Discourse Analysis of Print Media

Walsh, Olivia

Abstract

This chapter examines how discourse analysis as applied to print media can be used to examine language attitudes. It outlines the main strengths and limitations of this method. One of the most important strengths lies in the fact that the printed press is one of ‘the social mechanisms through which particular ideas or beliefs about [languages and] linguistic practises are produced, circulated and/or challenged’ (Milani and Johnson 2010: 4; see also Blommaert 1999) and analyses of the metalanguage used in the press can therefore be particularly revealing about attitudes towards language in a given society. An example of a limitation of the method is arguably the fact that texts in the print media vary enormously in terms of their context and audience. This makes a restricted theory or practice of discourse analysis problematic, but equally too broad a practice may become effectively meaningless. The chapter provides an overview of various techniques used to carry out discourse analysis on print media, including for example the creation of suitable corpora, considering key questions such as comparability and criteria for the selection of individual texts. Regarding the techniques that can be used for analysing the texts in these corpora, the chapter outlines both general approaches, such as critical discourse analysis techniques (e.g. analysing the linguistic features of a text to draw out the underlying ideologies; see e.g. Fairclough 2014), and approaches used to examine language ideology in print media more specifically (e.g. examining how indexical links between linguistic features and other types of social categorisation are constructed) (see e.g. Ochs 1990). The chapter concludes with a case study that examines attitudes towards French based on a corpus of language columns in French newspapers, thereby exemplifying the main points made in the chapter.

Citation

Walsh, O. (2022). Discourse Analysis of Print Media. In Research Methods in Language Attitudes (19-34). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108867788.004

• Online Publication Date: Jun 25, 2022
• Publication Date: Jul 7, 2022
• Deposit Date: Jun 30, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 26, 2022
• Pages: 19-34
• Book Title: Research Methods in Language Attitudes
• Chapter Number: 2
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108867788.004
• Keywords: language attitudes, language ideologies, discourse analysis, manifest intertextuality, language columns, authority in language, language legitimacy, language and power, standard language ideology
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5748588
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/research-methods-in-language-attitudes/discourse-analysis-of-print-media/79DAC969FED919E4655260EEDA633008
• Contract Date: Mar 22, 2021