Critical Discourse Analysis Methodology Research Articles

Nuclear Energy as a Sustainable Source? Examining Media Discourses Surrounding the EU-Complementary Delegated Act

This paper contributes to the understanding of media discourses surrounding the sustainability of nuclear energy, particularly within a crisis context. The study examines the implications of the adoption of the Complementary Delegated Act on EU taxonomy by the European Commission on July 6, 2022, which officially categorises nuclear energy as sustainable. Employing a critical discourse analysis (CDA) methodology, the research explores the discourse strategies–nomination, predication, and argumentation– utilised across 695 news articles. The findings reveal the intricate representation of nuclear energy’s sustainability across the media. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict amplifies favourably the nuclear energy view as a reliable and sustainable energy source. However, the media discourse on nuclear energy’s sustainability reveals a variety of viewpoints. These varying outlooks provide essential insights for shaping effective energy policies. This research contributes valuable insights into understanding how media shapes and influences public perception of sustainability energy policies, amplifying specific actors’ voices and steering discourse toward distinct trajectories. Such insights are crucial in crafting energy policies.

Discursively Embedded Institutionalized Stigma in Canadian Judicial Decisions

The aim of this research was to explore how the concept of harm is constituted in case law judicial decisions pertaining to the importation, production, possession, and trafficking of drugs in Canada using critical discourse analysis methodology. The research was designed to uncover taken-for-granted assumptions about drugs and associated harms. The data source for this study is judicial decisions. These are published texts where judge(s) summarize details about the factors considered, provide a reasoned interpretation of sentencing principles relevant to the judicial decision, and explain the rationale for their decision. Initially, codes were identified deductively, using words related to drugs and harm. Codes were added when incidents of moralization language were observed to be high. Moralization language was defined as “the usage of language cues referencing moral values”. The selection process resulted in n = 129 judicial decisions meeting the inclusion criteria. Discourse analysis was guided by four tools described by Gee’s study: the significance tool, the why this way and not that way tool, the connections tool, and the intertextuality tool. Emergent themes are: (1) trafficking as an immoral enterprise; (2) scourge to society, (3) fentanyl and harm, and (4) constructing gravity. This study uncovers discursive practices in many judicial decisions that convey the (re)production of institutionalized stigma. High reliance on legal tropes about drug harms, harm of trafficking, moral culpability associated with distribution of some drugs, by some people, in some ways, and a lack of contextual awareness of social inequities that influence the lives of Canadians perpetuates legal interpretations that support rationales for sentence predicated on denunciation and deterrence.

Iraq's Authoritarian Democracies: A Conceptual Framework through Tawfiq al-Suwaydi's Political Memoirs

Abstract Political memoirs have been typically utilized for their historical reference, neglecting the wide array of conceptualizations of the political sphere and the state that politicians' narratives represent. Critical discourse analysis methodologies, by focusing on perceptions and interpretations of discourse, provide the tools to uncover these conceptualizations of elites and those that represent the state. This is particularly important in states like Iraq, which struggle against hybridity, where the democratic system is actioned through authoritarianist tendencies that define the political sphere. This manipulation of an otherwise democratic structure requires an analysis of the conceptual framework that informs the manipulation. The political memoirs of Tawfiq al-Suwaydi, an Iraqi PM on multiple occasions throughout the Monarchy Era, cover significantly more than identity construction, confirmation of historical narratives, and his defenses. The discursive foundation of the state and the way it is actioned against a democratic system is qualified throughout his writing. In his narration, we will see a significant outpour of fundamentally authoritarian views of rule rooted in efficiency through domination and absolute control. Meanwhile, the democratic system was conceptualized as serving the purpose of appeasing an otherwise inconsolable people. This article highlights the way memoirs of political elites, through the justificatory and analytical language, are gateways to understanding the perceptions of rule upon which their mode of operation, and so the foundation of hybridity, is based. This aims to further illuminate oppressive continuities within the Iraqi political sphere as we have seen a return to a similar form of hybridity post-2003.

Aboriginal plant foods policy in Australia: a critical discourse analysis

ABSTRACT The Australian continent has over 6500 edible endemic plant species, fourteen of which have been certified for commercial consumption. This paper seeks to critically analyze select Australian Commonwealth Government policy relating to these Aboriginal plant foods. The aim is to purposefully examine the positioning of non-Indigenous people in Aboriginal plant foods policy discourse and reveal tacit settler colonial power relations. This is in response to a call to action from Indigenous scholars to examine how settler colonialism manifests in regulatory mechanisms, such as government policy. This paper offers a theoretically informed critical discourse analysis methodology for examining Australian Commonwealth Government policy relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs. Analysis comprised an explanation of the socio-political context of Aboriginal policymaking in Australia, textual analysis of policy texts related to Aboriginal plant foods and an interpretation of discourse practice to reveal how policy discourse tacitly promotes ideological agendas. This analysis revealed that Australian Commonwealth Government Aboriginal plant foods policy is framed according to settler terms and upholds neoliberal interests. Considerable rethinking is required about how power is exercised in Commonwealth Government policy relating to Aboriginal plant foods to ensure it does not replicate and perpetuate unjust settler colonial power relations.

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in Municipal Planning and Management: A Pathway to Improve South African Service Delivery

In the years after 1994, the democratic government of South Africa worked to transfer and extend basic service provision to practically all sections of the country. The delivery of public services continues to be an embarrassment to humanity and the developmental state. Without proper basic services such as water, sanitation, power, infrastructure, health facilities, and housing, a large section of South Africa’s people would continue to live and die. As a result, society remains disenfranchized and exposed to socioeconomic shocks, contributing to the economy's decline and destruction. To support successful service delivery, the integration of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) as a shift from human-led operations to computerized operations is now recognized and required in municipal planning and management. The central purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of applying GIS as a crucial planning tool infused within integrated development planning in municipal planning and management. The current state of service delivery in existing municipal planning and management procedures, as well as the factors that influence it and the effect it has on society, will be examined. This conceptual study employs secondary data and follows a certain methodology. Using the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) methodology, secondary data were examined. The results demonstrate that political influence and manipulation, a lack of openness and accountability, insufficient citizen participation, a lack of personnel capability, and poor planning, monitoring, and evaluation contribute to poor public service delivery in South Africa. Furthermore, the findings indicate that GIS functions as a tool for visualization and collation of spatial information, map production, and data capturing and storage in local municipalities with the aim of enhancing public service delivery.

“Coke’s not a food”: A critical discourse analysis of sugar-sweetened beverage tax acceptability by white residents from an upper-middle class neighborhood in Winnipeg Manitoba

Increasing concerns about the health impacts of sugar consumption has led to the proposition of a sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax in Canada. However, competing concerns related to stigma and equity remain and have not been explored in a Canadian context. As part of a broader study examining the perspectives of various populations on SSB tax acceptability, we examined how residents of an upper-middle class neighborhood conceptualize SSB tax acceptability, and we explored the discourses that inform their discussion. We conducted and analyzed qualitative, semi-structured interviews with residents of an upper-middle class neighborhood in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Recruitment criteria were residence, adults, and English speaking. Critical discourse analysis methodology was used, and healthism (health moralism) and tax psychology informed the analysis. Eighteen participants volunteered: 15 females and 3 males; all self-identified as white, and all spoke about (grand)parenting. Healthist discourse was utilized in supportive discussion of SSB taxation. With the mobilization of healthism, ideal citizens and parents were described as “health conscious” and those who might be likely to reduce SSB intake because of taxation. Healthism also contributed to their identification of beverages targeted by a tax, versus those they deemed as having redeeming nutritional qualities. Limits to SSB tax support were expressed as fairness concerns, with a focus on the procedural justice of the tax. Participants supported SSB taxation and the discourses they employed suggested support for the tax was perceived as contributing to their construction of the kind of ideal, health-valuing citizens they hoped to embody. However, participants were also concerned about the fairness of implementation, although this did not outweigh the prioritization of good health.

Forms of Historical Oblivion and Figures of Silence in Commemorative Practices of the Black Lives Matter Movement: A Comparative Analysis of Media Discourses in English-Speaking Countries

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) social movement has emerged as a prominent challenge to the principles and values of contemporary societies. Concurrently, the practices of cancel culture extend to the historical past as well. The primary objective of this article is to conduct a comparative analysis of forms of historical forgetting and figures of silence within the commemorative practices of BLM, as depicted in media discourses across the English-speaking countries. Making use of the critical discourse analysis methodology of N. Fairclough and S. Jäger, this study analyzes the discursive aspects of monument cancellations and key figures of silence in the media portrayal of BLM commemorative practices in the USA, Canada, the UK, and Australia.
 The research reveals that, despite the unique characteristics of media discourses in Australia and Canada, particularly concerning the memory of indigenous peoples, the canceling practices in the countries examined exhibit similar features. These include general forms of oblivion associated with the formation of a new identity, as outlined by P. Connerton, and the use of forgetting as a weapon, as described by A. Assmann, in the quest for symbolic capital. This study identifies and examines key figures of silence within BLM as a community of memory, including a-historical perspective of colonial era events, disproportionate focus on selected cancellation facts, invocation of collective guilt, silence over morally questionable traits of the oppressed, absence of a constructive program linking past and future, and unchecked emotional expression regarding the past.

Selling Gender Through Kids’ Sport Team Merchandise: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis

Scholars studying team-licensed fan apparel have begun to surface the meanings communicated through fan clothing, particularly focusing on its gendered nature. This study extends upon this previous research by examining children’s sport fan apparel via a social semiotics theoretical framework. The authors collected 377 items from 14 teams in seven major leagues in the United States. Merging a feminist lens with multimodal critical discourse analysis methodology, they uncovered how discourses and meanings in the marketing of these materials communicate organizational practices and structures. The study determined that the marketing presented discourses of gender segregation and (false) gender neutrality, as well as discourses of good parenting that legitimized the consumption of merchandise as a reflection of parenting ideologies. Organizations must address internal gendered practices to produce marketing materials and artifacts supporting gender equity and inclusivity.

تمثيل الصين في الخطاب الإعلامي الأمريكي فيما يتعلق بجائحة كورونا: تحليل نقدي للخطاب

تتناول هذه الدراسة التغطية الإعلامية الأمريكية للصين، وخاصة الرئيس الأمريكي دونالد ترامب، خلال أحداث فيروس كورونا.استخدمت الدراسة منهجية التحليل النقدي للخطاب (CDA) لإجراء التحقيق. تستخدم هذه الدراسة نضرية فان دايك (1998) التى تركز على الأيديولوجية والمنهج الاجتماعي المعرفي. وتم جمع عشر تغريدات حول أزمة كورونا من منصة التواصل الاجتماعي تويتر. وقد خضعت هذه التغريدات الى التحليل باستخدام نموذج فان ديك من أجل استخلاص نتائج المراد معرفتها. تشير نتائج البحث إلى أن رئيس الولايات المتحدة استخدم تقنيات بلاغية مختلفة، مثل اختيار المفردات، واستخدام اللغة المجازية، والافتراضات، والعبارات المحملة، والادعاءات الصريحة، لتصوير الصين بشكل سلبي لعامة الناس. بالإضافة إلى ذلك، استغل الخلاف الرئاسي مع الخصوم السياسيين لتصوير الصين بشكل سلبي، على عكس الإجراءات التي اتخذتها إدارته لمكافحة الفايروس. لقد صورها بشكل إيجابي.

Diskurs protiv rodno osjetljivog jezika / Discourse Against Gender Sensitive Language

This paper provides an overview of critical discourse analysis (CDA) methodology, focusing on the linguistic basis of the descriptive phase of Norman Fairclough’s CDA. This methodological tool is used to analyse the discourse against gender-sensitive language which is broadly defined as a collection of texts and speeches that propagate ideas contrary to the principles of gender-sensitive language and gender equality, i.e., texts and speeches that act against those ideas. In relation to discursive practices, the paper analyses to whom such texts are addressed and how they are disseminated, and in relation to socio-cultural practices, i.e., the social conditions under which such texts are produced, it analyses who actually has power and an underlying ideology. Because it is critical to examine power relations in an analysis, those in positions of power are used as examples of discourse, such as the Board for the Standardisation of the Serbian Language as a standardisation institution. Taking their decision on the adoption of the Law on Gender Equality in Serbia in 2021 as an illustrative example of the discourse, this paper tests the hypothesis that the Board for the Standardisation of the Serbian Language shapes the discourse against gender-sensitive language.

Representation of women in the digital discourse of Spanish far-right female leaders

The Spanish far-right party – Vox – articulates several ideological components in public discourse, among which nativism and anti-feminism stand out. Anti-feminism is being central in the digital discourse of Vox female leaders, Carla Toscano and Rocío de Meer, and of the former Congress deputy, Macarena Olona. With the aim of deepening the analysis of the discursive representation of women in Vox, this research employs the approach and methodology of critical discourse analysis with the corpus, consisting of 6753 tweets from the accounts of these three leaders, taking into account three of the representation that they (re)produce. The results show the imaginary of the Spanish and Catholic-woman. The discourse of racial Spanishness is initiated through mystified historical events. This occurs with the representation of the Mother-woman, which reinforces the device of patriarchal femininity and the frame of the demographic change based on nativism. The representation of the Tormentor-woman is used to deny both the specificity of gender violence and the need for gender equality policies. These three frames are used to justify the anti-feminist discourse and to explain its modulations. The results show that we need to pay attention to gender in order to understand the discursive strategies of the far-right parties, with special care to the femonationalism strategy, as well as to observe its mobilizing and agglutinating capacity.

Extending the methodology of critical discourse analysis using Haraway's figurations: The example of The Monstrous Perpetrator within contemporary responses to child neglect and abuse.

Critical discursive analyses offer possibilities for equity-oriented research, and are a resource for addressing resistant social problems, such as child neglect and abuse (CN&A). A key challenge for discourse analysts in health disciplines is the tensions between materiality and social constructions, particularly at the site of the body. This paper describes how Donna Haraway's ideas of figuration and technobiopower can augment critical discourse analysis to address this tension. Technobiopower, an intensification of biopower in the context of technoscience, is seen as underpinning the melding of material and semiotic practices. The subject is no longer a material body, but a hybrid body that exists in tropic figuration between the real and unreal. This paper uses an analysis of the figuration of The Monstrous Perpetrator from a study of nursing responses to CN&Ato illustrate how Haraway's figuration aligns with and provides an analytical tool to extend critical discursive analyses. Specifically, this methodology offers new ways to identify the discursive qualities of bodies, and how material aspects of bodies are exaggerated, concealing their hegemonic ideologies and discriminatory effects. By identifying discourses within or inscribed upon the body, they can be disrupted, opening new possibilities for social change.

Not Necessarily Existential Threats: Identity-Constitutive Role of the Foreign Policy Discourse on Distant Humanitarian Crises

The depiction of identity in foreign policy analysis is typically presented as inherent or predetermined. However, discursive approaches within the field, particularly poststructuralism, have emphasized foreign policy discourse's influence on identity formation. The main aim of this paper is to elucidate the performative relationship between identity and foreign policy through a poststructuralist lens, even in situations that are not existential or geographically proximate crises. This study employs a critical discourse analysis methodology to examine the performative dynamics between foreign policy discourse by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) policymakers and officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) about distant natural disasters and the construction of the Turkish national identity. The study presents three primary findings: firstly, the AKP's foreign policy discourse recognizes the Indonesia and Pakistan disasters as significant events, in contrast to the case of Haiti; secondly, this discourse constructs a homogenous Turkish identity; and thirdly, this homogeneous Turkish identity qualifies by several signifiers and is distinguished from external others.

Who is a ‘true refugee’? Polish political discourse in 2021–2022

For many years, Poland was a country of emigration, not immigration and even the ‘refugee crisis’ of 2015 did not affect the reality on the ground in any real way. However, the situation changed as a result of the activities of the Belarusian regime backed by Russia, which in 2021 began to transfer migrants to the borders with the European Union as part of its hybrid operations. As a result, thousands of people have crossed the borders and hundreds have been stranded in the border zone. In response the Polish authorities reacted by introducing a pushback policy, a state of emergency in the border area and the construction of a border wall. The attack of the Russian Federation on Ukraine forced over 14 million people to leave their homes, about 6 million of whom fled to other countries, including Poland. In the face of the exodus of the Ukrainian population, Poles spontaneously rushed to help them, and the previous anti-immigrant discourse of the ruling party changed dramatically – these refugees became ‘poor’ and worthy of help. The article analyses two language corpora from scratch referring to the crises in question, which consist of speeches by members of the Law and Justice party (pol. Prawo i Sprawiedliwość) during the meetings of the lower house of parliament. A combination corpus linguistic and Critical Discourse Analysis methodologies was used. The results indicate the differences in the discourse of the ruling party in the face of each of these crises, as well as the political motivations related to them.

The beautification of men within skincare advertisements: A multimodal critical discourse analysis

This study draws on the theory of Social Semiotics and the methodology of Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) to examine the textual and visual design of skincare advertisements targeted towards men. The current proliferation of the market for male-oriented facial products represents an important shift towards the increased attention to the beautification of male bodies in Western societies. Such beautification encourages men to work on and improve the self (and face) through intensifying practices of “aesthetic labour.” Aesthetic labour places emphasis on an entrepreneurial self-care and self-control regime that promotes an active late lifestyle fostered through ideas about “successful ageing.” As expected, the analysis of the corpus consisting of advertisements from L'Oréal Men, Nivea Men and Clarins Men shows that the male face is generally constructed as a “problem” that can be cured through the consumption of skincare products. The consumption of these products increases men's visual literacies of the face and hence normalises male beauty practices that seemingly encourage men to care for and work on their skin, which can be construed of as a feminising practice. Nonetheless, the advertisements employ masculine traits and strategies that link cosmetic products to traditional values of masculinity. The beautification of the male body, thus, turns the consumption of skincare products into a performance through which men can maintain their already privileged status in society, rearticulating the double standard of ageing (Sontag, 1972).

Artistic Representation of Gender Nonconforming Female Bodies in Social Media: A Study of Select Indian Graphic Artists on Instagram

Abstract The study critically examines gender nonconforming female identities via their sexualized representations through artistic imagination on Instagram. Instagram representation becomes a ‘political act’ where this visual subversion allows the queer to reclaim their non-binary identity and thus articulate their choices through their body. The digital graphic art taken under study is select images from the Instagram pages of Indian artists “artwhoring,” “aorists,” and “sayartic.” The research study examines the question of an ideal hegemonic femininity perpetuated by the rhetoric of Indian heteronormative patriarchal assertions. It analyses select images that defy hegemonic femininity and gender binary by embodying an amalgamation of masculinity and femininity and lesbian desire which forms an act of subversion. The methodology of critical discourse analysis is employed to study Instagram art and the critical frameworks of the fantasy female body, and the notion of heteropatriarchal femininity. In conclusion, the study discusses the treatment of female gender non-conforming bodies, their appearance, lesbian desire, and body image. Such transgressive depiction of bodies successfully situates the female body beyond the dichotomy of masculinity and femininity.

Populism in the Communication Strategy of Lula and Bolsonaro: An Analysis of the Television Debates in Brazil’s 2022 General Election

The 2022 presidential election in Brazil involved two radically different candidates but with broad similarities in their populist discourse and communication strategies. The electoral campaign and the results polarized the country between the supporters of the outgoing president, Jair Bolsonaro, and the incoming one, Lula da Silva. This article analyzes the two television debates that took place in the second round of the presidential election in October. The interventions of the candidates have been studied using the methodology of critical discourse analysis applied by Hawkins (2010). The goal is to discover the degree of populism present in the candidates’ discourse in the two debates studied. The results show evidence of the highly populist nature of the discourse of the two leaders in both television events. This characteristic, as well as other important aspects of the campaigns and the narrow margin of Lula’s eventual victory, may explain the level of polarization evident in the country. It may also be the reason behind the rejection of the election results by the followers of Bolsonaro and their protest against the change in president.

Discourse Analysis of the Semiotic Field of the Concept FAMILY: A Comparative Study of the Chinese and English Parallel Corpora (In Eng.)

The article is devoted to the analysis of the semiotic field of the concept FAMILY in the English and Chinese languages through the application of the methodology of critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics. The article is based on the materials of the Chinese English Learners Corpus (CELC) and the combined materials of the BROWN and the written British National Corpus (BNC) for studying the vocabulary co-occurrence of the node word “family” from the point of view of collocation, colligation, semantic preference, and semantic prosody. The differences between Chinese and Western family cultures are revealed from the perspective of critical discourse analysis and the use of a horizontal combination of vocabulary relevant to the semiotic field of family. The study exemplifies the significant differences between Chinese learners and English native speakers in the choice and the use of core collocations in the minimal context of the family-related vocabulary. The conducted examination of the use of the node word “family” and its collocations in the Chinese English Learners Corpus compared to the combined English native speakers corpus in terms of semantic preference and semantic prosody demonstrates the most significant differences in understanding of the related concept as observed through the most common collocations. The article demonstrates the efficiency of the critical discourse analysis use in combination with the methods of corpus linguistics for the purpose of validation and verification of the conclusions regarding the content of the semiotic fields, as exemplified on the basis of the semiotic field of the concept FAMILY. Future research developments are seen in the possible extension of the corpus material base, including the materials on a wide variety of languages, for the purpose of further comparative analysis.

“Our Friend Wang”

The article is devoted to the visualization of the image of a Chinese in the periodical press of the Urals in the 1950s. Using the methodology of critical discourse analysis, the authors identify several target groups that form the image, describe their characteristic features and highlight the general and the special characteristics. The source base was made up of materials from the Ural periodical press. During “Great friendship” the Chinese who took part in labor training at enterprises and universities in the USSR became an object of attention of the Ural periodical press from the moment of their appearance in the region in 1954 and up to the almost complete return to their homeland. Periodical publications formed and broadcast to readers a positive image of the Chinese, using some lasting methods of description: putting in an industrial environment, displaying a certain hierarchy in the relationship “diligent” student – “wise” mentor, ‘humanizing’ the character, describing a “typical” and “correct” biography showing positive changes in China after its transition to the socialist path of development.

Bibliometric, network, and thematic mapping analyses of metaphor and discourse in COVID-19 publications from 2020 to 2022.

The research contributions of metaphor as part of (critical) discourse studies have flourished during COVID-19; hence, it is necessary to consider their progress and foresee their future growth. To obtain a comprehensive understanding of COVID metaphor research in discourse and to identify the most recent research foci, bibliometric, network, thematic mapping and word cloud analyses were conducted in this study. The results showed that (1) research on COVID metaphors is largely shaped by Critical Discourse Analysis research approaches and methodologies; (2) the research production has investigated traditional genres such as news and emerging genres, including social media and multimodal data; and (3) research highlights the role played by metaphors in persuasion in public discourse. The findings of this study can assist future research in this or related fields by providing an overview of metaphor research in crisis communication.