Chapter Three: Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

The research is presented in five stages, each set as a chapter. The first chapter outlines a review of image studies conducted by various disciplines and an account of theoretical concepts useful in such a venture. The second chapter presents content analysis as a tool for image studies. Several techniques are exploited to study the media material and the results are discussed with a view of their suitability for the task of establishing the image of a country. The third chapter presents studies which apply Critical Discourse Analysis to media texts. The techniques are based on Systemic Functional Grammar. The Fourth Chapter shows corpus analysis and the contribution it gives to image studies. The Fifth Chapter draws the line summarising the contribution each of the proposed methods gives to establishing images and evaluates the methodology.
Theoretically, the research is situated on the interface between Media Studies and Discourse Analysis. The concept of a country’s image created through media is very much within this theoretical domain. The object of the investigation is a medium and the tools are discourse analytical with reference to its critical dimension, inasmuch as the topic applies to a country which has been construed as a pariah on the international scene and issues of inequality and domination are expected.