Opening up terrorism talk: The sequential and categorical production of discursive power within the call openings of a talk radio broadcast

The current research undertakes a combined CA/MCA approach to analyse the unfolding moral business of ‘talk radio’ discourse, and situates this analysis within a critical discourse studies framework. In a case study analysis of a talk radio broadcast on the topic of terrorism, the sequencing and membership categorization work that is accomplished during the call openings of its contributors is examined. Local manifestations of discursive power allied to the ‘host’ role are identified, along with the data-driven distinction of ‘lay’ and ‘elite’ callers. The empowering versus disempowering consequences of sequential turn allocation and identity categorization are explored, leading to some reflections on security versus human rights advocacy within terrorism talk. The contribution of this research to two research enterprises is then outlined. Firstly, we highlight the benefit that a combined CA/MCA approach, which foregrounds powerplay, offers to analysis of talk-in-interaction. Following which, we underline how placing such a micro-level spotlight on the seemingly mundane details of talk in context can offer valuable insights for critical terrorism studies

Social representations of peace in terrorism talk: a UK talk-radio analysis

This paper employs combined critical discourse analysis/ membership categorization analysis to examine social representations of peace that appear within two UK talk radio debates about terrorism. After an initial overview of how and where social representations of peace feature throughout the data, three extended sequences of talk are subject to detailed discursive analysis. Whilst a range of Muslim and non-Muslim callers participate in these debates, analysis identifies that it is only Muslim speakers who engage social representations of peace. Analysis of three differing elite Muslim speakers reveals that in these debates: (i) peace is positioned as central to Muslim identity but also as a common value that is accessible to non-Muslims and Muslims alike; (ii) upholding and maintaining peace and challenging violent ideologies is constructed as an ongoing moral duty for Muslim communities; (iii) upholding peace as core to Islam does not mandate an absolute rejection of all violence in all contexts. These findings are discussed in the context of mainstream UK terrorism discourse where Muslim category membership and adherence to Islam is routinely linked to concerns regarding the presumed threat of extremist terror attacks in the UK

When words are not enough: Combined textual and visual multimodal analysis as a Critical Discursive Psychology undertaking

In this paper we sketch out the progress of our recent work, concentrating on methodological developments and insights we have gained along the way. Broadly, we situate ourselves in the field of Critical Discursive Psychology (CDP), but the focus of this paper extends to the study of combined semiotic realms, hence we describe our work as Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA). By outlining MCDA and sharing some insight from our own engagement with it, we hope to connect with growing interest amongst qualitative psychologists, and discursive psychologists in particular, to examine discourse beyond just text and talk, and offer a practical example of how to apply MCDA. We begin by briefly outlining discursive psychology and CDP, before introducing MCDA as an analytic method that initially developed in the field of critical linguistics. We reflect on our work in MCDA combining visual and textual modalities to show how this approach can enable exploration of different semiotic formsin a manner that aligns with the ambitions of CDP. We argue that MCDAs novel insights illustrate both a need and value in undertaking discursive psychology of this kind (cf. Byford, 2018). We conclude by emphasising that meaning potentials availed through the visual and textual components of a multimodal discourse are more than the sum of individual components. The combination of modalities fosters a liminal space where meaning potentials expand beyond the additive combination of individual components and are instead rooted in holistic affordances of the multimodal discourse.N/

Thinking out loud: A discourse analysis of ‘thinking’ during talk radio interactions

Early work in discursive psychology highlighted the rhetorical strength of devices that serve to establish matters as objective facts. More recently, there has been increasing interest within this discipline concerning mental state invocations (e.g. imagining; knowing; intending), which typically convey speaker subjectivity. Elsewhere, linguists have examined the social business enabled by speakers’ deployment of cognitive verbs, a prime example of which deals with overt references to thinking. The current article sets out to extend the work on thinking by synthesizing research from discursive psychology, linguistics, and conversation analysis in order to undertake an integrated analysis of thinking. In our examination of a UK talk radio corpus, comprising data from 11 talk radio shows, we demonstrate three discursive functions of deploying a thinking device: setting an intersubjective agenda; doing opinion; and managing ‘facts’. An integrated approach allows us to examine the rhetorical strength of these subjectivizing maneuvers, and contribute to the existing body of work concerning the discursive deployment of thinking and mental state terms

'Speaking as a mother': A membership categorisation analysis of child-focussed talk in a UK daytime television talk show

In this study, we explore motherhood as an interactionally emergent identity category which speakers simultaneously construct and lay claim to in talk, and as a category which is imbued with moral expectations of how its incumbents should behave. We analyse 18 chid-centric debates from British daytime television talk show This Morning. We use Membership Categorisation Analysis to explore how, and to what effect, women deploy claims to motherhood. We report 3 main findings; (i) Speakers routinely quantify their motherhood credentials as they develop rights to be heard on child-centric matters; (ii) Speaking as a mother habitually trumps the arguments offered by other speakers, including those with professional expertise; (iii) Any challenge to essentialist norms of motherhood become accountable concerns for speakers. We conclude that whilst there is power in motherhood insomuch as it vests women with expertise and elevates their rights to be heard on child-centric matters, the speakers in our study of mainstream debates about child-centric issues nevertheless construct motherhood in a manner which (re)produces and elevates essentialised notions of gender

What do teachers think about the educational role of comic books?: A qualitative analysis

An exploratory, qualitative, study into the views of teachers on the use of comic books in education was carried out. Three secondary school teachers with varying experiences of comic books were interviewed using an open-ended format. Results of a thematic analysis indicated three clear areas of thinking around comic books: firstly, comic books are considered to be a medium of children’s entertainment, and not associated with educational practice; secondly, when the medium is employed in education, it should primarily be used with students that require extra support and thirdly, comic books represent a ‘missed opportunity in education’ and have not achieved their full potential due to a lack of comic book resources for use in the classroom. All three concepts are discussed in light of research evidence supporting the use of comics in educational contexts and concerns are highlighted that suggest these themes might represent a barrier to the future use of comics in these areas. Further qualitative and quantitative research to expand these initial findings is also suggested