Exploring Language and Linguistics

PREVIEW

This chapter looks at media discourse – that is, how the media use language and images to construct meaning in society. We are interested in how media discourse can influence the way we think and we emphasize the need for greater critical awareness of the messages we are exposed to daily by analysing discourse found in media texts. The concept of investigating media discourse is closely linked with discourse analysis and we recommend that this chapter should be read in conjunction with Caldas-Coulthard's comprehensive examination of this topic in Chapter 9. We provide some context for the emergence of media discourse within the field of discourse analysis, as well as describing some theoretical approaches and methods that have been used to study media texts whether news reports, advertisements or broadcast interviews. But as former journalists, and now academics whose main body of research lies in the study of media texts, we focus in particular on the language of the news to exemplify how critical analysis and interpretation are crucial in becoming media literate. This chapter will give you a greater appreciation and understanding of media and their significance.

INTRODUCTION

Discourse surrounds us. It is the meaning that lies behind everyday conversations, letters, signs in shop windows, speeches, paintings, photographs, a tweet, a slogan on a t-shirt, a television programme, a product brand, a website or even a car's personal registration plate. The text is what we actually read, see or hear – in other words the ‘observable product’ that carries meaning (Talbot 2007: 9). Discourse is ‘a form of knowledge’ (Devereux 2003: 158) that is conveyed through text. One way to grasp the concept of discourse is to think of the commonly used phrase ‘reading between the lines’ where we seek to understand what is being implied rather than explicitly said.

Although media discourse can relate in today's terms to any form of medium of communication such as weblogs or social networking sites, in this chapter we are concerned specifically with the discourse that is constructed and conveyed through news organizations.