LN301: Discourse Analysis

CDA : van Dijk’s “Discourse Analysis

as Ideological Analysis”
An Adaptation
van Dijk’s view of CDA
Critical Discourse Analysis
(CDA), van Dijk (2001)
argues, primarily focuses on
the study of language use a
tool of social power,
domination and inequality.
van Dijk’s view of CDA

“
Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a
type of discourse analytical research that
primarily studies the way social power
abuse, dominance, and inequality are
enacted, reproduced, and resisted by
text and talk in the social and political
context. With such dissident research,
critical discourse analysts take
explicit position, and thus want to
“
understand, expose and ultimately resist
social inequality.
(Van Dijk, “Critical Discourse Analysis” 352)
 van Dijk’s view of CDA
In brief, CDA looks at the relation between
discourse and society, . . . [and how
discourses] ‘do’ ideological work.
CDA as Ideological Analysis

van Dijk (2007) argues that

ideologies are acquired and
expressed through discourse. Thus,
ideologies link between language,
discourse and society. van Dijk
(1995) introduces the role
ideologies play in our life.
van Dijk’s Definition of Ideologies

“ As a system of principles that

organizes social cognitions,
ideologies are assumed to control,
through the minds of the members,
the social reproduction of the group.
Ideologies mentally represent the
basic social characteristics of a
group, such as their identity, tasks,
“
goals, norms, values, position and
resources.
( van Dijk, “Discourse Analysis as Ideology Analysis” 18).
van Dijk’s Definition of Ideologies

“
The presupposition of such
analyses [CDA] is that the
ideologies of speakers or writers
may be uncovered by close
reading, understanding or
systematic analysis, if language
users explicitly or unwittingly
“
express their ideologies through
language and communication.
( van Dijk, “Discourse Analysis as Ideology Analysis” 135).
 van Dijk’s Model

In his article “Discourse Analysis as

Ideology Analysis” (1995), Van Dijk
introduces a linguistic model
through which a close reading and a
systematic analysis of a given
discourse can uncover its underlying
ideologies.
van Dijk’s Model
This model aims at finding
patterns, for example, lexical
choices, syntactic structures and
semantic constructions that
uncover the speaker/writer
perspectives, attitudes and
underlying ideologies.
 01
Surface Structure

Syntax 02
03

Lexicon

Schematic Structure
04
05

Rhetoric
van Dijk’s Model
van Dijk’s Model: Surface Structure
The surface structure is meant to
examine graphical aspects such as a
sign of stressing some information over
another.
van Dijk’s Model: Surface Structure

01
Font Size

02
Capitalization

03
Punctuation Marks

04
Bold/ Italics
 van Dijk’s Model : Syntax

Ideologies may be traced through word

order and through the interrelation
between objects and events.
• In an English sentence the subject is the
responsible agent of the action. This gives
speakers/writers the chance to assign
responsibilities for positive or negative
actions through their structures.
van Dijk’s Model: Syntax

01 Active Voice: Foregrounding the

Subject
02 Passive Voice: Foregrounding
the Results/ Victims
03 Nominalization: Facts rather
Processes
04
 van Dijk’s Model : Lexicon
The choice of one word over another can
reveal how people view the referent.
Sometimes, the same referent can be
differently referred to by people from the
same social group. This, also, hints at the
different perspectives and the different
ideologies held by that social group.
van Dijk’s Model : Schematic Structure
The Schematic organization of structures,
that is the order by which a discourse is
presented, decides which piece of
information is more important or more
relevant to be given priority.
 van Dijk’s Model : Schematic Structure
For example, headlines “have the crucial
function of expressing the topic highest in
the macrostructure hierarchy, and, therefore,
the (subjectively) most important
information of a news report” (28).
Therefore, deciding which piece of
information is to be focused on and
presented as the headline of a news report
can provide an insight into the ideology of
the writer.
van Dijk’s Model : Schematic Structure
Examining which information is
presented in the headlines and which is
“‘downgraded’ to a lower level of the
schema and realized as a subordinate
topic in a background category of the
news” (28) helps uncover the ideology
directing the schematic structures.
van Dijk’s Model: Schematic Structure

01
Main Headline
02
Upper/ Lower Headlines

03
Lead
04 Body Paragraphs
 van Dijk’s Model : Schematic Structure
The Main Headline, and possible Upper and
Lower Headlines are typographically marked
by large bold letter type, and when the article
is printed in several columns, the main
headline is often printed across the columns.

• Headlines are often also stylistically

marked; as incomplete sentences, with
articles and verbs or auxiliary verbs
lacking.
 van Dijk’s Model : Schematic Structure
The Headline is literally "on top" of the news
report, and its size and position are therefore
important strategic cues for perception and
attention processes.

• If a headline does not express in part the

highest macro-proposition of the news
report, but rather some lower level detail,
we may conclude that the headline is
biased.
 van Dijk’s Model : Schematic Structure
The Lead (initial summary) features the fuller
expression of the thematic structure of the
news report, and often repeats the highest
level macro-proposition as it is expressed in
the headline(s). Leads have initial position,
under the headlines, and are often also
printed in larger or bolder type than the rest
of the news story.
van Dijk’s Model : Schematic Structure
In news formats where there is no special
marking of the Lead (as in much of the
English and American press), the Lead is
expressed by the first sentence or paragraph
of the news report, and it then has not only
Summary function, but also Introduction
function. According to the normative rules of
news writing, the Lead must express the
major semantic categories of a news event:
Who, What, Where, When, How and so on.
van Dijk’s Model : Schematic Structure
After the Summary in the Headline and
Lead, the body of a news report should
minimally feature what we may call a
Main Events category. This category
organizes all information about the recent
events that gave rise to a news report.
van Dijk’s Model : Schematic Structure
The Body of a News Report

Previous
Context Consequences Commentary
Events
 van Dijk’s Model : Schematic Structure
• The Context covers all the information in
the news report about the actual situation
in which the main news event takes place.

• There may be a separate category of

Previous Events, in which we find
information about the events that have
preceded the main news event that now
become relevant as possible conditions or
causes of the main event.
 van Dijk’s Model : Schematic Structure
• Journalists often include a Consequences
category in their news reports which
covers information about the actions and
events that immediately follow the main
news events.
• Sometimes Consequences may become so
important that they downgrade the actual
main events within the same news story,
or they may receive attention in a separate
article.
van Dijk’s Model : Schematic Structure
Commentary also has strategic value. It
allows journalists to objectively
measure the political implications and
evaluations of an event without
themselves having to formulate them.
van Dijk’s Model : Schematic Structure
The ordering of the categories follows
general rules and strategies of
presentation: Main Events are treated
first, and then Background,
Consequences, and Comments.
 van Dijk’s Model : Rhetoric
Imagery “may be a function of ideological
control when information that is
unfavorable to us is made less prominent
whereas negative information about them
is emphasized" (29). Figures of speech may
extend to include exaggerations,
euphemism and understatements. These
devices are TOOLS OF DEPICTING
REALITY.