we look
beyond words and sentences, then discourses are
ways of representing the world.

Media Discourse
Elements we can look at when we
representation (the list is not exhaustive):

analyze

The ways social actors (groups and individuals)

are represented in discourse:

Generic references (classes of individuals):

migrants, inhabitants; the average person, a child.
Collective references (collectives, communities):
we, the nation, the community, the experts, the
town.
Numbers: two hundred workers, twelve orphans.

Media Discourse
Classifications according to:
job/function: workers, doctors, engineers,
president.
gender: women, men, teenage girls.
ethnic/national origin or geographical location:
Africans, Brits, Aboriginals, Aussies, Poles,
Eastern Europeans.
sexual orientation: gay, lesbian, queer,
heterosexual, homosexual.
action: asylum seekers, criminals.
physical identification: blonde, fatso/fatty.

Media Discourse
Classifications according to:
relational identification (family): mother, father,
sister.
political orientation: leftists, right-wing extremists.
social class/income: the rich, the poor, proletarians .
Generalizations: most people, many voters etc.
Abstractions: process, transformation, issue etc.
Specific references, individualizations, nominations
individuals are represented as singular, specific
entities, they are named.

Media Discourse
Naming forms (formal, semi-formal, informal):
first name only (Elizabeth, Robert);
short form of first name only (Liz, Bob, Rob),
first name + last name (Elizabeth Smart);
title + last name (Mrs Smart);
title only (Sir, Madam);
last name only (Smart, Shaw);
nickname (Di, Fergie);

Media Discourse

profession or trade (Doctor, Constable);

formal title + name (Lord Archer);
formal title (Her Royal Highness);
anonymous address (boy, girl);
assumed name given by others (Maggie
[Thatcher], Bse [Bsescu]), assumed name
taken by the named individual (Sting); groups
(dearly beloved, comrades, boys, girls).

(based on Reah 2002, Van Leeuwen 2008)

Social actors are also endowed with
characteristics or attributes.

Media Discourse
At the same time, social agents carry out actions or
are involved in events processes which are
generally realised by verbal forms:
material processes: verbs of doing, happening:
read, run, jump, happen, occur, etc.
mental processes (cognition, affection,
perception): think, believe, love, hate, etc.
relational processes: be, have, seem, etc.
verbal processes: say, state, claim, declare,
etc.

Media Discourse
Nouns can also be used instead of verbs to
refer to actions. When nouns are used, agency is
not always clear:
The level of support for stopping immigration
altogether was at a post-war high. (Van Leeuwen
2008: 30)
Who offered support? Who is in favour of stopping
immigration?

Media Discourse
The use of active or passive voice positions actors
in different ways:
Sniper shot boy from 10 inches
Boy shot from 10 inches by sniper
Shot from 10 inches
The use of pronouns (Us vs. Them) in
combination with other words denoting what We
are/have/do vs. what They are/have/do Positive
Self-Presentation

Negative
OtherPresentation. The use of pronouns in this way
also fulfils an interpersonal function:

Media Discourse
They have We have
A war machine Army, Navy and Air force
CensorshipReporting restrictions
Propaganda Press briefings
They We
Destroy Suppress
Kill Eliminate
Kill Neutralise
Their men are Our men are
Troops Boys
Hordes Lads
(example quoted in Richardson, 2007: 47, about the words used
by British journalists during the 1991 war against Iraq)

Media Discourse
US strikes insurgency safe houses in Falluja
A US strike targeted two safe houses used by followers of
reputed terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Falluja,
US officials said.

American raid kills 18 in Falluja

At least 18 people, among them three children were killed in
an American air raid targeting two houses in the residential
district of al-Jubail in Falluja, west of Baghdad.
The American army alleged in a statement issued yesterday
that the raid targeted hideouts of the followers of the socalled Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in what has been described as
a precision operation.

Media Discourse
(2) The interpersonal function at the microlevel:
Positioning/point of view:
all speakers and writers take up some position
in relation to the propositions they make. We call it
speaker stance or authorial stance. (Bloor & Bloor
200writers 7: 34)
speakers and also take up a position in relation to
their target addressees media publics/audiences.

Media Discourse
(2) The interpersonal function at the microlevel:
Journalists position themselves towards the social
practices, events and actors that make the
subject of news and, simultaneously, towards
their audiences/publics. In the process, they also
attempt to position the latter towards the events.

Media Discourse
Elements we can analyze (the list is not
exhaustive):
the use of positive or negative words (evaluation)
verbs, adjectives, nouns
the use of shared knowledge (assumptions about
the addressees)
the use of pronouns (we, you, they): inclusive
we (includes the addressee), exclusive we
(excludes the addressee), the use of they as an
Othering strategy (creating stereotypes,
distance) see representation above

Media Discourse
the use of modal verbs and similar categories:
categorical statements:
Mary is right.
(speaker is sure)
modalized statements: Mary must be right.
Mary may be right.
Mary could be right.
the use of formal/informal language (distance towards
readeres)
the use of rhetorical tropes: metaphor, metonymy,
hyperbole, personification, slogans, puns, stock
phrases etc.

Media Discourse
Socially shared knowledge sometimes known as
mutual knowledge is knowledge that is used by
participants in a communicative act. We need shared
knowledge to communicate even in a one-to-one
conversation. (Bloor & Bloor 2007: 17)
Lack of shared knowlegde may lead to:
breakdown in communication
misunderstandings
quarrels

But shared knowledge can also be used to manipulate.

Media Discourse
Mutual knowledge can be categorized into the following
types:
knowledge of certain facts relating to subject matter;
wide cultural knowledge, such as an understanding of
major celebratory festivals, religious and/or ethical
customs, or the legal system;
knowledge of how people behave with respect to their
social roles within social hierarchies;
knowledge of the institutional practices of specialist
discourse communities, such as workplace groups,
schools, government, clubs and societies and their
related genres;

Media Discourse
knowledge of the moral values of the groups to
which participants belong;
knowledge of the co-text and context in a specific
communicative event;
knowledge of the individuals involved as
discourse participants in the immediate
communicative event.
(Bloor & Bloor 2007: 18)

Media Discourse
You can have a flat tummy, healthy hair, a
glowing complexion and lovely make-up
by following our golden beauty rules.
(example from McLoughlin, 2000)

Media Discourse
See handout news story from New York Post
How are social actors represented?
How is the event represented?
Can you identify the journalists point of view?

References
Bloor, M. And Bloor, Th. (2007). The Practice of Critical Discourse
Analysis: An Introduction. London: Hodder Education.
Fairclough, N. 2003. Analyzing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social
Research. London and New York: Routledge.
Fowler, R. 1991. Language in the News: discourse and ideology in the
press. London and New York: Routledge.
McLoughlin, L. 2000. The Language of Magazines. London and New
York: Routledge.
Reah, D. 2002. The Language of Newspapers (2nd ed). London and
New York: Routledge
Richardson, J.E. 2007. Analysing Newspapers An Approach from
Critical Discourse Analysis. Palgrave Macmillan
Van Leeuwen, T. 2008. Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical
Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.