Critical Discourse Analysis of Media Texts

El volumen presenta una panorámica del Análisis Crítico del Discurso de los textos mediáticos. El Análisis Crítico del Discurso es un modelo que parte de la Lingüística Crítica, basada a su vez en la Gramática Funcional de M. A. K. Halliday. En el volumen se resumen los principales enfoques de esta teoría. El volumen está compuesto de diversos artículos en los que se analizan diferentes casos concretos de los discursos de los medios de comunicación de masas (discurso informativo, discurso publicitario, discurso televisivo y discurso fílmico)The volume presents an overview of Critical Discourse Analysis of media texts. Critical Discourse Analysis is a framework departing from Critical Linguistics, which is based, in turn, on Functional Grammar as developed by M. A. K. Halliday. In this volume several approaches to Critical Discourse Analysis are summed up. In addition, the volume is composed by several papers where diverse concrete cases of media discourses are analysed (news discourse, advertisement discourse, television discourse and filmic discourse

Text- och resursorientering inom multimodalitetsforskningen : En teoretisk diskussion om förklaringsvärden

This article discusses the explanatory value of two theoretical orientations within multimodal research on texts and communication, and it explores the potential benefits of combining them. Firstly, the multimodal text (involving other semiotic modes than language) can be taken as a point of departure for the analysis and understanding of meaning making. This has been a common approach within text and discourse analysis. Secondly, there is an orientation toward the multimodal resources being employed when people make meaning, placing the interests of sign-/text-makers and processes of text creation just as much in focus as the textual products that emerge from them. The discussions in the article primarily make reference to the broader framework of social semiotic multimodality research, taking the theoretical assumptions made in Kress & van Leeuwen’s influential book Reading images: The grammar of visual design (2006) as one important point of departure. In particular, research categorised under the tentative labels of multimodal discourse analysis, social semiotic multimodal analysis and multimodal interactional analysis is reviewed and related to the status the authors ascribe to texts and semiotic resources. The text analytical implications of text and resource orientations and combinations of the two are finally illustrated by a sample analysis of multimodal texts created by children in educational contexts

Critical genre analysis of management texts in the public sector : Towards a theoretical and methodological framework

An emerging genre at Swedish public authorities – ‘platform of values’ (Swedish ‘värdegrund’) or ‘value statement’/‘core values’ – functions as a backdrop to the theoretical and methodological discussions in this paper. The paper argues for the development of a critical genre analysis that goes beyond being primarily descriptive and that has its main expla- natory value at a level of generality above mode-specific features of, for instance, language or images. Based on a review of how the term ‘critical’ has been defined and applied in relation to genre in critical discourse analysis/studies (CDA/CDS), multimodality, and genre studies of profes- sional communication a number of prerequisites for a critical genre analysis are formulated. Based on these prerequisites, affordance and pro- venance are put forward as ‘true’ multimodal concepts that can form the foundation for a critical genre analysis of, in this case, multimodal ‘plat- form of values’ texts. The applicability of these concepts is illustrated through an analysis of a ‘platform of value’ text from an administrative court in Sweden. En ny genre och dess arkeologi: Svenska myndigheters värdegrundstexte

Shame and Pride in the Delegitimization and Relegitimization of Air Travel

This article is about the delegitimization and relegitimization of global air travel as a common-sense practice. Based on social semiotics, multimodal critical discourse studies and Ahmed’s (2014) approach to affect and emotion, the study systematically explores how affective subjectivities are construed through the use of shaming practices by climate activists on Instagram and how the aviation industry addresses shaming practices by relegitimizing flying. Thus, the focus of the analysis is on how shame and pride are evoked to answer why the global elite should not fly globally, or, conversely, why they should continue to do so. The results reveal that the discursive delegitimization and relegitimization strategies of climate activists and the aviation industry are based on the same moral assumption that CO2 emissions are bad for the environment and that they both use affect as a key component of their strategies. However, whereas climate activists conduct their flight shaming by pointing to the negative effects of the frequent-flyer lifestyle of social media influencers, the discourse of the aviation industry is entrenched in the negative effects of flying as a starting point for its formation of a proud air traveller identity

När den organiserade sjukvården uppfattas som otillräcklig : Affekt och känsla i texter om endometrios

Endometriosis is a disease that affects women. This article focuses on endometriosis communication outside of, but in relation to, institutionally organized health care. The discursive use of affects and emotions in endometriosis communication in internet forums, social media and the press is analyzed: Which emotions are represented? Which affective communities are readers invited into, and how is this performed? Drawing on appraisal analysis and affective discourse analysis, the article shows how not only negative affects, but also those of happiness and gratitude are represented, and how narratives and specific visual formats function as affective affordances that invite readers to become part of ‘endo-communities’

Semiotics of destruction : Traces on the environment

Research in fields such as multimodality and semiotics has focused on creation of value in different forms: aesthetic, economic and symbolic. However, the destruction of value has attracted much less attention. The aim of this article is to identify social, semiotic and ideological functions of acts of destruction based on an analysis of the traces these acts leave on the urban environment. Five overarching acts of destruction are discussed, but the authors’ main focus is on what they call transformation-driven and social presence-driven destruction, with two examples from Sweden and South Africa. The article discusses sanctioned destructive acts that are largely in compliance with dominating semiotic regimes at a certain time and place, as well as disruptive actions that challenge or even disobey those regimes. The analysis shows how a distinction between sanctioned and disruptive is in no way clear and often depends on complex power distributions between semiotic regimes at a given time and place. In fact, traces in the physical environment that may point to or index highly destructive acts can, in relation to other semiotic regimes, be regarded as creative and constructive. The authors argue that the semiotic processes of destruction and the traces they leave deserve more attention from research in the fields of multimodality and semiotics.Funding Agency:National Research Foundation - South Africa STINT150903141397</p

Ecologies of ‘upcycling’ as design for learning in Higher Education

As society changes, new ways of understanding and using existing semiotic resources are needed. This study looks at artefacts from a social semiotic perspective in order to explore the concepts of ‘recycling’ and ‘upcycling’ and their relevance for pedagogy in Higher Education. We look at recycling in terms of ‘texts’ and employ methodological tools from multimodal discourse analysis. ‘Recycling’ involves converting materials from one product to create a different product with a different function, without necessarily adding any type of value. In ‘upcycling’, economic, aesthetic or functional value is always added. ‘Upcycling’ can thus be understood as a process of recontextualization of semiotic resources, in both spatio-linguistic and sensory terms. This paper looks at how resources are recontextualized as part of global ecologies of production and consumption. Then, we explore these insights in the pedagogical domain, looking at possible implications of the principles of ‘upcycling’ and value adding through design as a means for educating global critical citizens.Multimodal Texts and Pedagogies in Higher Educatio

När den organiserade sjukvården uppfattas som otillräcklig : Affekt och känsla i texter om endometrios

Endometriosis is a disease that affects women. This article focuses on endometriosis communication outside of, but in relation to, institutionally organized health care. The discursive use of affects and emotions in endometriosis communication in internet forums, social media and the press is analyzed: Which emotions are represented? Which affective communities are readers invited into, and how is this performed? Drawing on appraisal analysis and affective discourse analysis, the article shows how not only negative affects, but also those of happiness and gratitude are represented, and how narratives and specific visual formats function as affective affordances that invite readers to become part of ‘endo-communities’