My work is motivated by theoretical and political concerns rather than by the desire to use a particular method or methods. I use whatever methods I believe are appropriate for the problem or issue at hand. My discourse analysis (DA) work has focused on news media portrayals of genetics and medicine, on as-sumptions about sex or gender differences in docu-ments produced for a specific readership, and on discourses pertaining to medicine and public health. I
have explored how assumptions are manifest in texts and how a particular use of language may serve to make these assumptions seem natural. My empirical materials have included a range of texts, including newspaper articles, anatomical texts, psychological journal articles and various expert documents, for example government reports and health promotion literature. Depending on the particular question(s) explored, I may focus on the use of rhetorical devices, the narrative structure, the inclusion of quotations or citations and of drama (in the case of news), the positioning of text relative to other items and the use of accompanying illustrative material.
Although I have undertaken a great deal of DA-related work, I have never found DA to be straightforward. Although some scholars see DA as an easy research method option, there is rarely a clearly defined path for the researcher. This is a contested area and there are no blueprints as to how
‘best’ to proceed. Subjective evaluations impinge on every stage of the research process. In my experience, every new project requires one to rethink the issue of methods: how they relate to the aims and research questions, what empirical resources are likely to be most useful or illuminating, and how to ‘operational-ize’ concepts (i.e. put them in a form that can be measured). DA has proved particularly valuable in my recent work on news media portrayals of genetics and medicine, which I will focus on here.
In recent years, versions of DA have been used by a number of scholars in analysing the portrayal of medical genetics issues in news media and other popular cultural texts. The rise of public interest in genetics in the 1990s corresponded with media interest in the Human Genome Project and, later, its
‘race’ with the rival Celera to map the human genome.
I was following some of the debates in newspapers about discoveries of ‘genes for’ X, Y and Z and, in light of what seemed to be a kind of genetic determinism in these reports, I believed it would be interesting and useful to examine news reports in detail. Coming from a background in the sociology of health and illness, my concerns were informed by sociological questions about the formation of public discourse. That is, I was interested in how a particular
‘framing’ of issues may shape public responses to the issues being reported and thus potentially shape public policies. When I commenced study in this field, I had only a few writers as guides to the kinds of questions worth pursuing and how DA might ‘work’
in practice in relation to news media. However, I had 1 7 D I S C O U R S E A N A LY S I S
developed some relevant expertise and insights through earlier research into the portrayal of research into genetic-based differences of sex and sexual orientation in ‘popular’ science journals (see Petersen, 1999).
My research materials included a national broad-sheet newspaper (The Australian) and two state-based tabloid newspapers (The Sydney Morning Herald and The West Australian). Because these newspapers are owned by different proprietors, I felt that they were less likely to share news stories than newspapers that are owned by the same proprietors. They also have different format styles, being oriented to different audiences, and, as I discovered, had somewhat different ways of presenting medical genetics issues. I located news articles for these newspapers via a news monitoring service. One can now do this more easily online via Newsbank and Lexus-Nexus, though these sources don’t include accompanying illustrative material and sometimes don’t include page numbers, which I find useful when making assessments about the promi-nence and framing of issues. As a first step, I made note of the location of articles in the newspapers: on what page they appeared, where they were positioned relative to other articles, and whether they appeared in special sections (e.g. ‘Health and Medicine’). I found that for all three newspapers, a large proportion of articles on genetics and medicine appeared in the first three pages, and the majority in the first ten pages, which suggested that these stories were seen by editors as highly ‘newsworthy’.
Besides positioning, I also made a note of the type of news items (article, editorial, opinion piece, letter to the editor) and of the amount and kind of detail presented. I also recorded details of the authorship of articles – whether they were written by journalists, scientists, bio-ethicists or other writers – and of any evidence of authors’ efforts to verify information and to present alternative or disconfirming information.
Finally, I made a note of the news source(s), if this was stated. Again, such information was useful in assessing how stories were ‘framed’. As I discovered, news stories did not always include details on the professional identity of writers. Consequently I was unable to draw firm conclusions about the impact of the author type on the content and style of stories. In The Australian and SMH, regular contributors of articles were sometimes described as either ‘medical writer’, ‘science writer’ or ‘science correspondent’;
however, in all three newspapers, such descriptions often did not appear in articles. In some articles, most notably in The Australian, only the news agency (e.g.
Reuters, AFP, AP or AAP) or another newspaper (e.g.
The Sunday Times, The Times) that was the source for the news was cited. In others, most evidently in The West, neither the writer’s name nor a news agency source appeared in the article.
I read and then reread each news item, taking note of use of titles, subtitles, and accompanying illustra-tive material that helped attract readers’ attention and shape the portrayal of stories, and of words, phrases and metaphors that imported particular images and associations. I made note of themes and sub-themes, and recorded who was cited or quoted in stories. I discovered that in many articles the scientists them-selves were often cited or quoted, which allowed them to place a particular interpretation on research and its implications. Quotations or citations from experts lent credibility to stories by conveying the impression that information was straight from the expert’s mouth and hence irrefutable.
Many articles relied heavily on the scientist’s own descriptions and generally positive evaluations of research and its significance. Since no other alterna-tive information was presented, there was little reason for the reader to doubt the veracity of the scientist’s claims. The use of quotes from experts is an important element in the framing of news stories on medical genetics. I discovered that scientists frequent-ly use terms such as the ‘killer cells’ and analogies such as ‘prospecting’ in describing research which provided insight into how scientists may seek to
‘popularize’ scientific information for lay readers and emphasize the significance of their work. The re-search literature on science news production suggests that there are ‘two cultures’ of science and journalism and that this may lead to misunderstanding between scientists and journalists about the role of news reporting. One influential perspective on the produc-tion of science news, the so-called ‘popularizaproduc-tion’
model, suggests that scientists generate objective knowledge which is then popularized for lay readers or audiences by the use of simple language, particular metaphors and rhetorical devices. It is argued that this may lead to the distortion or misrepresentation of science fact. However, along with other recent re-search, my own work suggests that this model, although useful, is too simplistic and does not take account of the more subtle ways in which scientists may seek to influence the media portrayal of science through, for example, the use of popular metaphors and the promotion of positive images of science and its applications.
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I found that good news stories and stories about discovery figure prominently in medical genetics news and that stories tend to neglect non-genetic and
‘multifactorial’ explanations of disease, thereby tend-ing to convey an overoptimistic impression of the potential of genetics. The frequent use of particular metaphors such as those of the book, map and code help to convey the nature and significance of research.
For example, in one article a scientist is cited as saying that ‘the new screening technique complemented black and white strips of DNA resembling bar codes used on shopping centre goods’. He is also quoted as saying, ‘Without the maps you do not know where to go . . . They have immediate applications in clinical work where the colour bar codes can identify changes or rearrangements in the chromosomes’ (The West, 25 July 1997: 10, my italics). Military metaphors were also common and reinforce an image of scientists as heroes who are pitted against an evil enemy (a ‘killer disease’) which is seen to threaten the public’s health.
For example, an article, ‘Resistance to drugs cracks’
announced that ‘Genetic scientists are on the verge of defeating life-threatening organisms that have developed strong resistance to conventional antibiotics . . .’ (The Weekend Australian, 18–19 July, 1998: 40, my italics). It was not always easy, however, to determine who originally introduced a particular metaphor – whether it was the scientist who was originally cited or quoted, or the journalist who wrote the story. This is something that would need to be explored through further research, by talking to quoted/cited scientists and journalists, and perhaps editors.
I found that news reports of medical genetics are not always unequivocally positive. The nature of portrayals depends on the nature of the issue. In my study of medical genetics news, and also in a related project on news media portrayals of cloning in the
wake of Dolly the sheep, I have discovered a recurring tension between utopian and dystopian themes and images of genetics, particularly in relation to reproductive issues (see Petersen, 2001, 2002).
Public reaction to Dolly, which reflected concerns about the applications of cloning technology to humans, led many scientists to make extensive use of the media to defend and explain their work. The torrent of news articles on cloning in the months after the announcement of Dolly made considerable refer-ence to the views and predictions of scientists, who extolled the medical virtues of cloning research and emphasized the distinction between ‘therapeutic clon-ing’ and ‘reproductive clonclon-ing’. As this research revealed, following the unfolding news stories of genetics and medicine over an extended period of time allows one to identify themes and patterns in styles of reporting that are unlikely to be evident within a short time frame.
While DA is very useful in revealing how news issues are portrayed, it doesn’t tell us much about the social processes of news production, or about how readers engage with stories. One needs to ‘get behind the news’ and talk to journalists, editors and sources to understand why certain issues get reported and how they are portrayed. This is the subject of my current research. And, one needs to develop methods for studying how readers interact with, interpret and use information gleaned from news media in order to assess the impacts of stories. DA, however, can provide a useful starting point for exploring processes of news production and news reception. For me, the application of DA methods in the analysis of news media has proved extremely fruitful. It has generated new questions, and opened up new avenues for exploration, which is what all research should be about.
Annotated bibliography
Burke, L., Crowley, T. and Girvin, A. (2000) The Routledge Language and Cultural Theory Reader. London:
Routledge.
Lives up to its blurb as a ‘core introduction to the most innovative and influential writings that have shaped and defined the relations between language, culture and cultural identity in the twentieth century’.
Davies, B. (1989) Frogs and Snails and Feminist Tales: Pre-school Children and Gender. London: Allen & Unwin A classic work integrating feminist and poststructuralist theory with close regard for empirical texts.
Gee, J.P. (1999) An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method. London: Routledge.
Gee’s theory of discourses embeds language in social practices through which diverse social identities are formed and transformed. He presents analytic techniques with special reference to cross-cultural issues in communities and schools.
Goffman, E. (1981) Forms of Talk. Oxford: Blackwell
Goffman’s work is unique, in that his eye and ear for how we interact as members of a society is unparalleled.
This is no research manual, much less a book ‘on’ discourse analysis as such. What it may do is assist us as researchers towards new sensitivities.
Mercer, N. (2000) Words and Minds: How We Use Language to Think Together. London: Routledge.
A highly readable and versatile book that offers something of interest to most of us, whatever our previous knowledge of language-related issues.
Piller, Ingrid (2002) Bilingual Couples Talk: The Discursive Construction of Hybridity. Amsterdam and Philadelphia:
John Benjamins.
Whether the linguistic practices of German- and English-speaking couples seems near or far to your own research interest, this book exemplifies a thoughtful, eclectic approach to methodology. Piller examines the ways in which ideologies and identities are performed and contested as public discourses invade, shape or shadow private practices.
Silverman, D. (2001) Interpreting Qualitative Data: Methods for Analysing Talk, Texts and Interactions, 2nd edn.
London: Sage.
This book and others by Silverman, including his 1998 book on Harvey Sacks, are popular starting points for many researchers.
Swales, J.M. (1998) Other Floors, Other Voices. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
In this enthralling read, Swales examines the links between varied academic disciplines and social practices through the empirical study of three floors of a single building on a university campus.
Ten Have, P. (1999) Doing Conversation Analysis: A Practical Guide. London: Sage.
This book draws effectively on the legacy of earlier work in the field, while encouraging the reader from page 1 to try its techniques in one’s own research.
Wetherell, M., Taylor, S. and Yates, S. (2001) Discourse Theory and Practice: A Reader. London: Sage.
These studies illustrate the range of data discourse analysts work with and the concepts which organize discourse investigations. Designed for the active researcher, especially in the fields of psychology, sociology, cultural studies and social policy.
Further references
Antaki, C. and Naji, S. (1987) ‘Events explained in conversational ‘‘because’’ statements’, British Journal of Social Psychology, 26: 119–26.
Bakhtin, M. (1986) Speech Genres and Other Late Essays, eds C.E Merson and M. Holquist. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Blake, N.F. (1996) A History of the English Language. London: Macmillan.
Brown, G. and Yule, G. (1983) Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gotsbachner, E. (2001) ‘Xenophobic normality: the discriminatory impact of habitualized discourse dynamics’, Discourse and Society, 12(6): 729–59.
Halliday, M.A.K. (1985) An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold.
Hymes, D. (1996) Ethnography, Linguistics, Narrative Inequality: Toward an Understanding of Voice. London:
Taylor & Francis.
Johnstone, B. (2002) Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Blackwell.
Leech, G., Rayson, P. and Wilson, A. (2001) Word Frequencies in Written and Spoken English based on the British National Corpus. London: Pearson.
Meyer, C. (2002) English Corpus Linguistics: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Petersen, A. (1999) ‘The portrayal of research into genetic-based differences of sex and sexual orientation: a study of ‘‘popular’’ science journals, 1980 to 1997’, Journal of Communication Inquiry, 23(2): 163–82.
Petersen, A. (2001) ‘Biofantasies: genetics and medicine in the print news media’, Social Science and Medicine, 52(8): 1255–68.
Petersen, A. (2002) ‘Replicating our bodies, losing our selves: news media portrayals of human cloning in the wake of Dolly’, Body & Society, 8(4): 71–90.
Sacks, H. (1992) Lectures on Conversation, ed. G. Jefferson. Oxford: Blackwell.
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PART V
R E A D I N G A N D R E P R E S E N T I N G S O C I O -C U L T U R A L M E A N I N G S
Introduction
This part of the book brings the concept of ‘culture’
to the centre of research activity and meaning-making.
It begins with life history and narrative approaches in a chapter which bridges between Mills’s classic notion of the creative marrying of theory with empirical data in the ‘sociological imagination’ (first published 1959) and Bruner’s insight (from 1987) that ‘narrative imitates life, life imitates narrative’. This is followed by two chapters dealing with semiotic approaches to interpretation, together illustrating processes of inter-textuality and multimodality. The final two chapters focus on the overlapping theoretical frameworks of communities of practice and activity theory, both of which see human interaction, co-construction of meaning and mutual cooperation as central to human agency and empowerment.
An important common denominator for these chapters is that they are all concerned with the process of ‘reading’ socio-cultural data and making meaning. Most of them draw explicitly on the socio-cultural psychology of Vygotsky and are con-cerned with learning as a process of transformation through engaging in human activity. Experience and meaning-making are encultured and co-constructed, whether in daily life or through engaging in research.
The emphasis on the visual – photography and drawings as research data – and multimodality as a norm of representation opens up new opportunities for qualitative research. The tyranny of the written text is particularly challenged in the chapter on social semiotics and multimodality.
These chapters also privilege the practical and focus on the integration of theoretical insights with
practical action – in some cases through a focus on community engagement and change processes, in others through in-depth interpretation of representa-tions as both expressions of human identity and encultured artefacts. The Stories from the Field portray learners of all ages from small children, through adolescents, to employees in industry and teachers coming to terms with technology. In all cases they are portrayed as unique individuals whose ident-ity is mediated and sustained by the socio-historical and cultural contexts in which their life experience is embedded.
Again, there are many cross-links between this part of the book and chapters in other parts. The chapter on life history and narrative should be read in relation to Interviewing in Part II; the chapter on semiotic engagements links forward to the chapter on decon-struction in Part VIII; the ‘story from the field’ in the communities of practice chapter illustrates the inte-gration of qualitative and quantitative data described in several of the chapters in Part VII; and all of the chapters need to be read in the light of the chapter in Part II on ethical issues.
The socio-cultural-historical theories that underpin these chapters provide a useful alternative to some of the mainstays of qualitative research portrayed in Parts II–IV, such as hermeneutic interpretation on the one hand or critical engagement with political pro-cesses on the other. If these socio-cultural theories have a limitation it tends to be in their neglect of the political but this is specifically addressed by the chapter on activity theory.