Discourse Analysis in Media
Discourse Analysis in Media is a method for examining how media texts use language, images, and communication patterns to construct meanings, shape identities, and perpetuate or challenge power relations. Developed from linguistic analysis and critical theory—particularly Michel Foucault's concept of discourse as a system of knowledge-production and Norman Fairclough's critical discourse analysis (CDA) framework—the method reveals how what appears as neutral information or entertainment actually participates in maintaining or challenging social hierarchies and ideologies. The method is specifically concerned with how discourse operates politically: what it makes possible to think and say, whom it privileges, and what alternatives it renders invisible.
Read the full method
Sign in with a free account to read this section.
Sources
- Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and Social Change. Polity Press. link ↗
- Foucault, M. (1980). Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977. Pantheon Books. link ↗
- Van Dijk, T. A. (2015). Critical Discourse Studies: A Sociocognitive Approach. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of Critical Discourse Studies (3rd ed., pp. 62-86). SAGE. DOI: 10.4135/9781473957650 ↗
- Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (2009). Critical Discourse Analysis: History, Agenda, Theory and Methodology. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (2nd ed., pp. 1-33). SAGE. link ↗