MECM90038 Chap.10 Discourse and Framing Analysis of Media Texts
Discourse and Framing Analysis of Media Texts
Weeks 8 and 9 move your project from sorted data to analysis. This chapter explains discourse as structured ways of representing the world that carry knowledge and power, drawing on the scholars the Week 8 lecture cites, and maps Fairclough's three levels of a media text: word choice, rhetorical strategy, and ideology and power.
It sets out the textual and contextual prompts for reading a text closely, the stages that lead from a chosen sample to a discursive claim, and the language features to look for in each phase. It then introduces framing analysis as the lecture plan describes it.
A worked reading of invented public comments shows how to write analysis that is interpretive, systematic and explained step by step, which is what your methodology and report must demonstrate.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Discourse as patterned ways of speaking about and depicting the world
- 02
Fairclough's micro, meso and macro levels of a media text
- 03
Textual prompts: vocabulary, voice, tone, metaphor, actors and layout
- 04
Contextual prompts: author, genre, timing, interdiscursivity, power and ideology
- 05
Phase one and phase two language features, from labels to silences
- 06
Framing analysis and the ethics of studying user-generated content
Worked example · free
Reading an editorial headline at three levels
- 1Micro level: the verb "punished" and the noun "grab" cast the levy as a penalty and a theft, while "ratepayers" groups residents into one injured collective.
- 1Meso level: "again" presupposes a history of unfair charges without evidence, and the council appears only as "city hall", an institution rather than accountable people.
- 1Macro level: the headline draws on a discourse of taxpayers against government, which serves readers opposed to new charges and leaves flood risk itself unmentioned.
Key terms
- Discourse
- Discourse is a patterned way of talking about and representing some part of the world. It governs which statements seem sensible, who may make them and with what authority.
- Discourse analysis
- Discourse analysis is an interpretive method that traces how texts build and normalise meaning. It asks about power and exclusion rather than about measurable media effects.
- Modality
- Modality is the degree of certainty or obligation a speaker attaches to a statement. Words such as must, will, could and may signal it.
- Presupposition
- A presupposition is an assumption a text treats as already settled, so the reader absorbs it without being asked to agree. It often hides inside words like again or still.
- Interdiscursivity
- Interdiscursivity is the borrowing of one discourse inside another, such as military language in a story about disease. Spotting it shows which ways of thinking a text leans on.
Discourse and Framing Analysis of Media Texts FAQ
Is discourse analysis the same as content analysis?
Not quite. The thematic sorting of Week 7 groups material into codes, themes and categories, while discourse analysis interprets how language and images build meaning and power in context. The Week 8 lecture treats that earlier sorting as a stage that comes before discursive analysis, so many projects use their coded data as the starting point for a closer critical reading.
Can discourse analysis show how audiences were influenced by media coverage?
No. The Week 8 slides describe the method as interpretive rather than predictive and state that it does not measure media impact on audiences. Claims should describe how a text constructs an issue, positions groups or naturalises values. If your question is about audience response, the Week 9 material on audience reception and ethics is the place to look.
What counts as a text in a digital discourse study?
Beyond articles and speeches, the lecture lists headlines and clickbait, audiovisual material, internal and external links, hashtags or related topics, and recommended content. Each can carry meaning: a hashtag can attach a post to a wider debate, and a recommendation panel can place a story beside others that colour how it reads.
How is framing analysis different from discourse analysis?
The lecture plan presents framing analysis as an approach to how media texts shape public meaning making, by emphasising certain interpretations and guiding understanding at textual, cultural and political levels. It builds on discourse analysis and thematic principles rather than replacing them, and Week 9 pairs it with renewed attention to representation, consent and context.
Assessment move
Choose three texts from your own sample and annotate each twice: once with a textual colour for vocabulary, voice, labels and modality, and once with a contextual colour for author, timing, audience and the discourses being borrowed. Next to each annotation, write micro, meso or macro. Then list the order in which you looked for features, because your methodology and report must explain that sequence.
Keep the annotated copies in a single folder, since the Week 8 slides welcome the original data set with highlights and annotations as an appendix. Finally, rewrite any sentence in your notes that claims an effect on readers so that it describes construction instead.
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