examples of research questions for discourse analysis

21 Great Examples of Discourse Analysis

Discourse analysis is an approach to the study of language that demonstrates how language shapes reality. It usually takes the form of a textual or content analysis .

Discourse is understood as a way of perceiving, framing, and viewing the world.

For example:

• A dominant discourse of gender often positions women as gentle and men as active heroes.
• A dominant discourse of race often positions whiteness as the norm and colored bodies as ‘others’ (see: social construction of race )

Through discourse analysis, scholars look at texts and examine how those texts shape discourse.

In other words, it involves the examination of how the ‘ways of speaking about things’ normalizes and privileges some frames of thinking about things while marginalizing others.

As a simple example, if movies consistently frame the ideal female as passive, silent, and submissive, then society comes to think that this is how women should behave and makes us think that this is normal , so women who don’t fit this mold are abnormal .

Instead of seeing this as just the way things are, discourse analysts know that norms are produced in language and are not necessarily as natural as we may have assumed.

Examples of Discourse Analysis

1. language choice in policy texts.

A study of policy texts can reveal ideological frameworks and viewpoints of the writers of the policy. These sorts of studies often demonstrate how policy texts often categorize people in ways that construct social hierarchies and restrict people’s agency .

Examples include:

2. Newspaper Bias

Conducting a critical discourse analysis of newspapers involves gathering together a quorum of newspaper articles based on a pre-defined range and scope (e.g. newspapers from a particular set of publishers within a set date range).

Then, the researcher conducts a close examination of the texts to examine how they frame subjects (i.e. people, groups of people, etc.) from a particular ideological, political, or cultural perspective.

3. Language in Interviews

Discourse analysis can also be utilized to analyze interview transcripts. While coding methods to identify themes are the most common methods for analyzing interviews, discourse analysis is a valuable approach when looking at power relations and the framing of subjects through speech.

4. Television Analysis

Discourse analysis is commonly used to explore ideologies and framing devices in television shows and advertisements.

Due to the fact advertising is not just textual but rather multimodal , scholars often mix a discourse analytic methodology (i.e. exploring how television constructs dominant ways of thinking) with semiotic methods (i.e. exploration of how color, movement, font choice, and so on create meaning).

I did this, for example, in my PhD (listed below).

5. Film Critique

Scholars can explore discourse in film in a very similar way to how they study discourse in television shows. This can include the framing of sexuality gender, race, nationalism, and social class in films.

A common example is the study of Disney films and how they construct idealized feminine and masculine identities that children should aspire toward.

6. Analysis of Political Speech

Political speeches have also been subject to a significant amount of discourse analysis. These studies generally explore how influential politicians indicate a shift in policy and frame those policy shifts in the context of underlying ideological assumptions.

9. Examining Marketing Texts

Advertising is more present than ever in the context of neoliberal capitalism. As a result, it has an outsized role in shaping public discourse. Critical discourse analyses of advertising texts tend to explore how advertisements, and the capitalist context that underpins their proliferation, normalize gendered, racialized, and class-based discourses.

11. Analyzing Lesson Plans

As written texts, lesson plans can be analyzed for how they construct discourses around education as well as student and teacher identities. These texts tend to examine how teachers and governing bodies in education prioritize certain ideologies around what and how to learn. These texts can enter into discussions around the ‘history wars’ (what and whose history should be taught) as well as ideological approaches to religious and language learning.

12. Looking at Graffiti

One of my favorite creative uses of discourse analysis is in the study of graffiti. By looking at graffiti, researchers can identify how youth countercultures and counter discourses are spread through subversive means. These counterdiscourses offer ruptures where dominant discourses can be unsettled and displaced.

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The Origins of Discourse Analysis

1. foucault.

French philosopher Michel Foucault is a central thinker who shaped discourse analysis. His work in studies like Madness and Civilization and The History of Sexuality demonstrate how our ideas about insanity and sexuality have been shaped through language.

The ways the church speaks about sex, for example, shapes people’s thoughts and feelings about it.

The church didn’t simply make sex a silent taboo. Rather, it actively worked to teach people that desire was a thing of evil, forcing them to suppress their desires.

Over time, society at large developed a suppressed normative approach to the concept of sex that is not necessarily normal except for the fact that the church reiterates that this is the only acceptable way of thinking about the topic.

Similarly, in Madness and Civilization , a discourse around insanity was examined. Medical discourse pathologized behaviors that were ‘abnormal’ as signs of insanity. Were the dominant medical discourse to change, it’s possible that abnormal people would no longer be seen as insane.

One clear example of this is homosexuality. Up until the 1990s, being gay was seen in medical discourse as an illness. Today, most of Western society sees that this way of looking at homosexuality was extremely damaging and exclusionary, and yet at the time, because it was the dominant discourse, people didn’t question it.

2. Norman Fairclough

Fairclough (2013), inspired by Foucault, created some key methodological frameworks for conducting discourse analysis.

Fairclough was one of the first scholars to articulate some frameworks around exploring ‘text as discourse’ and provided key tools for scholars to conduct analyses of newspaper and policy texts.

Today, most methodology chapters in dissertations that use discourse analysis will have extensive discussions of Fairclough’s methods.

Discourse analysis is a popular primary research method in media studies, cultural studies, education studies, and communication studies. It helps scholars to show how texts and language have the power to shape people’s perceptions of reality and, over time, shift dominant ways of framing thought. It also helps us to see how power flows thought texts, creating ‘in-groups’ and ‘out-groups’ in society.

Key examples of discourse analysis include the study of television, film, newspaper, advertising, political speeches, and interviews.

Al Kharusi, R. (2017). Ideologies of Arab media and politics: a CDA of Al Jazeera debates on the Yemeni revolution. PhD Dissertation: University of Hertfordshire.

Alaazi, D. A., Ahola, A. N., Okeke-Ihejirika, P., Yohani, S., Vallianatos, H., & Salami, B. (2021). Immigrants and the Western media: a CDA of newspaper framings of African immigrant parenting in Canada. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies , 47 (19), 4478-4496. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1798746

Al-Khawaldeh, N. N., Khawaldeh, I., Bani-Khair, B., & Al-Khawaldeh, A. (2017). An exploration of graffiti on university’s walls: A corpus-based discourse analysis study. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics , 7 (1), 29-42. Doi: https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v7i1.6856

Alsaraireh, M. Y., Singh, M. K. S., & Hajimia, H. (2020). Critical DA of gender representation of male and female characters in the animation movie, Frozen. Linguistica Antverpiensia , 104-121.

Baig, F. Z., Khan, K., & Aslam, M. J. (2021). Child Rearing and Gender Socialisation: A Feminist CDA of Kids’ Popular Fictional Movies. Journal of Educational Research and Social Sciences Review (JERSSR) , 1 (3), 36-46.

Barker, M. E. (2021). Exploring Canadian Integration through CDA of English Language Lesson Plans for Immigrant Learners. Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique appliquée , 24 (1), 75-91. Doi: https://doi.org/10.37213/cjal.2021.28959

Coleman, B. (2017). An Ideological Unveiling: Using Critical Narrative and Discourse Analysis to Examine Discursive White Teacher Identity. AERA Online Paper Repository .

Drew, C. (2013). Soak up the goodness: Discourses of Australian childhoods on television advertisements, 2006-2012. PhD Dissertation: Australian Catholic University. Doi: https://doi.org/10.4226/66/5a9780223babd

Fairclough, N. (2013). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language . London: Routledge.

Foucault, M. (1990). The history of sexuality: An introduction . London: Vintage.

Foucault, M. (2003). Madness and civilization . New York: Routledge.

Hahn, A. D. (2018). Uncovering the ideologies of internationalization in lesson plans through CDA. The New English Teacher , 12 (1), 121-121.

Isti’anah, A. (2018). Rohingya in media: CDA of Myanmar and Bangladesh newspaper headlines. Language in the Online and Offline World , 6 , 18-23. Doi: http://repository.usd.ac.id/id/eprint/25962

Khan, M. H., Adnan, H. M., Kaur, S., Qazalbash, F., & Ismail, I. N. (2020). A CDA of anti-Muslim rhetoric in Donald Trump’s historic 2016 AIPAC policy speech. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs , 40 (4), 543-558. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13602004.2020.1828507

Louise Cooper, K., Luck, L., Chang, E., & Dixon, K. (2021). What is the practice of spiritual care? A CDA of registered nurses’ understanding of spirituality. Nursing Inquiry , 28 (2), e12385. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/nin.12385

Mohammadi, D., Momeni, S., & Labafi, S. (2021). Representation of Iranians family’s life style in TV advertising (Case study: food ads). Religion & Communication , 27 (58), 333-379.

Munro, M. (2018) House price inflation in the news: a CDA of newspaper coverage in the UK. Housing Studies, 33(7), pp. 1085-1105. doi: 10.1080/02673037.2017.1421911

Ravn, I. M., Frederiksen, K., & Beedholm, K. (2016). The chronic responsibility: a CDA of Danish chronic care policies. Qualitative Health Research , 26 (4), 545-554. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1049732315570133

Sengul, K. (2019). Critical discourse analysis in political communication research: a case study of right-wing populist discourse in Australia. Communication Research and Practice , 5 (4), 376-392. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/22041451.2019.1695082

Serafis, D., Kitis, E. D., & Archakis, A. (2018). Graffiti slogans and the construction of collective identity: evidence from the anti-austerity protests in Greece. Text & Talk , 38 (6), 775-797. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/text-2018-0023

Suphaborwornrat, W., & Punkasirikul, P. (2022). A Multimodal CDA of Online Soft Drink Advertisements. LEARN Journal: Language Education and Acquisition Research Network , 15 (1), 627-653.

Symes, C., & Drew, C. (2017). Education on the rails: a textual ethnography of university advertising in mobile contexts. Critical Studies in Education , 58 (2), 205-223. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2016.1252783

Thomas, S. (2005). The construction of teacher identities in educational policy documents: A critical discourse analysis. Critical Studies in Education , 46 (2), 25-44. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/17508480509556423

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Home » Discourse Analysis – Methods, Types and Examples

Discourse Analysis – Methods, Types and Examples

Table of Contents

Discourse Analysis

Definition:

Discourse Analysis is a method of studying how people use language in different situations to understand what they really mean and what messages they are sending. It helps us understand how language is used to create social relationships and cultural norms.

It examines language use in various forms of communication such as spoken, written, visual or multi-modal texts, and focuses on how language is used to construct social meaning and relationships, and how it reflects and reinforces power dynamics, ideologies, and cultural norms.

Types of Discourse Analysis

Some of the most common types of discourse analysis are:

Conversation Analysis

This type of discourse analysis focuses on analyzing the structure of talk and how participants in a conversation make meaning through their interaction. It is often used to study face-to-face interactions, such as interviews or everyday conversations.

Critical discourse Analysis

This approach focuses on the ways in which language use reflects and reinforces power relations, social hierarchies, and ideologies. It is often used to analyze media texts or political speeches, with the aim of uncovering the hidden meanings and assumptions that are embedded in these texts.

Discursive Psychology

This type of discourse analysis focuses on the ways in which language use is related to psychological processes such as identity construction and attribution of motives. It is often used to study narratives or personal accounts, with the aim of understanding how individuals make sense of their experiences.

Multimodal Discourse Analysis

This approach focuses on analyzing not only language use, but also other modes of communication, such as images, gestures, and layout. It is often used to study digital or visual media, with the aim of understanding how different modes of communication work together to create meaning.

Corpus-based Discourse Analysis

This type of discourse analysis uses large collections of texts, or corpora, to analyze patterns of language use across different genres or contexts. It is often used to study language use in specific domains, such as academic writing or legal discourse.

Descriptive Discourse

This type of discourse analysis aims to describe the features and characteristics of language use, without making any value judgments or interpretations. It is often used in linguistic studies to describe grammatical structures or phonetic features of language.

Narrative Discourse

This approach focuses on analyzing the structure and content of stories or narratives, with the aim of understanding how they are constructed and how they shape our understanding of the world. It is often used to study personal narratives or cultural myths.

Expository Discourse

This type of discourse analysis is used to study texts that explain or describe a concept, process, or idea. It aims to understand how information is organized and presented in such texts and how it influences the reader’s understanding of the topic.

Argumentative Discourse

This approach focuses on analyzing texts that present an argument or attempt to persuade the reader or listener. It aims to understand how the argument is constructed, what strategies are used to persuade, and how the audience is likely to respond to the argument.

Discourse Analysis Conducting Guide

Here is a step-by-step guide for conducting discourse analysis:

• What are you trying to understand about the language use in a particular context?
• What are the key concepts or themes that you want to explore?
• Select the data: Decide on the type of data that you will analyze, such as written texts, spoken conversations, or media content. Consider the source of the data, such as news articles, interviews, or social media posts, and how this might affect your analysis.
• Transcribe or collect the data: If you are analyzing spoken language, you will need to transcribe the data into written form. If you are using written texts, make sure that you have access to the full text and that it is in a format that can be easily analyzed.
• Read and re-read the data: Read through the data carefully, paying attention to key themes, patterns, and discursive features. Take notes on what stands out to you and make preliminary observations about the language use.
• Develop a coding scheme : Develop a coding scheme that will allow you to categorize and organize different types of language use. This might include categories such as metaphors, narratives, or persuasive strategies, depending on your research question.
• Code the data: Use your coding scheme to analyze the data, coding different sections of text or spoken language according to the categories that you have developed. This can be a time-consuming process, so consider using software tools to assist with coding and analysis.
• Analyze the data: Once you have coded the data, analyze it to identify patterns and themes that emerge. Look for similarities and differences across different parts of the data, and consider how different categories of language use are related to your research question.
• Interpret the findings: Draw conclusions from your analysis and interpret the findings in relation to your research question. Consider how the language use in your data sheds light on broader cultural or social issues, and what implications it might have for understanding language use in other contexts.
• Write up the results: Write up your findings in a clear and concise way, using examples from the data to support your arguments. Consider how your research contributes to the broader field of discourse analysis and what implications it might have for future research.

Applications of Discourse Analysis

Here are some of the key areas where discourse analysis is commonly used:

• Political discourse: Discourse analysis can be used to analyze political speeches, debates, and media coverage of political events. By examining the language used in these contexts, researchers can gain insight into the political ideologies, values, and agendas that underpin different political positions.
• Media analysis: Discourse analysis is frequently used to analyze media content, including news reports, television shows, and social media posts. By examining the language used in media content, researchers can understand how media narratives are constructed and how they influence public opinion.
• Education : Discourse analysis can be used to examine classroom discourse, student-teacher interactions, and educational policies. By analyzing the language used in these contexts, researchers can gain insight into the social and cultural factors that shape educational outcomes.
• Healthcare : Discourse analysis is used in healthcare to examine the language used by healthcare professionals and patients in medical consultations. This can help to identify communication barriers, cultural differences, and other factors that may impact the quality of healthcare.
• Marketing and advertising: Discourse analysis can be used to analyze marketing and advertising messages, including the language used in product descriptions, slogans, and commercials. By examining these messages, researchers can gain insight into the cultural values and beliefs that underpin consumer behavior.

When to use Discourse Analysis

Discourse analysis is a valuable research methodology that can be used in a variety of contexts. Here are some situations where discourse analysis may be particularly useful:

• When studying language use in a particular context: Discourse analysis can be used to examine how language is used in a specific context, such as political speeches, media coverage, or healthcare interactions. By analyzing language use in these contexts, researchers can gain insight into the social and cultural factors that shape communication.
• When exploring the meaning of language: Discourse analysis can be used to examine how language is used to construct meaning and shape social reality. This can be particularly useful in fields such as sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies.
• When examining power relations: Discourse analysis can be used to examine how language is used to reinforce or challenge power relations in society. By analyzing language use in contexts such as political discourse, media coverage, or workplace interactions, researchers can gain insight into how power is negotiated and maintained.
• When conducting qualitative research: Discourse analysis can be used as a qualitative research method, allowing researchers to explore complex social phenomena in depth. By analyzing language use in a particular context, researchers can gain rich and nuanced insights into the social and cultural factors that shape communication.

Examples of Discourse Analysis

Here are some examples of discourse analysis in action:

• A study of media coverage of climate change: This study analyzed media coverage of climate change to examine how language was used to construct the issue. The researchers found that media coverage tended to frame climate change as a matter of scientific debate rather than a pressing environmental issue, thereby undermining public support for action on climate change.
• A study of political speeches: This study analyzed political speeches to examine how language was used to construct political identity. The researchers found that politicians used language strategically to construct themselves as trustworthy and competent leaders, while painting their opponents as untrustworthy and incompetent.
• A study of medical consultations: This study analyzed medical consultations to examine how language was used to negotiate power and authority between doctors and patients. The researchers found that doctors used language to assert their authority and control over medical decisions, while patients used language to negotiate their own preferences and concerns.
• A study of workplace interactions: This study analyzed workplace interactions to examine how language was used to construct social identity and maintain power relations. The researchers found that language was used to construct a hierarchy of power and status within the workplace, with those in positions of authority using language to assert their dominance over subordinates.

Purpose of Discourse Analysis

The purpose of discourse analysis is to examine the ways in which language is used to construct social meaning, relationships, and power relations. By analyzing language use in a systematic and rigorous way, discourse analysis can provide valuable insights into the social and cultural factors that shape communication and interaction.

The specific purposes of discourse analysis may vary depending on the research context, but some common goals include:

• To understand how language constructs social reality: Discourse analysis can help researchers understand how language is used to construct meaning and shape social reality. By analyzing language use in a particular context, researchers can gain insight into the cultural and social factors that shape communication.
• To identify power relations: Discourse analysis can be used to examine how language use reinforces or challenges power relations in society. By analyzing language use in contexts such as political discourse, media coverage, or workplace interactions, researchers can gain insight into how power is negotiated and maintained.
• To explore social and cultural norms: Discourse analysis can help researchers understand how social and cultural norms are constructed and maintained through language use. By analyzing language use in different contexts, researchers can gain insight into how social and cultural norms are reproduced and challenged.
• To provide insights for social change: Discourse analysis can provide insights that can be used to promote social change. By identifying problematic language use or power imbalances, researchers can provide insights that can be used to challenge social norms and promote more equitable and inclusive communication.

Characteristics of Discourse Analysis

Here are some key characteristics of discourse analysis:

• Focus on language use: Discourse analysis is centered on language use and how it constructs social meaning, relationships, and power relations.
• Multidisciplinary approach: Discourse analysis draws on theories and methodologies from a range of disciplines, including linguistics, anthropology, sociology, and psychology.
• Systematic and rigorous methodology: Discourse analysis employs a systematic and rigorous methodology, often involving transcription and coding of language data, in order to identify patterns and themes in language use.
• Contextual analysis : Discourse analysis emphasizes the importance of context in shaping language use, and takes into account the social and cultural factors that shape communication.
• Focus on power relations: Discourse analysis often examines power relations and how language use reinforces or challenges power imbalances in society.
• Interpretive approach: Discourse analysis is an interpretive approach, meaning that it seeks to understand the meaning and significance of language use from the perspective of the participants in a particular discourse.
• Emphasis on reflexivity: Discourse analysis emphasizes the importance of reflexivity, or self-awareness, in the research process. Researchers are encouraged to reflect on their own positionality and how it may shape their interpretation of language use.

Advantages of Discourse Analysis

Discourse analysis has several advantages as a methodological approach. Here are some of the main advantages:

• Provides a detailed understanding of language use: Discourse analysis allows for a detailed and nuanced understanding of language use in specific social contexts. It enables researchers to identify patterns and themes in language use, and to understand how language constructs social reality.
• Emphasizes the importance of context : Discourse analysis emphasizes the importance of context in shaping language use. By taking into account the social and cultural factors that shape communication, discourse analysis provides a more complete understanding of language use than other approaches.
• Allows for an examination of power relations: Discourse analysis enables researchers to examine power relations and how language use reinforces or challenges power imbalances in society. By identifying problematic language use, discourse analysis can contribute to efforts to promote social justice and equality.
• Provides insights for social change: Discourse analysis can provide insights that can be used to promote social change. By identifying problematic language use or power imbalances, researchers can provide insights that can be used to challenge social norms and promote more equitable and inclusive communication.
• Multidisciplinary approach: Discourse analysis draws on theories and methodologies from a range of disciplines, including linguistics, anthropology, sociology, and psychology. This multidisciplinary approach allows for a more holistic understanding of language use in social contexts.

Limitations of Discourse Analysis

Some Limitations of Discourse Analysis are as follows:

• Time-consuming and resource-intensive: Discourse analysis can be a time-consuming and resource-intensive process. Collecting and transcribing language data can be a time-consuming task, and analyzing the data requires careful attention to detail and a significant investment of time and resources.
• Limited generalizability: Discourse analysis is often focused on a particular social context or community, and therefore the findings may not be easily generalized to other contexts or populations. This means that the insights gained from discourse analysis may have limited applicability beyond the specific context being studied.
• Interpretive nature: Discourse analysis is an interpretive approach, meaning that it relies on the interpretation of the researcher to identify patterns and themes in language use. This subjectivity can be a limitation, as different researchers may interpret language data differently.
• Limited quantitative analysis: Discourse analysis tends to focus on qualitative analysis of language data, which can limit the ability to draw statistical conclusions or make quantitative comparisons across different language uses or contexts.
• Ethical considerations: Discourse analysis may involve the collection and analysis of sensitive language data, such as language related to trauma or marginalization. Researchers must carefully consider the ethical implications of collecting and analyzing this type of data, and ensure that the privacy and confidentiality of participants is protected.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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What (Exactly) Is Discourse Analysis? A Plain-Language Explanation & Definition (With Examples)

By: Jenna Crosley (PhD). Expert Reviewed By: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | June 2021

Discourse analysis is one of the most popular qualitative analysis techniques we encounter at Grad Coach. If you’ve landed on this post, you’re probably interested in discourse analysis, but you’re not sure whether it’s the right fit for your project, or you don’t know where to start. If so, you’ve come to the right place.

Overview: Discourse Analysis Basics

In this post, we’ll explain in plain, straightforward language :

• What discourse analysis is
• When to use discourse analysis
• The main approaches to discourse analysis
• How to conduct discourse analysis

What is discourse analysis?

Let’s start with the word “discourse”.

In its simplest form, discourse is verbal or written communication between people that goes beyond a single sentence . Importantly, discourse is more than just language. The term “language” can include all forms of linguistic and symbolic units (even things such as road signs), and language studies can focus on the individual meanings of words. Discourse goes beyond this and looks at the overall meanings conveyed by language in context .  “Context” here refers to the social, cultural, political, and historical background of the discourse, and it is important to take this into account to understand underlying meanings expressed through language.

A popular way of viewing discourse is as language used in specific social contexts, and as such language serves as a means of prompting some form of social change or meeting some form of goal.

Now that we’ve defined discourse, let’s look at discourse analysis .

Discourse analysis uses the language presented in a corpus or body of data to draw meaning . This body of data could include a set of interviews or focus group discussion transcripts. While some forms of discourse analysis center in on the specifics of language (such as sounds or grammar), other forms focus on how this language is used to achieve its aims. We’ll dig deeper into these two above-mentioned approaches later.

As Wodak and Krzyżanowski (2008) put it: “discourse analysis provides a general framework to problem-oriented social research”. Basically, discourse analysis is used to conduct research on the use of language in context in a wide variety of social problems (i.e., issues in society that affect individuals negatively).

For example, discourse analysis could be used to assess how language is used to express differing viewpoints on financial inequality and would look at how the topic should or shouldn’t be addressed or resolved, and whether this so-called inequality is perceived as such by participants.

What makes discourse analysis unique is that it posits that social reality is socially constructed , or that our experience of the world is understood from a subjective standpoint. Discourse analysis goes beyond the literal meaning of words and languages

For example, people in countries that make use of a lot of censorship will likely have their knowledge, and thus views, limited by this, and will thus have a different subjective reality to those within countries with more lax laws on censorship.

When should you use discourse analysis?

There are many ways to analyze qualitative data (such as content analysis , narrative analysis , and thematic analysis ), so why should you choose discourse analysis? Well, as with all analysis methods, the nature of your research aims, objectives and research questions (i.e. the purpose of your research) will heavily influence the right choice of analysis method.

The purpose of discourse analysis is to investigate the functions of language (i.e., what language is used for) and how meaning is constructed in different contexts, which, to recap, include the social, cultural, political, and historical backgrounds of the discourse.

For example, if you were to study a politician’s speeches, you would need to situate these speeches in their context, which would involve looking at the politician’s background and views, the reasons for presenting the speech, the history or context of the audience, and the country’s social and political history (just to name a few – there are always multiple contextual factors).

Discourse analysis can also tell you a lot about power and power imbalances , including how this is developed and maintained, how this plays out in real life (for example, inequalities because of this power), and how language can be used to maintain it. For example, you could look at the way that someone with more power (for example, a CEO) speaks to someone with less power (for example, a lower-level employee).

Therefore, you may consider discourse analysis if you are researching:

• Some form of power or inequality (for example, how affluent individuals interact with those who are less wealthy
• How people communicate in a specific context (such as in a social situation with colleagues versus a board meeting)
• Ideology and how ideas (such as values and beliefs) are shared using language (like in political speeches)
• How communication is used to achieve social goals (such as maintaining a friendship or navigating conflict)

As you can see, discourse analysis can be a powerful tool for assessing social issues , as well as power and power imbalances . So, if your research aims and objectives are oriented around these types of issues, discourse analysis could be a good fit for you.

Discourse Analysis: The main approaches

There are two main approaches to discourse analysis. These are the language-in-use (also referred to as socially situated text and talk ) approaches and the socio-political approaches (most commonly Critical Discourse Analysis ). Let’s take a look at each of these.

Approach #1: Language-in-use

Language-in-use approaches focus on the finer details of language used within discourse, such as sentence structures (grammar) and phonology (sounds). This approach is very descriptive and is seldom seen outside of studies focusing on literature and/or linguistics.

Because of its formalist roots, language-in-use pays attention to different rules of communication, such as grammaticality (i.e., when something “sounds okay” to a native speaker of a language). Analyzing discourse through a language-in-use framework involves identifying key technicalities of language used in discourse and investigating how the features are used within a particular social context.

For example, English makes use of affixes (for example, “un” in “unbelievable”) and suffixes (“able” in “unbelievable”) but doesn’t typically make use of infixes (units that can be placed within other words to alter their meaning). However, an English speaker may say something along the lines of, “that’s un-flipping-believable”. From a language-in-use perspective, the infix “flipping” could be investigated by assessing how rare the phenomenon is in English, and then answering questions such as, “What role does the infix play?” or “What is the goal of using such an infix?”

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Approach #2: Socio-political

Socio-political approaches to discourse analysis look beyond the technicalities of language and instead focus on the influence that language has in social context , and vice versa. One of the main socio-political approaches is Critical Discourse Analysis , which focuses on power structures (for example, the power dynamic between a teacher and a student) and how discourse is influenced by society and culture. Critical Discourse Analysis is born out of Michel Foucault’s early work on power, which focuses on power structures through the analysis of normalized power .

Normalized power is ingrained and relatively allusive. It’s what makes us exist within society (and within the underlying norms of society, as accepted in a specific social context) and do the things that we need to do. Contrasted to this, a more obvious form of power is repressive power , which is power that is actively asserted.

Sounds a bit fluffy? Let’s look at an example.

Consider a situation where a teacher threatens a student with detention if they don’t stop speaking in class. This would be an example of repressive power (i.e. it was actively asserted).

Normalized power, on the other hand, is what makes us not want to talk in class . It’s the subtle clues we’re given from our environment that tell us how to behave, and this form of power is so normal to us that we don’t even realize that our beliefs, desires, and decisions are being shaped by it.

In the view of Critical Discourse Analysis, language is power and, if we want to understand power dynamics and structures in society, we must look to language for answers. In other words, analyzing the use of language can help us understand the social context, especially the power dynamics.

While the above-mentioned approaches are the two most popular approaches to discourse analysis, other forms of analysis exist. For example, ethnography-based discourse analysis and multimodal analysis. Ethnography-based discourse analysis aims to gain an insider understanding of culture , customs, and habits through participant observation (i.e. directly observing participants, rather than focusing on pre-existing texts).

On the other hand, multimodal analysis focuses on a variety of texts that are both verbal and nonverbal (such as a combination of political speeches and written press releases). So, if you’re considering using discourse analysis, familiarize yourself with the various approaches available so that you can make a well-informed decision.

How to “do” discourse analysis

As every study is different, it’s challenging to outline exactly what steps need to be taken to complete your research. However, the following steps can be used as a guideline if you choose to adopt discourse analysis for your research.

Step 1: Decide on your discourse analysis approach

The first step of the process is to decide on which approach you will take in terms. For example, the language in use approach or a socio-political approach such as critical discourse analysis. To do this, you need to consider your research aims, objectives and research questions . Of course, this means that you need to have these components clearly defined. If you’re still a bit uncertain about these, check out our video post covering topic development here.

While discourse analysis can be exploratory (as in, used to find out about a topic that hasn’t really been touched on yet), it is still vital to have a set of clearly defined research questions to guide your analysis. Without these, you may find that you lack direction when you get to your analysis. Since discourse analysis places such a focus on context, it is also vital that your research questions are linked to studying language within context.

Based on your research aims, objectives and research questions, you need to assess which discourse analysis would best suit your needs. Importantly, you  need to adopt an approach that aligns with your study’s purpose . So, think carefully about what you are investigating and what you want to achieve, and then consider the various options available within discourse analysis.

It’s vital to determine your discourse analysis approach from the get-go , so that you don’t waste time randomly analyzing your data without any specific plan.

Step 2: Design your collection method and gather your data

Once you’ve got determined your overarching approach, you can start looking at how to collect your data. Data in discourse analysis is drawn from different forms of “talk” and “text” , which means that it can consist of interviews , ethnographies, discussions, case studies, blog posts.  

The type of data you collect will largely depend on your research questions (and broader research aims and objectives). So, when you’re gathering your data, make sure that you keep in mind the “what”, “who” and “why” of your study, so that you don’t end up with a corpus full of irrelevant data. Discourse analysis can be very time-consuming, so you want to ensure that you’re not wasting time on information that doesn’t directly pertain to your research questions.

When considering potential collection methods, you should also consider the practicalities . What type of data can you access in reality? How many participants do you have access to and how much time do you have available to collect data and make sense of it? These are important factors, as you’ll run into problems if your chosen methods are impractical in light of your constraints.

Once you’ve determined your data collection method, you can get to work with the collection.

Step 3: Investigate the context

A key part of discourse analysis is context and understanding meaning in context. For this reason, it is vital that you thoroughly and systematically investigate the context of your discourse. Make sure that you can answer (at least the majority) of the following questions:

• What is the discourse?
• Why does the discourse exist? What is the purpose and what are the aims of the discourse?
• When did the discourse take place?
• Where did it happen?
• Who participated in the discourse? Who created it and who consumed it?
• What does the discourse say about society in general?
• How is meaning being conveyed in the context of the discourse?

Make sure that you include all aspects of the discourse context in your analysis to eliminate any confounding factors. For example, are there any social, political, or historical reasons as to why the discourse would exist as it does? What other factors could contribute to the existence of the discourse? Discourse can be influenced by many factors, so it is vital that you take as many of them into account as possible.

Once you’ve investigated the context of your data, you’ll have a much better idea of what you’re working with, and you’ll be far more familiar with your content. It’s then time to begin your analysis.

Step 4: Analyze your data

When performing a discourse analysis, you’ll need to look for themes and patterns .  To do this, you’ll start by looking at codes , which are specific topics within your data. You can find more information about the qualitative data coding process here.

Next, you’ll take these codes and identify themes. Themes are patterns of language (such as specific words or sentences) that pop up repeatedly in your data, and that can tell you something about the discourse. For example, if you’re wanting to know about women’s perspectives of living in a certain area, potential themes may be “safety” or “convenience”.

In discourse analysis, it is important to reach what is called data saturation . This refers to when you’ve investigated your topic and analyzed your data to the point where no new information can be found. To achieve this, you need to work your way through your data set multiple times, developing greater depth and insight each time. This can be quite time consuming and even a bit boring at times, but it’s essential.

Once you’ve reached the point of saturation, you should have an almost-complete analysis and you’re ready to move onto the next step – final review.

Step 5: Review your work

Hey, you’re nearly there. Good job! Now it’s time to review your work.

This final step requires you to return to your research questions and compile your answers to them, based on the analysis. Make sure that you can answer your research questions thoroughly, and also substantiate your responses with evidence from your data.

Usually, discourse analysis studies make use of appendices, which are referenced within your thesis or dissertation. This makes it easier for reviewers or markers to jump between your analysis (and findings) and your corpus (your evidence) so that it’s easier for them to assess your work.

When answering your research questions, make you should also revisit your research aims and objectives , and assess your answers against these. This process will help you zoom out a little and give you a bigger picture view. With your newfound insights from the analysis, you may find, for example, that it makes sense to expand the research question set a little to achieve a more comprehensive view of the topic.

Let’s recap…

In this article, we’ve covered quite a bit of ground. The key takeaways are:

• Discourse analysis is a qualitative analysis method used to draw meaning from language in context.
• You should consider using discourse analysis when you wish to analyze the functions and underlying meanings of language in context.
• The two overarching approaches to discourse analysis are language-in-use and socio-political approaches .
• The main steps involved in undertaking discourse analysis are deciding on your analysis approach (based on your research questions), choosing a data collection method, collecting your data, investigating the context of your data, analyzing your data, and reviewing your work.

If you have any questions about discourse analysis, feel free to leave a comment below. If you’d like 1-on-1 help with your analysis, book an initial consultation with a friendly Grad Coach to see how we can help.

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30 Comments

This was really helpful to me

I would like to know the importance of discourse analysis analysis to academic writing

In academic writing coherence and cohesion are very important. DA will assist us to decide cohesiveness of the continuum of discourse that are used in it. We can judge it well.

Thank you so much for this piece, can you please direct how I can use Discourse Analysis to investigate politics of ethnicity in a particular society

Fantastically helpful! Could you write on how discourse analysis can be done using computer aided technique? Many thanks

I would like to know if I can use discourse analysis to research on electoral integrity deviation and when election are considered free & fair

I also to know the importance of discourse analysis and it’s purpose and characteristics

Thanks, we are doing discourse analysis as a subject this year and this helped a lot!

Please can you help explain and answer this question? With illustrations,Hymes’ Acronym SPEAKING, as a feature of Discourse Analysis.

What are the three objectives of discourse analysis especially on the topic how people communicate between doctor and patient

Very useful Thank you for your work and information

thank you so much , I wanna know more about discourse analysis tools , such as , latent analysis , active powers analysis, proof paths analysis, image analysis, rhetorical analysis, propositions analysis, and so on, I wish I can get references about it , thanks in advance

Its beyond my expectations. It made me clear everything which I was struggling since last 4 months. 👏 👏 👏 👏

Thank you so much … It is clear and helpful

Thanks for sharing this material. My question is related to the online newspaper articles on COVID -19 pandemic the way this new normal is constructed as a social reality. How discourse analysis is an appropriate approach to examine theese articles?

This very helpful and interesting information

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I’m seeking further assistance if you don’t mind.

Found it worth consuming!

What are the four types of discourse analysis?

very helpful. And I’d like to know more about Ethnography-based discourse analysis as I’m studying arts and humanities, I’d like to know how can I use it in my study.

Amazing info. Very happy to read this helpful piece of documentation. Thank you.

is discourse analysis can take data from medias like TV, Radio…?

I need to know what is general discourse analysis

Direct to the point, simple and deep explanation. this is helpful indeed.

Thank you so much was really helpful

really impressive

Thank you very much, for the clear explanations and examples.

It is really awesome. Anybody within just in 5 minutes understand this critical topic so easily. Thank you so much.

Thank you for enriching my knowledge on Discourse Analysis . Very helpful thanks again

This was extremely helpful. I feel less anxious now. Thank you so much.

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• Critical Discourse Analysis | Definition, Guide & Examples

Critical Discourse Analysis | Definition, Guide & Examples

Published on 5 May 2022 by Amy Luo . Revised on 5 December 2022.

Discourse analysis is a research method for studying written or spoken language in relation to its social context. It aims to understand how language is used in real-life situations.

When you do discourse analysis, you might focus on:

• The purposes and effects of different types of language
• Cultural rules and conventions in communication
• How values, beliefs, and assumptions are communicated
• How language use relates to its social, political, and historical context

Discourse analysis is a common qualitative research method in many humanities and social science disciplines, including linguistics, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and cultural studies. It is also called critical discourse analysis.

Table of contents

What is discourse analysis used for, how is discourse analysis different from other methods, how to conduct discourse analysis.

Conducting discourse analysis means examining how language functions and how meaning is created in different social contexts. It can be applied to any instance of written or oral language, as well as non-verbal aspects of communication, such as tone and gestures.

Materials that are suitable for discourse analysis include:

• Books, newspapers, and periodicals
• Marketing material, such as brochures and advertisements
• Business and government documents
• Websites, forums, social media posts, and comments
• Interviews and conversations

By analysing these types of discourse, researchers aim to gain an understanding of social groups and how they communicate.

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Unlike linguistic approaches that focus only on the rules of language use, discourse analysis emphasises the contextual meaning of language.

It focuses on the social aspects of communication and the ways people use language to achieve specific effects (e.g., to build trust, to create doubt, to evoke emotions, or to manage conflict).

Instead of focusing on smaller units of language, such as sounds, words, or phrases, discourse analysis is used to study larger chunks of language, such as entire conversations, texts, or collections of texts. The selected sources can be analysed on multiple levels.

Discourse analysis is a qualitative and interpretive method of analysing texts (in contrast to more systematic methods like content analysis ). You make interpretations based on both the details of the material itself and on contextual knowledge.

There are many different approaches and techniques you can use to conduct discourse analysis, but the steps below outline the basic structure you need to follow.

Step 1: Define the research question and select the content of analysis

To do discourse analysis, you begin with a clearly defined research question . Once you have developed your question, select a range of material that is appropriate to answer it.

Discourse analysis is a method that can be applied both to large volumes of material and to smaller samples, depending on the aims and timescale of your research.

Step 2: Gather information and theory on the context

Next, you must establish the social and historical context in which the material was produced and intended to be received. Gather factual details of when and where the content was created, who the author is, who published it, and whom it was disseminated to.

As well as understanding the real-life context of the discourse, you can also conduct a literature review on the topic and construct a theoretical framework to guide your analysis.

Step 3: Analyse the content for themes and patterns

This step involves closely examining various elements of the material – such as words, sentences, paragraphs, and overall structure – and relating them to attributes, themes, and patterns relevant to your research question.

Step 4: Review your results and draw conclusions

Once you have assigned particular attributes to elements of the material, reflect on your results to examine the function and meaning of the language used. Here, you will consider your analysis in relation to the broader context that you established earlier to draw conclusions that answer your research question.

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Discourse analysis: Step-by-step guide with examples

What is a discourse analysis, the application of discourse analysis in the academic thesis, discourse analysis with maxqda.

• Step 1: Importing data
• Step 2: Coding data
• Step 3: Creating Codebook
• Step 4: Visualize data

Literature about MAXQDA

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

MAXQDA supports various methodological approaches, including discourse analysis. This guide will introduce you to the tools of MAXQDA, which are ideal for performing discourse analysis with MAXQDA quickly and easily. MAXQDA is a qualitative data analysis software that helps you import, code, and identify patterns in your discourse.

Discourse analysis is a multidisciplinary method used in the humanities and social sciences to develop a deeper understanding of the interactions between language, society, and culture. It focuses on the study of linguistic expressions, structures, and practices in order to capture social meanings and power dynamics. Both verbal and nonverbal communication are considered. The overarching goal of discourse analysis is to explore how discourses influence the construction of knowledge, identities, and social relations. It enables the study of the role of language and communication in shaping and influencing social reality. Overall, discourse analysis makes a valuable contribution to the study of social phenomena and processes by providing an in-depth understanding of how language and communication are used to create meanings, shape social relationships, and establish social power dynamics. Discourse analysis contributes to critical reflection and knowledge acquisition in various academic disciplines.

A primary motivation for using discourse analysis is the ability to uncover dominant discourses, ideological assumptions, and power structures in texts, media content, or political speeches. Discourse analysis allows researchers to better understand and critically reflect on the role of language and discourse in society. Another important area of application of discourse analysis in dissertations is the study of the relationship between discourses and identity constructions. For example, gender roles, ethnic identities, or sexual orientations can be studied. Discourse analysis can help to understand how identities are negotiated, constructed, and reproduced in specific social contexts. Another area of application in dissertations is the study of discourses in the media. The analysis of media discourses makes it possible to identify, critically expose and reflect on patterns and trends in reporting. This can contribute to a better understanding of the media’s role in constructing and disseminating discourses. In summary, discourse analysis offers a valuable methodological perspective for the study of complex social phenomena in the context of academic work.

Researchers typically follow these steps in discourse analysis: defining the research question, selecting relevant textual data, coding and categorizing the data, analyzing patterns and meanings within the discourse, interpreting the results, and documenting their findings in written form. The specific steps may vary depending on the research question and methodology.

As mentioned earlier, there are clear advantages to using software like MAXQDA to conduct discourse analysis. With MAXQDA, you can segment data, code it, and develop analytical ideas all at the same time. This makes the process more efficient and allows you to refine your theoretical approaches in real time. If you do not have a MAXQDA License yet, download the free 14-day trial to get started:

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Step 1 of the discourse analysis with MAXQDA: Importing data

Importing data into MAXQDA is a crucial step in beginning the analysis of qualitative data. MAXQDA provides several options for importing data into the program, allowing you to effectively organize your research materials. You can import different types of data, such as text documents, transcripts, media content, or existing MAXQDA Projects. MAXQDA gives you the flexibility to import both individual files and entire folders of data, which is especially helpful when working with large data sets. The import process is designed to be simple and user-friendly, making it easier for you to work with your data.Another advantage of MAXQDA is that it supports a wide variety of file formats. You can import files in various formats, including TXT, DOC, PDF, MP3, MP4 and many more. This versatility allows you to work with different types of data and incorporate different media into your analysis.Importing your data into MAXQDA makes it structured and accessible for further analysis. Within MAXQDA, you can organize, code, and link your data with other analytical tools. This makes it easier to navigate and access relevant information during the analysis process.Overall, importing data into MAXQDA is an efficient way to manage your qualitative research materials and prepare them for analysis. It serves as a critical first step in launching your project in MAXQDA and taking full advantage of the program’s extensive analytical capabilities.

Importing data into MAXQA plays a crucial role in conducting discourse analysis. With MAXQDA, you can segment your data into documents and annotate them with relevant metadata such as title, author, and date. This allows you to organize your texts during the analysis phase. You can sort, filter, and group your data based on various criteria to access specific texts. In addition, MAXQDA provides the ability to annotate the imported text with notes, comments, or memos. This feature is invaluable for capturing important information, thoughts, or interpretations that arise during analysis. You can document your observations and insights directly in MAXQDA, thus fostering a comprehensive understanding of the discourse being analyzed.In MAXQDA, you can assign meaningful titles to your data and include relevant metadata such as author and date in the document names. This ensures a clear organization of your texts during the analysis phase. You can sort, filter, and group your data according to various criteria to access specific texts. In addition, MAXQDA allows you to annotate the imported texts with comments and notes using memos. This feature is very useful for capturing key information, thoughts, or interpretations that emerge during the analysis. You can document your observations and insights directly in MAXQDA and develop a thorough understanding of the discourse being analyzed. Importing data into MAXQDA is fundamental to conducting a systematic and comprehensive discourse analysis.The structured organization of data in MAXQDA facilitates the effective application of various analysis methods and techniques. You can create codes to identify and analyze important themes, terms, or patterns within the discourse. Importing data into MAXQDA provides a central platform where you can manage, analyze, and interpret your data. This greatly streamlines the entire process of discourse analysis, allowing you to make informed statements about social meanings, power dynamics, and identity constructions within the discourse you are analyzing.

Step 2 of the discourse analysis with MAXQDA: Coding data

Coding data in MAXQDA plays a critical role in the analysis process. Coding involves identifying and marking specific themes, categories, or concepts within the data. This allows researchers to systematically organize and extract relevant information from the data. In MAXQDA, different types of data can be coded, such as text passages, images, videos, or audio files. Codes can be used to associate these data segments with specific content or meanings. Researchers can use codes to identify and mark certain phenomena or themes in the data, allowing for targeted access later. Coding in MAXQDA allows researchers to identify complex relationships and patterns within the data.By linking and combining codes and organizing them hierarchically, researchers can establish relationships between different elements. These connections provide new insights and help understand the relationships within the data. The coded data can be further used in MAXQDA for additional analysis. For example, complex queries or filters can be applied to examine specific aspects of the discourse in detail. By analyzing the coded data, researchers can identify patterns, trends, and significant relationships that lead to valuable insights.MAXQDA provides an intuitive and easy-to-use platform to efficiently perform the coding and analysis process. The program offers several tools and features that allow researchers to customize the coding process and tailor the analysis to their specific needs. Overall, coding data in MAXQDA is a critical step in analyzing and understanding qualitative data.

Coding data in MAXQDA allows researchers to identify and analyze specific discursive elements such as themes, arguments, or language strategies in the texts under study. To code data in MAXQDA, researchers can select relevant text passages and assign them codes that represent specific meanings or categories. These codes can be organized hierarchically to illustrate relationships between different discursive elements. In addition to coding, MAXQDA offers features such as text annotation, the ability to create memos, and options for visual data presentation at later stages. These features facilitate the organization and interpretation of coded data, enabling researchers to gain deep insights into the discourse under study and to visualize their findings. MAXQDA provides a comprehensive and efficient platform for coding and analyzing data in discourse analysis.

Step 3 of the discourse analysis with MAXQDA: Creating Codebook

A Codebook in MAXQDA defines codes for units of meaning within data. It enables structured and consistent coding, improves traceability and reproducibility, increases the efficiency of data analysis, facilitates comparisons and cross-references between codes and data, and provides flexibility and adaptability. In summary, a codebook promotes structured, consistent, and efficient data analysis, improving traceability and identification of relationships and patterns.

A Codebook is also very useful for discourse analysis in MAXQDA. Here are some reasons why:

• Structured coding of discourse features: A Codebook establishes uniform rules and definitions for coding data. This ensures that coding is structured and consistent across researchers and stages of analysis. This increases the reliability of results and facilitates the comparison and integration of data.
• Improved traceability and reproducibility: By clearly defining the codes and their use in the Codebook, the traceability of the coding process is improved. Other researchers can understand and trace the coding, increasing the reproducibility of the analysis. In addition, a Codebook facilitates effective collaboration and sharing of data and analysis among researchers.
• Identification and comparison of discourse patterns: A Codebook allows for the systematic identification and comparison of discourse patterns. This makes it possible to identify connections, patterns, and differences in the data, thus facilitating the interpretation of the results.
• Efficient data analysis: A Codebook provides a structured view of the codes used and their meanings. This allows researchers to work more efficiently by applying the codes quickly and specifically to relevant data. Using a codebook saves time and makes it easier to organize and navigate the coded data.
• Flexibility and adaptability: A Codebook in MAXQDA is flexible and customizable. Researchers can add, modify, or remove codes to meet the needs of their specific research questions. This allows for dynamic and iterative data analysis, where the Codebook can be continually updated and expanded.

In summary, a well-designed codebook in MAXQDA promotes structured, consistent, and efficient data analysis.

Step 4 of the discourse analysis with MAXQDA: Visualize data

MAXQDA offers a wide range of visualization tools to help you present your research data in an engaging and meaningful way. These include not only different types of charts, such as bar or pie charts for visualizing numerical data, but also other innovative visualization tools that help you identify and analyze complex relationships.

Code Matrix Browser

With the Code Matrix Browser , in MAXQDA, you can visually display and analyze the occurrence of codes in your data. This feature is invaluable for identifying similarities, differences, and patterns in discourse. Here are some of the ways the Code Matrix Browser can help you:

• Visualization of codings: The Code Matrix Browser displays a matrix where codes are arranged along the rows and documents along the columns. This visual representation allows you to quickly see which codes were used in which documents. This allows you to identify similarities and differences in the coding, which makes it easier to make connections.
• Pattern recognition: By analyzing codings in the Code Relations Browser, you can identify patterns in discourse. For example, you can observe which codes are particularly prevalent in certain documents. These patterns may indicate important themes, arguments, or language strategies, helping you to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the discourse.
• Comparison: With the Code Matrix Browser, you can compare how often certain codes were assigned in each document and display the corresponding information in the matrix. This allows you to analyze relationships between different elements in the discourse and to make connections between different topics or arguments.

Code Relations Browser

The Code Relations Browser , in MAXQDA allows you to visually display and analyze the connections and dependencies between the codes in your discourse. This feature is extremely valuable for understanding the interactions and hierarchy between codes. Here are some of the ways the Code Relations Browser can help you:

• Visualize code relationships: The Code Relations Browser visually displays the relationships between codes. You can see which codes are linked and how they are related to each other. These relationships can be hierarchical, associative, or several other types. This visual representation helps you better understand the structure and organization of codes within the discourse.
• Analyze interactions: The Code Relations Browser lets you analyze the interactions between codes. You can observe which codes occur frequently or how they influence each other. This can help you identify specific themes, arguments, or concepts in the discourse and examine their interrelationships. Analyzing these interactions can provide a deeper understanding of the discourse and the connections between codes.

The Code Map in MAXQDA visualizes selected codes as a map, showing the similarity of codes based on overlaps in the data material. Each code is represented by a circle, and the distance between the circles indicates their similarity. Larger circles represent more instances of coding with the code. Colors can highlight group membership, and connecting lines indicate overlap between codes, with thicker lines indicating more significant overlap.Visualizing the similarities between codes in the data provides an overview of different discursive elements. Grouping codes into clusters allows for the identification of specific discourse themes or dimensions. The connecting lines also show how codes interact and which codes frequently appear together. This allows for a detailed examination of the relationships between discursive elements, facilitating the interpretation and analysis of the discourse.

Document Map

The Document Map visualizes selected documents like a map. The positioning of the circles on the map is based on the similarity of the code assignments between the documents. Documents with similar code mappings are placed closer together, while those with different code mappings are placed further apart. Variable values from the documents can be used to determine similarity. Optionally, similar documents can be color-coded. Larger circles represent documents with more of the analyzed codes. The Document Map is a useful tool for visually grouping cases and can be used for typing or further investigation of the identified groups. The Document Map can be used in several ways in discourse analysis:

• Discourse group identification: By positioning documents on the map based on their code assignments, similar discourse groups can be identified. Documents with similar code assignments are placed closer together, indicating common discursive features.
• Recognition of discourse patterns: The visual representation of documents and their similarities on the map allows for the detection of patterns in discourse. Clusters of documents with similar codings may indicate common themes, arguments, or language patterns.
• Exploration of discourse dynamics: The use of connecting lines between codes on the map can reveal which codes overlap within documents. Thick connecting lines indicate frequent overlap and may suggest discursive relationships or connections.”
• Typification: The Document Map can serve as a basis for typology in discourse analysis. By grouping documents with similar code assignments, different discourse types can be identified and described”.

Profile Comparison Chart

The Profile Comparison Chart MAXQDA allows you to select multiple documents and compare the use of codes within those documents. This comparison allows you to identify differences or similarities in discourse between the selected documents. Below are some steps for using the Profile Comparison Chart:

• Document selection: Select the documents you want to compare. You can choose single documents or a group of documents. These documents should represent the discourse you want to analyze.
• Code selection: Select the codes you wish to compare in the selected documents. These can be specific themes, concepts or discursive elements that are of interest in the discourse.
• Create the comparison chart: Create the comparison graph in MAXQDA. The graph shows the occurrence of codes in individual paragraphs of the documents.
• Analysis of the chart: Analyze the comparison chart to identify differences or similarities in the discourse of the selected documents. Examine the assignment of codes in the paragraphs of the documents. Different patterns or variations in frequency may indicate differences in discourse, while similar patterns may indicate similarities in discourse.

Document Portrait

The Document Portrait feature in MAXQDA allows you to visually represent important features, themes, or characteristics of a document by visualizing the sequence of coding within that document. This feature allows you to identify relevant aspects of the discourse and analyze their weight in this particular document. Below are some steps for using the Document Portrait:

• Document Selection: Select the document for which you want to create a document portrait. The document selected should be representative of the discourse you are analyzing.
• Identify relevant features: Identify the codes that you want to visualize. These may be specific relevant features, themes or characteristics of the document, or other elements relevant to the discourse.
• Weighting of Features: The length of the segment is used as a weighting factor for the Document Portrait.
• Creation of the Document Portrait: Generate the Document Portrait in MAXQDA. The portrait visualizes the identified features and their weighting in the selected document. As a result, you obtain a visual representation of the sequence of coding performed within the document.
• Analysis of the Portrait: Analyze the Document Portrait to identify important features, themes, or characteristics of the document. This allows you to locate and understand relevant aspects of the discourse within a particular document.

The Codeline is a powerful tool in MAXQDA that allows you to visually represent the use of different codes within a document. By displaying the sequence of codes, you can see the flow and development of the discourse. With the Codeline, you can not only see which codes were used in specific sections of the document, but you can also track the progression of codings within a document. This allows you to identify crucial stages, turning points, or focal points in the discourse.The Codeline also allows you to analyze coded segments over time. You can examine specific codes and their occurrences or changes over time. This allows you to examine and interpret trends, patterns, or changes in the discourse more closely. The Codeline is therefore a valuable tool for considering the temporal progression and development of discourse in your analysis.By analyzing coded segments over time, you can gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics and context of the discourse, leading to more informed interpretations.

The Word Cloud is a powerful visualization tool in MAXQDA that helps you visually represent frequently occurring words or terms in the discourse. By looking at the size or weight of the words in the Word Cloud, you can quickly see which terms are particularly prevalent or significant in the discourse. By analyzing the Word Cloud, you can identify key terms in the discourse and examine their weight or frequency in relation to other terms. This allows you to identify and understand important themes, trends, or focuses in the discourse. In addition, you can use the Word Cloud to identify connections between different terms. If certain words occur frequently together or are used in similar contexts, you can identify associations or links in the discourse. The Word Cloud is thus a valuable tool for getting a quick and clear representation of the most common words or terms in the discourse. By analyzing the key terms and their weighting, you can gain important insights into the content and structure of the discourse and make a well-informed interpretation.

We offer a variety of free learning materials to help you get started with MAXQDA. Check out our Getting Started Guide to get a quick overview of MAXQDA and step-by-step instructions on setting up your software and creating your first project with your brand new QDA software. In addition, the free Literature Reviews Guide explains how to conduct a literature review with MAXQDA.

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Discourse Analysis – A Definitive Guide With Steps & Types

Published by Alvin Nicolas at August 14th, 2021 , Revised On August 29, 2023

What is Discourse Analysis?

Discourse analysis is an essential aspect of studying a language and its uses in day-to-day life.

It aims to gain in-depth knowledge about the language and identify its association with society, culture, and people’s perception.

It is used in various social science and humanities disciplines, such as linguistic, sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics.

Aims of Discourse Analysis

It focuses on

• The clear, in-depth meaning of the language.
• The uses of language and its effects.
• The association of the language with cultures, interpersonal relationships, and communication.
• Various components of the language like vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, tone of voice, fonts, and written form.

Uses of Discourse Analysis

Discourse analysis is

• Used to study the language and its applications in texts and contexts.
• It focuses on the entire conversation and real text instead of constructed or artificial text.
• It helps linguists to know the role of language in improving the understanding of people.
• It enables teachers to learn many language strategies to teach students writing/speaking skills better.

Materials Used in Discourse Analysis

The material includes

Types of Discourse

What to analyse, does your research methodology have the following.

• Great Research/Sources
• Perfect Language
• Accurate Sources

If not, we can help. Our panel of experts makes sure to keep the 3 pillars of Research Methodology strong.

How to Conduct Discourse Analysis?

While conducting discourse analysis, you need to focus on the following points.

• Purpose of the writer
• The context of the speech/passage
• Type of the language used.
• The organisation of the text

You need to interpret the meaning and context of the discourse based on the available material and resources. There are various methods to conduct discourse analysis, but we are discussing the most basic method below.

Step1: Develop a Research Question

Like any other research in discourse analysis, it’s essential to have a  research question  to proceed with your study.  After selecting your research question, you need to find out the relevant resources to find the answer to it. Discourse analysis can be applied to smaller or larger samples depending on your research’s aims and requirements.

Example : If you want to find out the impact of plagiarism on the credibility of the authors. You can examine the relevant materials available on the topic from the internet, newspapers, and books published during the past 5-10 years.

Step 2: Collect Information and Establish the Context

After formulating a research question, you can  review the literature and find out the details about the source material, such as:

• Who is the author?
• What is the year and date of publication?
• What’s the name of the publication?
• What country and place is it from?
• What language is used?
• How and where did you find it?
• How can others get access to the same source?
• What kind of impact did it make on its audience?
• What’s the association between discourse material and real life?

These questions enable you to construct a strong evidence-based theory about your study.

Example: While investigating the history and origin of a particular religion. You also have to research the political events, culture, language of the people, and their association with society.

Generally, details about the publication and production of the material are available in the  about section on their online websites. If you don’t find the relevant information online, don’t hesitate to contact the editor or publication via email, phone calls, etc. 

Step 3: Analyse the Content

In this step, you should analyse various aspects of the materials such as:

• Sentence structure
• Inter-relationship between the text
• Layout and Page quality (if you are using offline materials)
• Links, comments, technical excellence, readability, multimedia content (if you are using online material)
• The genre of the source (a news item, political speech, a report, interview, biography, commentary, etc.)

The analysis of these elements gives you a clear understanding, and you can present your findings more accurately.  Once you have analysed the above features, you should analyse the following aspects:

• The structure of the argument
• The role of the introduction and conclusion of the material
• The context of the material
• Patterns and themes
• Discursive statements (arguments, perspective, thoughts of the writer/speaker
• Grammatical features (use of pronouns, adjectives, phrases, active or passive voice, and their meaning)
• Literary figures (idioms, similes, metaphors, allegories, proverbs)

Step 4: Interpret the Data

Now you have all the information, but the question that arises here is: 

What does it all mean?

To answer this question,  compile all your findings  to explain the meaning and context of the discourse.

Step 5: Present your Findings

It’s time to present your results. Throughout the process, you gathered detailed notes of the discourse, building a strong presentation or thesis. You can use the references of other relevant sources as evidence to support your discussion. Always try to make your paper interesting to grab the attention of the reader.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Discourse Analysis

• It provides a way of thinking and analysing the problem.
• It enables us to understand the context and perception of the speaker.
• It can be applied at any given time, place, and people.
• It helps to learn any language its origin and association with society and culture.

Disadvantages

• There are many options available as each tradition has its own concepts, procedures, and a specific understanding of discourse and its analysis.
• Discourse analysis doesn’t help to find out the answer to scientific problems.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to describe the discourse analysis.

Discourse analysis examines language use in context. It studies how communication shapes and reflects social meaning, power dynamics, and cultural norms. By analyzing spoken, written, or visual language, it unveils hidden ideologies, identities, and social structures within various contexts.

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• Brian David Hodges , associate professor, vice chair (education), and director 1 ,
• Ayelet Kuper , assistant professor 2 ,
• Scott Reeves , associate professor 3
• 1 Department of Psychiatry, Wilson Centre for Research in Education, University of Toronto, 200 Elizabeth Street, Eaton South 1-565, Toronto, ON, Canada M5G 2C4
• 2 Department of Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and Wilson Centre for Research in Education, University of Toronto, 2075 Bayview Avenue, Room HG 08, Toronto, ON, Canada M4N 3M5
• 3 Department of Psychiatry, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, Centre for Faculty Development, and Wilson Centre for Research in Education, University of Toronto, 200 Elizabeth Street, Eaton South 1-565, Toronto, ON, Canada M5G 2C4
• Correspondence to: B D Hodges brian.hodges{at}utoronto.ca

This articles explores how discourse analysis is useful for a wide range of research questions in health care and the health professions

Previous articles in this series discussed several methodological approaches used by qualitative researchers in the health professions. This article focuses on discourse analysis. It provides background information for those who will encounter this approach in their reading, rather than instructions for conducting such research.

What is discourse analysis?

Discourse analysis is about studying and analysing the uses of language. Because the term is used in many different ways, we have simplified approaches to discourse analysis into three clusters (table 1 ⇓ ) and illustrated how each of these approaches might be used to study a single domain: doctor-patient communication about diabetes management (table 2 ⇓ ). Regardless of approach, a vast array of data sources is available to the discourse analyst, including transcripts from interviews, focus groups, samples of conversations, published literature, media, and web based materials.

 Three approaches to discourse analysis

• View inline

 Three approaches to a specific research question: example of doctor-patient communications about diabetes management

What is formal linguistic discourse analysis?

The first approach, formal linguistic discourse analysis, involves a structured analysis of text in order to find general underlying rules of linguistic or communicative function behind the text. 4 For example, Lacson and colleagues compared human-human and machine-human dialogues in order to study the possibility of using computers to compress human conversations about patients in a dialysis unit into a form that physicians could use to make clinical decisions. 5 They transcribed phone conversations between nurses and 25 adult dialysis patients over a three month period and coded all 17 385 words by semantic type (categories of meaning) and structure (for example, sentence length, word position). They presented their work as a “first step towards an automatic analysis of spoken medical dialogue” that would allow physicians to “answer questions related to patient care by looking at [computer generated] summaries alone.” 5

What is empirical discourse analysis?

Researchers using empirical discourse analysis 4 do not use highly structured methods to code individual words and utterances in detail. Rather, they look for broad themes and functions of language in action using approaches called conversation analysis (the study of “talk-in-interaction”) 6 and genre analysis (the study of recurrent patterns, or genres of language that share similar structure and context—such as the case report, the scientific article). 7

Conversation analysis and genre analysis give more prominence to sociological uses of language than to grammatical or linguistic structures of words and sentences and are used to study human conversations or other forms of communication in order to elucidate the ways in which meaning and action are created by individuals producing the language. 4 Lingard and colleagues, for example, studied communication between nurses and surgeons during 128 hours of observing 35 different procedures in the operating room and categorised recurrent patterns of communication. They then used their findings to draw links between interpersonal tensions, the use of language, and the occurrence of errors in the operating room. 8 Genre analysis is presented in detail in box 1.

Box 1 An empirical discourse analysis (genre analysis) of case presentations by medical students*

This study took place at a tertiary care teaching hospital in Canada. It was conducted in the context of a medical student rotation in paediatrics. The aim of the study was to gain understanding of how the formal linguistic structure of the case presentation is used in academic medical settings.

The researchers conducted 21 in-depth interviews with medical students and faculty members. Pairs of researchers also observed 16 oral case presentations as well as the teaching exchanges that surrounded them. All of these encounters were tape recorded and transcribed (for a total of 555 pages of text); the transcriptions were iteratively analysed. The analysis was structured to allow themes to emerge from the data (that is, as indicated by multiple examples of such themes throughout the data). However, it particularly focused on themes that helped to illuminate the rules around certain modes of case presentation and on the role of these rules in teaching and learning.

The study showed a pronounced tension between the educational (“schooling”) uses and clinical (“workplace”) functions of case presentations. For example, students saw the case presentation as a school mode and emphasised that they wanted to get through their presentations without being asked any questions. Faculty, on the other hand, understood the case presentation as a way for professionals to jointly create shared knowledge. Their cross-purposes affected the effectiveness of faculty feedback to the students about their case presentations.

*Description based on study by Lingard et al 9

What is critical discourse analysis?

Researchers in cultural studies, sociology, and philosophy use the term critical discourse analysis to encompass an even wider sphere that includes all of the social practices, individuals, and institutions that make it possible or legitimate to understand phenomena in a particular way, and to make certain statements about what is “true.” Critical discourse analysis is particularly concerned with power and is rooted in “constructivism.” Thus the discourse analyses of Michel Foucault, for example, illustrated how particular discourses “systematically construct versions of the social world.” 4 Discourse analysis at this level involves not only the examination of text and the social uses of language but also the study of the ways in which the very existence of specific institutions and of roles for individuals to play are made possible by ways of thinking and speaking.

Foucault’s study of madness, for example, uncovered three distinct discourses that have constructed what madness is in different historical periods and in different places: madness as spiritual possession, madness as social deviancy, and madness as mental illness. 10 In a similarly oriented study, Speed showed how different discourses about mental health service in use today construct individuals’ identities as “patients,” “consumers,” or “survivors” and are made possible by specific institutional practices and ways for individuals to “be.” 11

In a different context, Stone contrasted the specific discourses used in the education literature for diabetes patients (“patient self care” and “autonomy”) with the medical literature’s use of doctor centred discourses (“compliance” and “adherence”). Stone related the resulting tension (and the important implications for patients’ behaviours) to the ways in which the roles that physicians and patients play are historically determined by different and conflicting models of what disease and healing are. 12

Finally, Shaw and colleagues used a discourse analysis to illustrate the many ways in which research itself can be defined (for example, by a lay person, a medical editor, the World Medical Association, a hospital, the taxman) and how these various definitions are linked to the power and objectives of particular institutions. 13

In these examples of critical discourse analysis, the language and practices of healthcare professionals and institutions are examined with the aim of understanding how these practices shape and limit the ways that individuals and institutions can think, speak, and conduct themselves. Table 2 ⇑ illustrates how a critical discourse approach to diabetes education would compare with discourse analyses using other linguistic and empirical approaches to research.

Although our categorisation (tables 1 ⇑ and 2 ⇑ ) emphasises the distinctions between these approaches to discourse analysis, in practice researchers often use more than one of the approaches together in a study. For example, genre analysts may invoke critical theorists in order to study the origins of the sanctioned methods of communication, asking, for example, “What historical and contextual factors led to the adoption of the scientific journal article as a legitimate form of expression of medical ‘truth’ rather than the adoption of another format?”

What should we be looking for in a discourse analysis?

Given the wide variety of approaches to discourse analysis, the elements that constitute a high quality study vary. Rogers has argued that some discourse analysis research suffers from scanty explanation of the analytical method used. 14 Thus one should expect clear documentation of the sources of information used and delimitation of data sources 3 (including a description of decisions made with regard to selection of groups or individuals for interviews, focus groups, or observation) and, importantly, a description of the context of the study. The method of analysis should be clearly explained, including assumptions made and methods used to code and synthesise data. Finally, given that the goal of critical discourse analysis is to illuminate and critique structures of power, it is especially important that researchers describe the ways in which their own individual sociocultural roles may influence their perspectives.

Discourse analysis is an effective method to approach a wide range of research questions in health care and the health professions. What underpins all variants of discourse analysis is the idea of examining segments, or frames of communication, and using this to understand meaning at a “meta” level, rather than simply at the level of actual semantic meaning. In this way, all of the various methods of discourse analysis provide rigorous and powerful approaches to understanding complex phenomena, ranging from the nature of on-the-ground human communication to the inner workings of systems of power that construct what is “true” about health and health care. While these methods are gaining popularity, much remains to be done to develop a widespread appreciation for the use, funding, and publication of discourse analyses. As a start, we hope this article will help readers who encounter these approaches to understand the basic premises of discourse analysis. Box 2 offers further reading for those interested in learning more or undertaking discourse analytical research.

Box 2 Further reading

Fairclough N. Language and power . London: Longman, 1989.

Foucault. The archaeology of knowledge and the discourse on language . New York: Random House, 1972.

Jaworski A, Coupland N, eds. The discourse reader . London: Routledge, 1999.

Kendall G, Wickham G. Using Foucault’s method . London: Sage, 2003.

Mills S. Discourse . London: Routledge, 2004.

Journal articles

Barnes R. Conversation analysis: a practical resource in the health care setting. Med Educ 2005;39:113-5.

Ford-Sumner S. Genre analysis: a means of learning more about the language of health care. Nurse Researcher 2006;14(1):7-17.

Roberts C, Sarangi S. Theme-oriented discourse analysis of medical encounters. Med Educ 2005;39:632-40.

Summary points

Discourse analysis is an effective method for approaching a wide range of research questions in health care and the health professions

Discourse analysis is about studying and analysing the uses of language

A vast array of data sources is available to the discourse analyst

The various methods of discourse analysis provide rigorous and powerful approaches to understanding complex phenomena, ranging from the nature of on-the-ground human communication to the inner workings of systems of power that construct what is “true” about health and health care

Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a879

• Related to doi: , 10.1136/bmj.a288
• doi: , 10.1136/bmj.39602.690162.47
• doi: , 10.1136/bmj.a1020
• doi: , 10.1136/bmj.a949
• doi: 10.1136/bmj.a1035

This is the fourth in a series of six articles that aim to help readers to critically appraise the increasing number of qualitative research articles in clinical journals. The series editors are Ayelet Kuper and Scott Reeves.

For a definition of general terms relating to qualitative research, see the first article in this series.

Contributors: All authors contributed to the conception and drafting of the article and its revisions, and all approved the final version.

Competing interests: None declared.

Provenance and peer review: Commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

• Harris ZS. Methods in structural linguistics . Chicago: University Press, 1951 .
• Sacks H. Lectures on conversation . Jefferson G, ed. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1995 .
• ↵ Foucault M. The archaeology of knowledge and the discourse on language . New York: Random House, 1972 .
• ↵ McHoul A, Grace W. A Foucault primer: discourse, power and the subject . New York: New York University Press, 1993 .
• ↵ Lacson RC, Barzilay R, Long WJ. Automatic analysis of medical dialogue in the home hemodialysis domain: structure induction and summarization. J Biomed Informatics 2006 ; 39 : 541 -55. OpenUrl CrossRef PubMed Web of Science
• ↵ Ten Have P. Medical ethnomethodology: an overview. Human Studies 1995 ; 18 : 245 -261. OpenUrl CrossRef Web of Science
• ↵ Ford-Sumner S. Genre analysis: a means of learning more about the language of health care. Nurse Researcher 2006 ; 14 (1): 7 -17. OpenUrl PubMed
• ↵ Lingard L, Espin S, Whyte S, Regehr G, Baker GR, Reznick R, et al. Communication failures in the operating room: an observational classification of recurrent types and effects. Qual Saf Health Care 2004 ; 13 : 330 -4. OpenUrl Abstract / FREE Full Text
• ↵ Lingard L, Schryer C, Garwood K, Spafford M. “Talking the talk”: school and workplace genre tensions in clerkship case presentations. Med Educ 2003 ; 37 : 612 -20. OpenUrl CrossRef PubMed Web of Science
• ↵ Foucault M. Madness and civilization; a history of insanity in the age of reason [Howard R, translation]. New York: Vintage Books, 1988. (Original work published in 1961 .)
• ↵ Speed E. Patients, consumers and survivors: a case study of mental health service user discourses. Soc Sci Med 2006 ; 62 (1): 28 -38. OpenUrl CrossRef PubMed Web of Science
• ↵ Stone MS. In search of patient agency in the rhetoric of diabetes care. Technical Communication Quarterly 1997 :6:201-17.
• ↵ Shaw S, Boynton PM, Greenhalgh T. Research governance: where did it come from, what does it mean? J R Soc Med 2005 ; 98 : 496 -502. OpenUrl Abstract / FREE Full Text
• ↵ Rogers R, Malancharuvil-Berkes R, Mosley M, Hui D, O’Garro JG. Critical discourse analysis in education: a review of the literature. Rev Educ Res 2005 ; 75 : 365 -416. OpenUrl CrossRef

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Chapter 23: Discourse analysis

Tess Tsindos

Learning outcomes

Upon completion of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Describe discourse analysis.
• Understand how to conduct discourse analysis.
• Identify the strengths and limitations of discourse analysis.

What is discourse analysis?

Discourse analysis is a field of qualitative analysis that has its origins in disciplines such as linguistics, philosophy, psychology, anthropology. 1 It is an interdisciplinary field that deals with ‘language’ and meaning. 2

According to Jaworski and Coupland, the purpose of discourse analysis is that it ‘offers a means of exposing or deconstructing the social practices that constitute ‘social structure’ and what we might call the conventional meaning structures of social life. It is a sort of forensic activity’. 3 ( p5 ) There are three domains of discourse analysis: the study of social interaction; the study of minds, selves and sense-making; and the study of culture and social relations. 4 ( p5 )

Discourse analysis is the study of texts such as transcribed interviews, websites, forums, books, newspapers, government documents (and many more), and the analysis of those texts to understand different accounts and the meanings behind those accounts. Qualitative researchers strive to understand the relationships between text (discourse) and social constructs. As text is analysed, the meaning behind the text is also explored, often as the ‘voices’ in the text. For example, when a participant is asked about their eating habits and they discuss their joy in eating as well as feelings of guilt from eating high-calorific foods, they may be voicing their parents’ disapproval of this eating behaviour. The relationship between text and social constructs can also be seen in alcohol advertising: an advertisement may be promoting alcohol consumption as a fun behaviour, but also cautions listeners to drink ‘responsibly’, because the advertiser is required to do so by advertising standards authorities. This inherent contradiction in the advertising is part of the meaning-making regarding alcohol consumption. This meaning-making is contextual and differs between countries, such as Australia (a high alcohol consumption culture) and Canada (a lower alcohol consumption culture). Another example of context is in the use of the word ‘just’ by an interview participant; the term can mean many things, but if the researcher is asking about job title, ‘just’ may the participant’s implication or inference that the title does not reflect an important position (e.g. ‘I’m just an editor’). In discourse analysis, texts, meanings and inferences are important.

Following is an example of media articles and two distinct discourses about violence towards women. The first media article, published by The Guardian on 15 June 2018 , 5 presents a discourse about how it is the responsibility of women to prevent men from being violent towards them. The second article about the same incident, published by The Age on 25 May 2019, 6 presents a discourse that it is the responsibility of men not to be violent towards women.

Meanings of texts are particularly important when participants use metaphors. The researcher needs to examine the implications of the metaphor, deliberate or inadvertent. For example, when the researcher asks the participant how they felt about their life and the participant replies, ‘life is a highway’, the researcher needs to look beyond what was said to understand the participant’s meaning.

As an interdisciplinary method, discourse analysis can be complex and intricate. Gee 7 provides 72 tools to assist with various types of discourse analysis, ranging from identifying what is being said and what is not being said, to examining ‘how the person is using language, as well as ways of acting, interacting, believing, valuing, dressing, and using various objects, tools, and technologies in certain sorts of environments to enact a specific socially recognizable identity and engage in one or more socially recognizable activities’. 7 ( p201 ) Gee also includes a helpful table (see Table 23.1) populated with his 7 building tasks for researchers to examine their discourses, and provides the answers. 8

Table 23.1. Seven Building Tasks and associated discourse analysis questions

How to conduct discourse analysis.

Discourse analysis, as in all other qualitative methods, is used depending on the research topic and question(s) or aim(s). The following steps are recommended:

Step 1: Have a clearly defined topic and research question, because this informs the types of research materials that will be used.

Step 2: Conduct wide-ranging searches for materials that will inform the research topic.

Step 3: Determine which theory and framework will be used as the underpinning foundation for the analyses (see Section 1 chapters 1–4).

Step 4: Analyse the content of the materials. This analysis is different (but similar) to content analysis, which is a research technique to systematically classify codes and identify themes or patterns within the data. Discourse analysis is concerned with identifying themes and patterns within the texts that relate to the social contexts reflected in the research topic and within the theoretical lens chosen for analyses.

Step 5: Interpret and draw conclusions. Reflect on your work and examine how the various texts use language within the context of the research topic to answer the research question(s).

As an example, Table 23.3 includes a study on girls’ experience of competitive dancing . 9 The authors progressed through the steps as follows:

Step 1: The topic is eating disorders and young dancers. The research question is ‘ How does experience in the world of competitive dance shape the relationship that young girls have with their bodies ?’

Step 2: The author conducted wide – ranging literature searches on eating disorders, ballet dancers, body image, thinness, Western culture, dieting, media influences and many more topics.

Step 3: Feminism was the theoretical underpinning of the text ual analys i s. As described by the authors, ‘ a feminist post structural approach was chosen to provide a critical lens to explore the beliefs, values, and practices of young dancers… aimed to provide an understanding of the dominant and competing discourses present in the world of dance and discover how these discourses are constituted, perpetuated, and form ways of knowing in relation to body and body image.’ 9(p 7 )

Ste p 4: T he transcripts were analysed in 5 steps , following Aston 10 a nd presented in table 23.2 :

Table 23.2. A guide to using feminist poststructuralism informed by discourse analysis

*Note: This table is from an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits copy and redistribution of material in any medium or format, remix, transform and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially provided the original work is properly cited.

Step 5: Results were first interpreted within an ‘environmental’ context (competitive culture, ideal dancer’s body, mirrors, and dance attire and costumes) , which was predominately negative due to the competitive culture. The second context was ‘parents’ , which encompassed body monitoring, joking, and parents and support. Although most of the dancers stated that their parents did not influence their relationship with their body, discourse analysis demonstrated that parents did influence them. The third context was ‘ coaches’ . Coaches had a very strong influence on participants’ body image. While the dancers believed their coaches were supportive, the discourse demonstrated that most coach es’ comments were negative. ‘Peers’ represented in the final context for analysis. Again, the dancers believed their peers were supportive ; however , discourse analysis demonstrated that many peer comments were negative. The conclusions drawn from the research were that ‘ all participants experienced negative physical, mental, and/or emotional repercussions throughout their competitive dance experience. It was also determined that environment, parents, coaches, and peers largely shaped the dancer’s relationship with body and body image in the world of dance. These influences generated and perpetuated the dominant negative body image discourse that dancers were often unable to resist, and consequently their relationship with body and body image suffered.’ 9(p p22-23 )

This is a good example of situating a topic (body image) within a context (young women dancing) underpinned by a theoretical framework that explores the dancers’ beliefs, values and practices.

Table 23.3. Discourse analysis examples

Advantages and challenges of discourse analysis.

Discourse analysis can be used to analyse small and large data sets with homogenous and heterogenous samples. It can be applied to any type of data source, from interviews and focus groups to diary entries, news reports and online discussion forums. However, interpretation in discourse analysis can lead to limitations and challenges that tend to occur when discourse analysis is misapplied or done poorly. Discourse analysis can be highly flexible and is best used when anchored in a theoretical approach. Because discourse analysis involves subjective interpretation, training and support from a qualitative researcher with expertise in the method is required to ensure that the interpretation of the data is meaningful. Finally, discourse analysis can be time-consuming when analysing large volumes of texts.

Discourse analysis is a process whereby texts are examined and interpreted. It looks for the meanings ‘behind’ text in cultural and social contexts. Discourse analysis is flexible, and the researcher has scope to interpret the text(s) based on the research topic and aim(s). Having a theoretical approach assists the researcher to position the discourse in cultural and social grounding.

• Schiffrin D, Tannen D et al . , ed s . The Handbook of Discourse Analysis . Blackwell ; 2001.
• Jaworski A, Coupland N. eds. The Discourse Reader . 2nd ed. Routledge; 2006.
• Jaworski A, Coupland N. Introduction: perspectives on discourse analysis. In: Jaworski A, Coupland N, eds. The Discourse Reader . 2nd ed. Routledge; 2006.
• Wetherell M, Taylor S, Yates S. (2001) Discourse Theory and Practice: A Reader . 2nd ed. Sage. 2001.
• Davey M. ‘Men need to change’: anger grows over police response to Eurydice Dixon’s murder. Guardian . June 15, 2018. Accessed April 28, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jun/15/men-need-to-change-anger-grows-over-police-response-to-comedians#:~:text=Melbourne
• Fowler M. ‘This is about men’s behaviour’, says top policy offer after another woman’s murder . Age . May 25, 2019. Accessed April 28, 2023. https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/this-is-about-men-s-behaviour-says-top-police-officer-after-another-woman-s-murder-20190525-p51r46.html
• Gee J. How t o d o Discourse Analysis: A Toolkit .  2nd ed. Routledge; 2014.
• Gee J. An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method . 3rd ed. Routledge; 2011.
• Doria N, Numer M. Dancing in a culture of disordered eating: a feminist poststructural analysis of body and body image among young girls in the world of dance. PLoS ONE . 2022;17(1): e0247651. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0247651
• Aston M. Teaching feminist poststructuralism: founding scholars still relevant today.  Creative Education . 2016;7(15):2251-2267. doi: 10.4236/ce.2016.715220
• Öhman A, Burman M, Carbin M et al . ‘The public health turn on violence against women’: analysing Swedish healthcare law, public health and gender-equality policies.  BMC Public Health . 2020;20:753. doi:10.1186/s12889-020-08766-7
• Carrasco JM, Gómez-Baceiredo B, Navas A et al. Social representation of palliative care in the Spanish printed media: a qualitative analysis. PLoS ONE . 2019;14(1):e0211106. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0211106

Qualitative Research – a practical guide for health and social care researchers and practitioners Copyright © 2023 by Tess Tsindos is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Introducing Discourse Analysis for Qualitative Research

Qualitative researchers often try to understand the world by listening to how people talk, but it can be really revealing to look at not just what people say, but how. This is how discourse analysis (DA) can be used to examine qualitative data.

Daniel Turner

Qualitative research often focuses on what people say: be that in interviews , focus-groups , diaries , social media or documents . Qualitative researchers often try to understand the world by listening to how people talk, but it can be really revealing to look at not just what people say, but how. Essentially this is the how discourse analysis (DA) can be used to examine qualitative data. Discourse is the complete system by which people communicate, it’s the widest interpretation of what we call ‘language’. It includes both written, verbal and non-verbal communication, as well as the wider social concepts that underpin what language means, and how it changes. For example, it can be revealing to look at how some people use a particular word, or terms from a particular local dialect. This can show their upbringing and life history, or influences from other people and workplace culture. It can also be interesting to look at non-verbal communication: people’s facial expressions and hand movements are an important part of the context of what people say. But language is also a dynamic part of culture, and the meanings behind terms change over time. How we understand terms like ‘fake news’ or ‘immigration’ or ‘freedom’ tells us a lot, not just about the times we live in or the people using those terms, but groups that have power to change the discourse on such issues. We will look at all these as separate types of discourse analysis. But first it’s important to understand why language is so important; it is much more than just a method of communication.

“Language allows us to do things. It allows us to engage in actions and activities. We promise people things, we open committee meetings, we propose to our lovers, we argue over politics, and we “talk to God”…

Language allows us to be things. It allows us to take on different socially significant identities. We can speak as experts—as doctors, lawyers, anime aficionados, or carpenters—or as ‘everyday people’. To take on any identity at a given time and place we have to ‘talk the talk’…”         - Gee 2011

Language is more than a neutral way of communicating, it’s deeply connected with actions and personal identity, and can even shape the way we think about and understand the world. Who we are, what we do, and our beliefs are all shaped by the language we use. This makes it a very rich avenue for analysis.

Types of discourse analysis Just like so many blanket qualitative terms , there are a lot of different practices and types of analysis called ‘discourse’ analysis, and many different ways of applying them. Hodges et al. (2008) identify 3 meta-types, broadly going from more face-value to conceptual analysis:      • Formal linguistic (basically looking at words/phrases, grammar or semantics)      • Empirical (social practice constructed through text)              • Critical (language constructing and limiting thought)

Tannen et al., 2015 categorise three similar broad types of analysis, again becoming increasingly socially conceptual:

• language use

• anything beyond the sentence

• a broader range of social practice that includes non-linguistic and non-specific instances of language

However Gee (2011) only recognises two main categories, essentially those that look at the use of words, and ‘critical discourse analysis’: like the latter of both groupings above, this is analysis of how language is situated in cultural and contextual power dynamics. But before we get there, let’s start with an example of some more obvious linguistic level discourse analysis.

Example Imagine the following scenario from your favourite fictional medical drama. A patient is wheeled into the ER/casualty unit, conscious but suffering from burns. The doctor attending says three things:

To Patient: “We’re just going to give you a little injection to help with the pain.”

To Nurse: “10cc’s of sodium pentothal, stat!”

To Surgeon: “We’ve got severe second-degree chemical burns, GA administered”

In this situation, the doctor has said essentially the same thing 3 times, but each time using a different response for each recipient. Firstly, when talking to the patient, the doctor doesn’t use any medical terminology, and uses calming and minimising language to comfort the patient. This is a classic type of discourse we are familiar with from medical TV dramas, the ‘good bed-side manner’.

To the nurse, the doctor has a different tone, more commanding and even condescending. It’s a barked command, finished with the term ‘stat!’ - a commonly used medial slang word (actually from the Latin word ‘statum’ meaning immediately, that’s your linguistic analysis!). This is interesting, because it’s not a term you’d hear used in other professional places like a busy kitchen. It shows there is a specific discourse for the setting (a hospital) and for different people in the setting. The ‘10cc of sodium pentothal’ is a commonly used anaesthetic: the same ‘something to help with the pain’ but now with a (trademarked) pharmacological name and dose.

Finally, to the surgeon the same prescription is described by the doctor as an abbreviation (GA for General Anaesthetic). Between senior health professionals, abbreviations might be used more often, in this case actually hiding the specific drug given, perhaps on the basis that the surgeon doesn’t need to know. It could also imply that since only that basic first step has been made, there has been little assessment or intervention so far, telling to an experienced ear what stage of the proceedings they are walking in on. The use of the term ‘we’ might imply the doctor and surgeon are on the same level, as part of the team, a term not used when addressing the nurse.

Even in this small example, there are a lot of different aspects of discourse to unpack. It is very contextually dependent, none of the phrases or manners are likely to be adopted by the doctor in the supermarket or at home. This shows how the identity and performativity of the doctor is connected to their job (and shaped by it, and contextual norms). It also shows differences in discourse between different actors, and power dynamics which are expressed and created through discursive norms.

At a very basic level, we could probably do an interesting study on TV shows and the use of the term ‘stat!’. We could look at how often the term was used, how often it was used by doctors to nurses (often) and by nurses to doctors (rarely). This would probably be more like a basic linguistic analysis, possibly even quantitative. It’s one of the few occasions that a keyword search in a qualitative corpus can be useful – because you are looking at the use of a single, non-replaceable word. If someone says ‘now please’ or ‘as soon as you can’ it has a very different meaning and power dynamic, so we are not interested in synonyms here. However, we probably still want to trawl through the whole text to look at different phrases that are used, and why ‘stat!’ was not the command in all situations. This would be close to the ‘formal linguistic’ approach listed above.

But a more detailed, critical and contextual examination of the discourse might show that nurses struggle with out-moded power dynamics in hospitals (eg Fealy and McNamara 2007 , Turner et al 2007 ). Both of these papers are described as ‘critical’ discourse analysis. However, this term is used in many different ways.

Critical discourse analysis is probably the most often cited, but often used in the most literal sense – that it looks at discourse critically, and takes a comparative and critical analytic stance. It’s another term like ‘grounded theory’ that is used as a catch-all for many different nuanced approaches. But there is another ‘level’ of critical discourse analysis, influenced by Foucault (1972, 1980) and others, that goes beyond reasons for use and local context, to examine how thought processes in society influenced by the control of language and meanings.

Critical discourse analysis (hardcore mode)

“What we commonly accept as objective or obviously true is only so because of negotiated agreement among people” – Gee (2011)

Language and discourse are not absolute. Gee (2011) notes at least three different ways that the positionality of discourse can be shown to be constructed and non-universal: meanings and reality can change over time, between cultures, and finally with ‘discursive construction’ – due to power dynamics in setting language that controls how we understand concepts. Gee uses the term ‘deconstruction’ in the Derridian sense of the word, advocating for the critical examining and dismantling of unquestioned assumptions about what words mean and where they come from.

But ‘deep’ critical discourse analysis also draws heavily from Foucault and an examination of how language is a result of power dynamics, and that the discourse of society heavily regulates what words are understood to mean, as well as who can use them. It also implies that because of these systems of control, discourse is used to actually change and reshape thought and expression. But the key jump is to understand and explain that “what we take to be the truth about the world importantly depends on the social relationships of which we are a part” (Gergen 2015). This is social construction, and a key part of the philosophy behind much critical discourse analysis.

Think of the use of the term ‘freedom’ in mainstream and political discourse in the United States. It is one of the most powerful words used by politicians, and has been for centuries (eg Chanley and Chanley 2015 ) However, it’s use and meaning have changed over time, and what different people from different parts of the political spectrum understand to be enshrined under this concept can be radically different, and even exclusionary. Those in powerful political and media positions are able to change the rhetoric around words like freedom, and sub-terms like ‘freedom of speech’ and ‘freedom of religion’ are both being shifted in public discourse, even on a daily basis, and taking our own internal concepts and ideas with them. It may be that there has never been an age when so much power to manipulate discourse is concentrated in so few places, and able to shift it so rapidly.

Doing Discourse

So do we ‘do’ discourse analysis? How can we start examining complex qualitative data from many voices from a point of view of discourse? Like so many qualitative analytical techniques , researchers will usually adopt a blend of approaches: doing some elements of linguistic analysis, as well as critical discourse analysis for some parts or research questions. They may also draw on narrative and thematic analysis . But discourse analysis is often comparative, it lends itself to differences in the use of language between individuals, professionals and contexts.

From a practical point of view, it can be started by a close reading of key words and terms, especially if it is not clear from the outset what the important and illustrative ones are going to be. For building a complete picture of discourse, a line-by-line approach can be adopted, but it’s also useful to use ‘codes’ or ‘themes’ to tag every use of some terms, or just significant ones. A qualitative software tool like Quirkos can help you do this.

For critical discourse analysis, examination of primary data is rarely enough – it needs to be deeply contextualised within the wider societal or environmental norms that govern a particular subset of discourse. So policy and document analysis are often entwined and can be analysed in the same project. From here, it’s difficult to describe a single technique further, as it will greatly vary by type of source. It is possible in discourse analysis for a single sentence or word to be the major focus of the study, or it may look widely across many different people and data sources.

The textbooks below are all classic works on discourse analysis, each a rabbit hole in itself to digest (especially the new edition of Gergen (2015) which goes much wider into social construction). However, Hodges et al. (2008) is a nice short, practical overview to start your journey.

If you are looking for a tool to help your qualitative discourse analysis, why not give Quirkos a try? It was designed by qualitative researchers to be the software they wanted to use, and is flexible enough for a whole number of analytical approaches, including discourse analysis. Download a free trial , or read more about it here .

Gee, J., P., 2011. An Introduction to Discourse Analysis . Routledge, London.

Gergen, K. J., 2015, An invitation to Social Construction . Sage, London.

Hodges, B. D., Kuper, A., Reeves, S. 2008. Discourse Analysis. BMJ , a879.

Johnstone, B., 2017. Discourse Analysis . Wiley, London.

Paltridge, B., 2012. Discourse Analysis: An Introduction . Bloomsbury.

Tannen, D., Hamilton, H., Schiffrin, D. 2015. The Handbook of Discourse Analysis . Wiley, Chichester.

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Methods and Approaches of Discourse Analysis

• by Discourse Analyzer
• March 31, 2024 May 3, 2024

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“Methods and Approaches of Discourse Analysis” article serves as a gateway for readers interested in the complex ways that language influences and reflects social structures. The article details various analytical frameworks and methodologies used in Discourse Analysis (DA), ranging from Content Analysis and Conversation Analysis to more critical perspectives like Foucauldian Discourse Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis . Each approach is carefully outlined to show how it contributes to understanding language in texts and social interactions, whether through quantitative measurement of language features or qualitative interpretations of textual meanings. Additionally, the article addresses the significance of methodological diversity in DA, including mixed methods approaches that combine qualitative depth with quantitative breadth, offering a richer, more comprehensive understanding of discourse. This introductory guide not only equips readers with the knowledge of different DA methods but also emphasizes the importance of rigorous data collection, ethical considerations, and the thoughtful analysis necessary to explore the powerful role of language in shaping human experience and social order.

1) Content Analysis

2) conversation analysis (ca), 3) critical discourse analysis (cda), 4) ethnography of communication, 5) foucauldian discourse analysis, 6) narrative analysis, 7) multimodal discourse analysis, 8) corpus linguistics, 1) qualitative approaches, 2) quantitative approaches, 3) differences between qualitative and quantitative approaches, 4) mixed methods in da, 1) data collection and analysis, 2) coding and categorizing data, 3) ethical considerations, frequently asked questions, 1. analytical frameworks.

Discourse Analysis (DA) encompasses a variety of methods and approaches for examining language use across texts, talks, and social practices. These methods vary widely depending on the theoretical perspective and the specific objectives of the research. Below are some key methods and approaches used in Discourse Analysis:

This method involves systematically categorizing the content of texts (which could be written texts, speech, or other forms of communication) to quantify certain aspects, such as the frequency of certain words, phrases, themes, or concepts. Content analysis can be both qualitative and quantitative and is useful for analyzing large volumes of text to identify patterns or trends.

CA is a methodological approach that focuses on the detailed, systematic study of the talk in interaction. It examines the sequential organization of speech to understand how participants in a conversation manage turn-taking, repair, openings, closings, and how they achieve mutual understanding. CA is particularly interested in the procedural aspects of conversation and how social actions are accomplished through talk.

CDA is an approach that aims to understand the relationship between discourse and social power. It analyzes how discourse structures (such as texts, talks, or visual images) serve to establish, maintain, or challenge power relations within society. CDA pays close attention to the ways in which language is used to represent different social groups and interests, often focusing on issues of ideology, identity, and hegemony.

This approach combines ethnographic methods with the analysis of discourse, focusing on the ways in which language use is embedded within cultural contexts. Researchers adopting this method study communication practices within their socio-cultural settings to understand the norms, values, and expectations that govern how language is used in specific communities.

Inspired by the work of Michel Foucault, this approach examines how discourses construct subjects, objects, and knowledge within specific historical and social contexts. It is concerned with the rules and practices that produce discourses, how discourses are related to power and knowledge, and the effects they have on society and individual subjects.

Narrative analysis focuses on the ways in which people use stories to make sense of their experiences and the world around them. This method examines the structure, content, and function of narratives to understand how individuals construct identities and social realities through storytelling.

With the recognition that communication is not only verbal but also involves other modes (such as visual, audio, gestural), multimodal discourse analysis studies how these different modes interact and contribute to the meaning-making process. It is particularly relevant in the analysis of digital media, advertising, and other forms of communication that use multiple semiotic resources.

While not exclusively a method of discourse analysis, corpus linguistics involves analyzing large collections of texts (corpora) using computational tools to identify patterns, frequencies, collocations, and other linguistic features. This method can support discourse analysis by providing empirical evidence of language use across different contexts.

Each of these methods and approaches brings a unique perspective to the study of discourse, allowing researchers to explore the complex ways in which language shapes and is shaped by social reality. The choice of method often depends on the research questions, the data available, and the theoretical framework guiding the analysis.

2. Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches

Discourse Analysis (DA) can be approached through qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods, depending on the research objectives, the nature of the data, and the theoretical framework adopted. Understanding these different approaches and how they can be integrated provides a comprehensive toolkit for researchers in the field.

Qualitative approaches to DA focus on the interpretation of textual or spoken data to understand the underlying meanings, themes, and patterns within a discourse. This method is less about counting occurrences and more about understanding the context, the social practices, and the power relations that discourse reflects and constructs. Qualitative DA is deeply concerned with the nuances of language use, such as metaphors, narrative structures, and the ways in which language constructs identities and social realities.

Applications: Qualitative DA is often used in studies where the goal is to explore the complexities of discourse in shaping social phenomena, such as identity formation, social inequality, or cultural practices. Methods like Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Conversation Analysis (CA) typically adopt a qualitative approach.

Quantitative approaches to DA involve the systematic coding and counting of features within texts or spoken language to identify patterns, frequencies, and correlations. This method relies on statistical analysis to draw conclusions about the data, offering a more objective measurement of discourse patterns.

Applications: Quantitative DA is suitable for studies aiming to generalize findings from a larger corpus of text or speech. It can be used to track changes in discourse over time, compare discourse across different groups, or measure the prevalence of certain linguistic features. Content analysis and corpus linguistics are examples of methods that can be applied quantitatively.

• Objective vs. Subjective: Quantitative DA is often viewed as more objective, relying on statistical methods to analyze data, while qualitative DA is more subjective, focusing on the interpretation of texts and contexts.
• Data Representation: Quantitative methods result in numerical data, graphs, and tables, whereas qualitative methods produce detailed descriptions, themes, and narrative accounts.
• Focus: Quantitative DA tends to focus on the frequency and distribution of certain elements within discourse, whereas qualitative DA focuses on the content, meaning, and context of discourse.
• Scope: Quantitative approaches can handle large volumes of data, making them suitable for broad analyses. Qualitative approaches, while potentially more time-consuming, provide deep insights into smaller datasets.

Mixed methods involve the combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches in the analysis of discourse. This integration allows for a more comprehensive understanding of discourse by leveraging the strengths of both methodologies.

Applications: Mixed methods can be particularly useful when researchers seek to explore a complex research question that requires both an in-depth understanding of contextual meanings (qualitative) and the generalizability or measurement of certain features across a larger dataset (quantitative). For example, a mixed-methods study might first use qualitative methods to explore the themes and narratives within a set of interviews and then apply quantitative methods to measure how frequently certain themes appear across a broader range of texts.

Advantages: Mixed methods in DA offer a robust framework for research, allowing researchers to validate findings through triangulation, enrich the analysis by combining insights from different methodological perspectives, and provide a more nuanced understanding of the phenomena under study.

In summary, the choice between qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods in Discourse Analysis depends on the research questions, the nature of the data, and the goals of the study. Each approach offers unique insights and has its place in the comprehensive study of discourse.

3. Data Collection and Analysis

Discourse Analysis (DA) involves a meticulous process of data collection and analysis, with careful consideration of the types of texts or corpora selected, the methodologies employed for coding and categorizing data, and adherence to ethical standards. Here’s an overview:

In DA, data can comprise a wide variety of texts, including written documents (books, articles, social media posts), spoken language (interviews, conversations, speeches), or multimodal texts (videos, images with captions). The choice of data depends on the research question and the theoretical framework guiding the analysis.

Selecting Texts and Corpora The selection of texts or corpora is a critical step in DA. Researchers must choose texts that are representative of the discourse being studied, considering factors such as genre, context, and the social practices they reflect. For instance, a study on political discourse might analyze speeches and social media posts of political figures, while research on medical discourse might examine patient-doctor conversations and medical textbooks. It’s essential to justify the selection of texts to ensure the study’s relevance and reliability.

Analyzing the Data Analysis in DA varies widely across different approaches but generally involves closely reading and interpreting the text to uncover patterns, themes, meanings, and structures. This might involve identifying discourse strategies, narrative structures, rhetorical devices, or specific uses of language that reveal underlying ideologies, power relations, or social identities.

Coding involves systematically labeling segments of the text to identify specific features or themes. This can be done manually or with the help of software. Coding can be inductive, emerging from the data itself, or deductive, based on pre-existing theoretical frameworks.

Categorizing involves grouping coded segments into broader categories that reflect major themes, concepts, or discourse strategies identified in the analysis. This process helps in structuring the analysis and facilitating the interpretation of how language functions within the texts.

Ethical considerations in DA are paramount, especially when dealing with sensitive topics or personal data. Key ethical concerns include:

• Consent: Ensuring that participants in studies involving spoken discourse or private texts have given informed consent for their data to be used in research.
• Anonymity and Confidentiality: Protecting the identity of participants by anonymizing data and maintaining confidentiality, especially when dealing with sensitive information.
• Impact: Considering the potential impact of the research on participants and communities, including avoiding harm and misrepresentation.
• Bias and Reflexivity: Researchers should be aware of their own biases and the power dynamics in the research process, striving for reflexivity in how their perspectives and choices may influence the analysis.

Overall, DA requires a thoughtful and rigorous approach to data collection, analysis, coding, and ethical practices. These steps ensure that the research is robust, reliable, and respectful of the communities and discourses it aims to understand.

In conclusion, the analytical frameworks of Discourse Analysis (DA) present a rich tapestry of methodologies that enable researchers to delve into the complexities of language and its role in shaping social phenomena. From qualitative approaches that unveil nuanced meanings embedded within discourse to quantitative methods that uncover patterns and frequencies, each framework contributes to a comprehensive understanding of language use. Moreover, the integration of mixed methods offers a holistic approach, bridging the qualitative-depth and quantitative-breadth to provide multifaceted insights into discourse analysis. As researchers navigate the terrain of data collection, analysis, and ethical considerations, they engage in a rigorous process that not only illuminates the mechanisms of discourse but also upholds principles of integrity and respect. Ultimately, these analytical frameworks serve as invaluable tools for unraveling the multifaceted nature of language and its profound impact on society, paving the way for deeper insights and transformative understanding.

DA is a field that examines language use across texts, talks, and social practices to uncover how language shapes and is shaped by social reality. It incorporates various methods and approaches, influenced by theoretical perspectives and research objectives.

Key methods include Content Analysis, Conversation Analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis, Ethnography of Communication, Foucauldian Discourse Analysis, Narrative Analysis, Multimodal Discourse Analysis, and Corpus Linguistics. Each method offers a unique lens for analyzing discourse.

Content Analysis systematically categorizes text content to quantify aspects like word frequencies, themes, or concepts. It can be qualitative or quantitative and is ideal for analyzing large volumes of text to identify patterns.

CA focuses on the detailed study of talk in interaction, examining how participants manage conversation through turn-taking, repair, and achieving mutual understanding. It emphasizes the procedural aspects of conversation and social action accomplishment.

CDA aims to understand the relationship between discourse and social power, analyzing discourse structures to see how they establish, maintain, or challenge power relations. It explores language use in representing social groups and focuses on ideology, identity, and hegemony.

This approach merges ethnographic methods with discourse analysis, studying how language use is embedded in cultural contexts. It aims to understand the norms, values, and expectations governing language use in specific communities.

Inspired by Michel Foucault, this approach examines how discourses construct subjects, objects, and knowledge within historical and social contexts. It focuses on discourse production rules, power-knowledge relations, and societal effects.

Narrative Analysis studies how people use stories to construct identities and realities, examining narrative structure, content, and function to understand storytelling’s role in experience interpretation.

Recognizing that communication involves various modes (visual, audio, gestural), this analysis studies how different modes interact and contribute to meaning-making, especially in digital media and advertising.

Although not exclusively for DA, Corpus Linguistics analyzes large text collections using computational tools to identify linguistic patterns, frequencies, and features, providing empirical language use evidence across contexts.

Qualitative approaches focus on interpreting textual or spoken data to understand underlying meanings and contexts. In contrast, quantitative approaches involve systematic coding and counting of text features to identify patterns and correlations. Mixed methods combine both to offer a comprehensive discourse understanding.

Ethical considerations include obtaining informed consent, ensuring anonymity and confidentiality, considering research impact, and being reflexive about biases and power dynamics in the research process.

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Discourse analysis

Discourse analysis research

We're exploring how language represents ideas, concepts and people

Language is not neutral, but helps us make sense of our world. How we represent ideas, concepts and people through language is of interest to discourse analysts – and our research in discourse analysis explores how language is used in real-life contexts.

In response to increased concerns about student mental health and wellbeing in higher education, we're researching narratives of loneliness – based on student interviews – that can help us unpack the potential causes of these issues, and help educators to address them.

In online spaces, where misogynistic trolling of women is a growing issue, we're analysing the discourse of hate speech, and creating a database of online hate crime examples. With this data, we're developing diagnostic tools for the police and other bodies that could further their investigations and help to eradicate the problem.

Our discourse analysis research is regularly published in leading academic journals within the field, including Discourse & Society, Gender & Language, Discourse, Context & Media, Language & Literature, and Language & Discrimination.

Our research covers the following topics

• Critical discourse analysis
• Gender and sexuality
• Mental health discourse
• Translation studies
• Systemic functional linguistics
• Media discourse
• Online discourse

Methods and memberships

Our researchers in discourse analysis use a range of qualitative and quantitative methods (often combining both for the purposes of triangulation), such as focus groups, interviews, close linguistic analysis using methods from systemic functional linguistics and critical discourse analysis, corpus linguistics and “big data” approaches.

Many of our researchers in discourse analysis are members of the Poetics and Linguistics Association (PALA), the British Association of Applied Linguistics (BAAL) and the International Gender and Language Association (IGALA).

Their membership of these bodies enables our work to reach wider audiences, and opens up opportunities for research collaborations with other members at other institutions.

Publication highlights

Exploring student loneliness in higher education: a discursive psychology approach.

Oakley, L.J. (2020) "Exploring Student Loneliness in Higher Education: A Discursive Psychology Approach", Palgrave Macmillan Ltd

Contemporary Media Stylistics

Ringrow, H. (Editor), Pihlaja, S. (Editor) (2020) "Contemporary Media Stylistics", Contemporary Studies in Linguistics

'Environment' submissions in the UK’s REF 2014

Thorpe, A., Craig, R., Tourish, D., Hadikin, G., Batistic, S. (2018) "'Environment' submissions in the UK's Research Excellence Framework 2014", British Journal of Management 

Our members

Dr Lee Oakley

Senior Lecturer

[email protected]

School of Education, Languages and Linguistics

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

PhD Supervisor

Discover our areas of expertise

Discourse analysis is one of our six areas of expertise within our Linguistics research area. Explore the others below.

Corpus linguistics

We're looking at huge datasets of natural language – often many billions of words – to explore how language is used in different regions, genres and situations.

Translation

We're exploring how texts are translated and the practices around the translation of texts, including professional training, the use of technologies, and non-professional translation communities.

Professional communication

Our research in professional communication explores how spoken and written language is used in workplaces to develop relationships and achieve institutional objectives.

Sociolinguistics

Through our work in sociolinguistics, we're studying the ways in which language can affect, and is affected, by social phenomena.

Teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL)

We're focusing on the learning and teaching of English as a second or foreign language, in primary, secondary and adult learning contexts.

Interested in a PhD in Languages and Linguistics?

Browse our postgraduate research degrees – including PhDs and MPhils – at our Languages and Linguistics postgraduate research degrees page.