2. Readings for week 17
Required texts:
• Fairclough, N. (2005) “Political Discourse in the Media: an
Anaylitical Framework” in A. Bell and P. Garrett (eds.) (2005)
Approaches to Media Discourse, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing,
142-163
• George, A. (1959, 2009) “Quantitative and Qualitative
Approaches to Content Analysis” in Krippendorff, Klaus and
Angela Bock, Mary (eds.) The Content Analysis Reader,
London: Sage, 144-156
• Van Dijk (2008) “Structures of Discourse and Structures of
Power” and “Critical Discourse Analysis” in Discourse and
Power, London: Palgrave Macmillan
Additional:
• Glynos, J., Howarth, D., Norval, A., and Speed, E. (2009)
‘Discourse Analysis: Varieties and Methods’, ESRC National
Centre for Research Methods
• Riffe, D. et al (2005) “Defining Content Analysis as a Social
Science Tool” in Analysing Media Messages, 23- 39
3. Key points
• Merits of quantitative and qualitative research methods
• Political discourse: definitions
• Discourse analysis and critical discourse analysis
• What is critical discourse analysis?(CDA)
• Discourse analysis and its varieties (Glynos)
• Content analysis: popularity and different uses
• Some examples of dissertations with CDA and CA
• What makes a good dissertation?
• Literature review and methods
• Conclusions and seminar activities
• Readings for week 18
4. Quantitative versus qualitative research (in
Jankowski and Wester, 1991, 44-75)
• “Qualitative research is a form of long-term first-hand observation
conducted in close proximity to the phenomena under
study….Participant observation and case studies are primary
methods of qualitative empirical studies.”
• Historical origins (1890-1930) – “…qualitative field research was
introduced to sociology in the USA, and pioneering work was
conducted at the University of Chicago.”
• During the debates on social-scientific methodologies in the US in
the 1930s and 1940s, the application of quantitative methods
increased.
• 1930-1960 – With the influence of positivism, the proponents of
quantitative methods gained the upper hand in the
methodological debate, with survey research becoming the key
method in social sciences.
• Qualitative research began to be seen as a preliminary activity
which lay the ground for “real” science to take place.
5. Social Science in search of a scientific method (in
Jankowski and Wester, 1991, 44-75)
Why the popularity of quantitative research?
Because researchers both at Chicago and elsewhere were developing
quantitative measuring methods which were intended to elevate the status of
sociology to that of a science.
In the context of World War II, pressures were placed for research to
measure the impact of communication, in particular propaganda
I.e. Lasswell and content analysis
Period of the 1960s onwards: The decade of the 1960s saw a growing
disillusionment with positivism approaches to the Social Science, and the
limitations of these practices in the study of human behaviour
Criticisms towards researchers’ obsessions with “scientific method”
followed by a concern with trying to understand deep social conflicts (i.e.
racism, the nature of inequality, etc)
6. Merits of both research methods
• Both methods (qualitative and quantitative) have their strengths
and weaknesses
• It is up to the individual researcher to decide which method to use,
or to combine both
• The trend in any good, serious quality research has been the
combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods
(i.e. discourse analysis and quantitative content analysis)
• Rise of the qualitative research tradition again and the
popularity of methods such as discourse analysis and ethnography
• Ethnographic research is concerned with cultural forms, with
studies acknowledging the need for participant observation and
multiple data collection methods (i.e. Lull’s (1980) study of the
social uses of television).
• “Triangulation” method – Multiple method approach that aims
to compensate the weaknesses of each method by counter-balancing
them with the strengths of another
7. What is discourse?
• Van Dijk (2008, 27) examines the relationship between discourse and
social power, and is influenced by Bourdieu’s notion of “symbolic power”,
among others
• I.e. “The production mode of articulation is controlled by….the “symbolic
elites”, such as journalists, writers and other groups.
• Discourse here is used in the more generic sense, such as “medical
discourse”, “political discourse” or “racist discourse”. It may also feature
non-verbal expressions such as drawings, pictures, gestures and so on
• What is the relationship between discourse and power?
• “Most powerful groups control or have access to a wide range of discourse
role, genres, etc. They control formal dialogues with subordinates….issue
commands or laws….”
• Understanding of power as a form of social control
• Ideology – can be viewed as being a set of values which are either taken
for granted or not, appearing as either fact or opinion. They can be
articulated in the media through complex strategies, through various forms
of discourse
8. Discourse analysis and the Foucauldian tradition (in
Matos, 2008 and Foucault, 1972)
• Discourse analysis is a method committed to challenging common
sense thinking. It is critical of taken for granted knowledge and
argues that the ways in which we view the world are historically
specific and socially constructed (in Matos, 2008)
• Discourse analysis within the Foucaldian perspective refers to
institutionalised patterns of knowledge, to a connection between
knowledge and power
• Foucault (1972) in The Archaeology of Knowledge has emphasised
“the importance of historicizing discourse, seeing a relationship
between discourse, representation and knowledge in a way which
“truth” is said to only mean something within a specific historical
context”.
• Discourse and forms of knowledge can be produced in certain
periods, and they differ from one another with no necessary
continuity between them.
9. “Political discourse in the media” (in Fairclough,
2005)
• “Political discourse is seen as an ‘order of discourse’….which is
continuously changing within wider processes of social and cultural
change affecting the media themselves and other social domains
which are linked to them.”
• The notion of “order of discourse” is adapted from Foucault (1972)
• As the author states, an “order of discourse is a structural
configuration of genres and discourses…..associated with a given
social domain – for example, the order of discourse of a school.”
• Argues that Bourdieu is right in saying that the “internal analysis of
political discourse or texts which does not place them with respect
to the political field and its wider social frame is of limited value.”
• Bourdieu’s criticism is that much discourse analysis is “analysis of
communicative events which does not attempt to map them on to
orders of discourse.”
10. What is political discourse?
• For Van Dijk (2008), the central question in the relation between
discourse and power is: who can say or write what to whom in what
situation?
• As Fairclough (1995, 184) has pointed out, Bourdieu (1991) has
described political discourse as being a site of external and internal
struggle: one to sustain a coherent political discourse within an
internal structure and another to constitute a political public and a
base of support for the political discourse, individuals and
institutions associated with it (in Matos, 2008, 28)
• Political discourse is distributed through the mass media, through
the speeches of top politicians, such as the president or PM
• I.e. Racist talk - Van Dijk argues that it is within political discourse
that most racist talk takes places.
• Fairclough (1992) sees a close relationship between change and
discourse, defending further the democratization of media
discourses.
11. Fairclough’s three dimensional framework for studying
critical discourse analysis
• The three sorts of analysis are:
• 1) the analysis of texts (spoken, written);
• 2) the analysis of discourse practices of text production, distribution
and consumption;
• 3) analysis of social and cultural practices which frame discourse
practices and texts.
• Micro, meso and macro-level interpretations:
• a) The micro-level involves studying the text’s syntax, metaphoric
structure and rhetorical devices;
• b) The meso-level consists in looking at the text’s production and
consumption and the power relations involved and
• c) The macro-level is concerned with inter-textual relations between
texts, and mainly with how external factors affect the text being
studied.
12. Discourse analysis versus critical discourse analysis
(in Van Dijk, 2008)
• Critical discourse analysis “is a type of discourse analytical
research that studies the way social power abuse, dominance and
inequality are enacted, reproduced and resisted by text and talk in
the social and political context.”
• Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a multidisciplinary approach
to the study of discourse which focuses on the ways social and
political domination is reproduced through text and talk
• Key early text in the tradition was Norman Fairclough’s Language
and Power (1989)
• Approach draws from social theory and from the work of authors
such as Marx, Gramsci, Habermas, Foucault and Bourdieu to
discuss the connection between ideology, power and their
reproduction through discourse
• It takes explicit position and wants to resist social inequality
13. Critical discourse analysis: definitions and challenges
(in Van Dijk, 2008)
• Fairclough and Wodak (1997: 271-80)summarise the main
tenets of CDA as being:
• 1) CDA addresses social problems
• 2)Power relations are discursive
• 3) Discourse constitutes society and culture
• 4)Discourse does ideological work
• 5)Discourse is historical
• 6) The link between text and society is mediated
• 7)Discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory
• 8) Discourse is a form of social action.
14. Contemporary politics and political discourse (in
Fairclough, 2005)
• The crisis of political parties and the broken community ties has
resulted in the last decades in the rise of what some call “identity
politics” or “sub-politics” (i.e. grassroots social movements, animal
rights groups, etc).
• The power struggle to achieve hegemony occurs both internally
(within the order of discourse of the political system) and externally
(in the articulation of different systems and orders of discourse).
• The internal struggle for hegemony for instance is a struggle
between political parties and political tendencies
• I.e. Various agents (professional politicians, journalists, etc) are
potential protagonists….in struggles for hegemony in the media
• We also need to look out for alliances – i.e. “Derrida has warned of
the powerful emergent confluence between political discourse,
academic discourse and media discourse.”
• I.e. Thatcherism and Blairism.
15. Six key approaches to discourse analysis
(Glynos et al 2009)
• 1) Political Discourse Theory (PDT)
• 2) Rhetorical Political Analysis (RPA)
• 3) Discourse Historical Analysis (DHA) in Critical Discourse
Analysis
• 4) Interpretive Policy Analysis (IPA)
• 5) Discursive Psychology (DP)
• 6) Q Methodology (QM)
• Essex School of discourse analysis – with Ernesto Laclau and Chantal
Mouffe as their founding fathers. Scholars reinterpreted Gramsci’s theory
of hegemony highlighting the role of meaning and of processes of
interpellation in the articulation of political discourses (Hegemony and
Socialist Strategy, 1985)
• Tradition has been influenced by Saussurean linguistics, Lacanian
psychoanalysis and deconstruction
16. Six key approaches to discourse analysis (Glynos et al
2009)
• Authors underline three dimensions to help us think about the
approaches to discourse analysis:
• 1) Ontology
• 2) Focus
• 3) Purpose
• Political discourse theory and critical discourse analysis
devote space to ontological considerations.
• “Approaches share a concern with questions of meaning…..It is this
concern with meaning and subjectivity that drives the selection of
different methods or techniques in the study of discourse, whether
these are qualitative, quantitative or both…”
• Political Discourse Theory (PDT) for instance emerged from the
attempts by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe of using Gramsci
and Althusser’s work to tackle the problem of class reductionism
17. Semiotic analysis (in van Zoonen, 2000)
• Semiotics is the study of signs and how they become meaningful in
our culture
• Barthes (1957) distinguished between denotation and connotation,
or first and second order signification. Denotation is relevant to the
semiotics of Saussure and focuses on language (the relation between
signifier and signified)
• The denotative meaning of a “black cat” would be the animal,
however the sign carries other connotative meanings (i.e. an omen
of bad luck). It has a manifest referent in reality.
• Connotation or second order signification concerns the latent
cultural values, and can also take on the form of various narratives,
known as “myth” by Barthes.
• Fiske and Hartley (1978) stress the third order signification or
ideology, conceiving connotation and myth as the manifest
expression of the dominant ideology.
• Used in the analysis of advertisements, symbols, etc (i.e. a perfume
ad showing a young women could connote values of femininity)
18. Lasswell, Lerner and Pool: the content analysis
tradition
• Lasswell, Lerner and de Sola Pool (1952: 45) (in Franzosi, 2007) put
it in these terms: “There is clearly no reason for content analysis
unless the question one wants answered is quantitative.”
• The creation of coding frames is an important aspect of content
analysis. As K. Krippendorff (1980 and 2004) states, six questions
must be addressed in every content analysis:
• 1) Which data are analysed?
• 2) How are they defined?
• 3) What is the population from which they are drawn?
• 4) What is the context relative to which the data are analysed?
• 5) What are the boundaries of the analysis?
• 6) What is the target of the inferences?
• Quantitative CA starts with word frequencies, space measurements
(i.e. columns in newspapers), time counts (i.e. radio) and keyword
frequencies.
19. Content analysis as a scientific method
• “Content analysis is a summarising, quantitative analysis of
messages that relies on the scientific method (including attention to
objectivity, inter-subjectivity, a priori design, reliability, validity,
generalisability, replicability, and hypothesis testing) and is not
limited as to the types of variables that may be measured or the
context in which the messages are created or presented.” (K. A.
Neuendorf, 2002, 10)
• Leites and de Sola Pool (in Franzosi, 2007) have contrasted the
“objectivity” of content analysis with other more “subjective” or
“impressionistic” ways of talking about symbols….”.
• Holsti (1969)defined the uses of content analysis into three basic
categories: a) make inferences about the antecedents of a
communication; b) describe and make inferences about
characteristics of a communication and c) make inferences about
the effects of a communication
20. Uses of content analysis by purpose,
communication element and question
Purpose Element Question Use
Make inference Source Who? Authorship
about the
antecedents of Encoding Why? I.e. Traits of
communication Process individuals
Describe and Channel How? Analyse
make inferences techniques of
about the Message What? persuasion
characteristics of Describe trends in
communications Recipient To whom? communication
Patterns of com.
Make inferences Decoding process With what effect? Measure
about the readability
consequences of Analyse flow of
communications information
Assess responses
21. Content analysis - example of a Dummy Table
(in Riffe et al 2005)
Character Speaking Non-
is role speaking
role
Minority
female % %
Minority % %
male
White % %
female
White male % %
Total 100% 100%
22. Content analysis: what is it? (in Riffe et al, 2005)
• Weber’s (1990) definition specifies only that “content analysis is a
research method that uses a set of procedures to make valid
inferences from text.” (in Riffe et al, 2005, 23)
• Krippendorff (1980) has emphasised reliability and validity:
“Content analysis is a research technique for making replicative and
valid inferences from data to their content.” (21)
• Manifest versus latent content analysis – the manifest (or
denotative or shared) describes what an author has written, as
opposed to connotative or latent (“between the lines”), the intention.
CA can only be applied on manifest content.
• Kerlinger (1973): “Content analysis is a method of studying and
analysing communications in a systematic, objective and
quantitative manner…..” According to him, content analysis should
be treated as a ‘method of observation’ akin to observing people’s
behaviour
23. Content analysis definitions
• Quantitative content analysis is thus the systematic and replicable
examination of symbols of communication
• What are some appropriate communication content for study?
• Content analysis can be an appropriate method to identify for
instance words or labels in advertisements; phrases of themes in
political speeches; paragraphs of space in newspapers devoted to
crime stories and whole editorials in the press endorsing particular
candidates
• Content analysis can also be used to address accusations of the
underrepresentation of minorities in the media by attempting to
measure the number of stories on immigration, asylum seekers, etc
• An important prerequisite for the content analyst is that the
investigator knows what he/she is looking for before beginning to
count.
24. Content analysis (in George, 1959, 2009)
• Initial focus of content analysis was on Propaganda Studies
• “Quantitative content analysis is a statistical technique for obtaining
descriptive data on content variables. It offers the possibility of obtaining
more precise, objective and reliable observations about the frequency with
which given content characteristics occur…”
• With the rise of the quantitative methods tradition in Social Science,
content analysis has become a widely popular method, and used frequently
in Media and Communication Studies as well
• Critics of quantitative CA have argued that the method puts too much
emphasis on the comparative frequency of different symbols’ appearance
• Criticisms included accusations of attempting to reduce social existence to
variables (i.e. Blumler, 1954 in Jensen and Jankowski, 1991, 1995)
25. Quantitative and qualitative approaches to content
analysis (George, 1959, 2009)
• Quantitative content analysis….is concerned with the frequency
of occurrence of given content characteristics
• The type of communication analysis which makes use of “non-
frequency” content indicators for purposes of inference is regarded
as the non-quantitative or non-statistical variant of CA
• The non-frequency approach resembles traditional methods of
textual analysis
• Non-frequency – is thus used to describe the type of non-
quantitative, non-statistical content analysis, which uses the
presence or absence of certain content characteristic….as a content
indicator….
• The difference between the two approaches is that frequency
analysis….always singles out frequency distributions as a basis for
making inferences. In contrast, non-frequency approach utilised the
mere occurrence or non-occurrence of attributes….for purposes of
inference.
26. Uses of content analysis as a research method (in
George, 1959)
• The author gives an example of a quantitative study which shows a
sharp decline in the number of references to Stalin in Pravda.
According to him, the frequency analyst might conclude that the
successors to Stalin are trying to downgrade the former dictator or
dissociate themselves from him.
• The non-frequency analyst might on the other hand make a similar
conclusion from the fact that in a public speech one of Stalin’s
successors failed to mention him when discussing a particular
subject…
• It is the frequency distribution of attention to “Stalin” over a period
of time on which the inference rests.
• “Non-frequency approach to content analysis is an older and more
conventional way of interpreting communication and drawing
inferences from it then is the quantitative approach.”
27. Some problems in quantitative content analysis (in
George, 1959)
• For the propaganda analyst:
• 1) the problem of coding irrelevant content;
• 2) the problem of changes in the speaker’s strategy ;
• 3) the problem of an expanding universe of relevant communication
• 4) the problem of structural characteristics of instrumental communication.
• Analyst must exercise care in considering which passages are relevant to
each of the goals of the communicator
• One of the important requirements of statistical content analysis is that it be
systematic so that “all relevant content…..be analysed in terms of all of the
relevant categories, for the problem at hand.” (Berelson, 1952, 17)
• When you have clear cut hypotheses, the danger of coding irrelevant
content is minimised.
• Important also is the search for specific content categories – “Symbols or
themes with low frequency of occurrence may be either ignored or grouped
together under broad content categories.”
28. Dissertation topic
Define your topic and research questions
Think to yourself: what is interesting academically/empirically/personally?
• Develop answerable research questions and avoid being vague (i.e.
• How will you study your questions. What kind of methodologies are more
appropriate to answer it?
• Is your question realistic?
Start to develop a good timetable for your dissertation
After you have a research question and methodology, you must begin to
think of your theoretical frame and the literature that you want to use
Is your research contributing to a body of knowledge?
Do you want to revise particular theories?
How will your case study and methods answer the core research
questions?
29. Literature review
• Non-graded, to be handed in between Feb-March 2013.
• Relevant research literature should be critically reviewed, leading to a
specification of the research questions or hypotheses.
• What is relevant to include, and what it not that relevant?
• A well written literature review contains:
• Topic introduction
• Clear research questions
• Conceptual map
• Review of relevant theories and studies applying them
• Review of previous studies using similar questions, methods, theoretical
considerations.
• Integration of studies from different disciplines
• Assessment/analysis of current developments and knowledge gaps in
the field
• Proposed methodologies
• Appropriate bibliographic references
• (2.500 words)
30. Intellectual grasp of the topic; understand its significance
Invites a dialogue with the reader
Develop a debate which allows both exploration and rejection
of alternatives
Examines the theory critically and engages well with the key
literature in the field in an intelligent manner
Maintains links between theory, method and
interpretation
Has a clear and strong argument throughout; has a good
structure
Methodology is clearly established
Thesis is well-organised, well-written and “easy” to read
Includes scholarly notes and uses academic conventions
31. Dissertation assessment criteria
• Presentation – Clarity of expression, a coherent and
consistent structure
• Content – Quality and breadth of literature survey, the
fit between your assessment of the literature and your
choice of empirical research focus; the interpretation of
your results in relation to the literature
• Critical Judgement – Depth of interpretation and
theoretical sophistication, critical appraisal
• Plagiarism – Check the guidelines for this.
Submission deadline: 13th of September
32. Further reading on methods and qualitative and
quantitative research
• Bignell, J. (1997) Media Semiotics: an introduction, Manchester:
Manchester University Press
• Fairclough, N. (2003) Analyzing Discourse: Textual Analysis for
Social Research, London: Routledge
• D. Howarth (2000) Discourse, Buckingham: Open University Press
• Hall, S (1997) Representation: cultural representation and
signifying practices, London: Sage
• Jensen, K. B. and Jankowski, N. W. (eds.) A Handbook of
Qualitative Methodologies for Mass Communication Research,
135-149
• Neurendorf, K. (2009) The Content Analysis Guidebook, London:
Sage Publications
• Riffe, D.,, Lacy, S. ad Fico, F.R. (2005) Analyzing Media Messages:
Using Quantitative Analysis Research, London: Taylor and Francis
33. Seminar activities and questions
• 1) Discuss the methods used in the qualitative and quantitative research
traditions and the merits and weaknesses of each. What methods are you
thinking of using for your dissertation?
• 2) Using Fairclough’s and Van Dijk’s texts, what is understood by critical
discourse analysis? What are the type of research questions that CDA tends
to focus upon?
• 3) Examine the content analysis research method. What are some of the
strengths of the method and what have been the core critiques?
• 4) Investigate the six key approaches to discourse analysis outlined in the
Glynos et al text. What are some of the differences and similarities between
the approaches?
34. Readings for week 18
Required texts:
• Hanitzsch, T. (2004) “Journalists as a peacekeeping force? Peace
journalism and mass communication theory” in Journalism Studies,
5 (4), 483-495.
• Lee, S. T., and Maslog, C., C. (2005, July) “Asian regional conflicts
and the war in Iraq: A comparative framing analysis”, paper
presented at the annual International Communication Gazette,
Oct/Dec 2006, vol. 68 issue 5/6, p. 499-518.
Additional:
Fawcett, L. (2002) “Why peace journalism isn’t news” in
Journalism Studies, 3 (2), 213-223.
Teheranian, M. (2002) “Peace journalism: Negotiating global media
ethics” in The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 7(2),
58-83.
