Discourse &Society, Ahead of Print.
The aim of this paper is to describe and exemplify a theoretical perspective for the analysis of music as symbolic action in critical studies of discourse. We use deployments of music by legislatures in Australia, the UK, and the USA as exemplar cases to develop foundations for a critical, non-semiotic perspective that sees music work as gestalt complexes of physical and cultural forces that move people towards or away from specific actions and attitudes. In presenting our perspective we critique some semiotic assertions about music that are commonplaces in discourse studies and elsewhere. Our cases draw on news reports and scholarly discourse about the use of music as a means of torture in warfare and as a means of purifying urban public spaces by keeping youth and homeless people out of them at night.
Category Archives: SAGE Publications Ltd: Discourse & Society
Pro-vaccination personal narratives in response to online hesitancy about the HPV vaccine: The challenge of tellability
Discourse &Society, Volume 34, Issue 6, Page 752-771, November 2023.
Experimental studies have shown that narratives can be effective persuasive tools in addressing vaccine hesitancy, including regarding the vaccine against the human papillomavirus (HPV), which is transmitted via sexual contact and can cause cervical cancer. This paper presents an analysis of a thread from the online parenting forum Mumsnet Talk where an initially undecided Original Poster is persuaded to vaccinate their child against HPV by a respondent’s narrative of cervical cancer that they describe as difficult to share. This paper considers this particular narrative alongside all other narratives that precede the decision announced on the Mumsnet thread. It shows how producing pro-vaccination narratives about HPV involves challenges regarding ‘tellability’ – what makes the events in a narrative reportable or worth telling. We suggest that this has implications for the context-dependent nature of tellability, the role of parenting forums in vaccination-related discussions, and narrative-based communication about vaccinations more generally.
Experimental studies have shown that narratives can be effective persuasive tools in addressing vaccine hesitancy, including regarding the vaccine against the human papillomavirus (HPV), which is transmitted via sexual contact and can cause cervical cancer. This paper presents an analysis of a thread from the online parenting forum Mumsnet Talk where an initially undecided Original Poster is persuaded to vaccinate their child against HPV by a respondent’s narrative of cervical cancer that they describe as difficult to share. This paper considers this particular narrative alongside all other narratives that precede the decision announced on the Mumsnet thread. It shows how producing pro-vaccination narratives about HPV involves challenges regarding ‘tellability’ – what makes the events in a narrative reportable or worth telling. We suggest that this has implications for the context-dependent nature of tellability, the role of parenting forums in vaccination-related discussions, and narrative-based communication about vaccinations more generally.
Book review: Jonathan Charteris-Black, Metaphors of Coronavirus: Invisible Enemy or Zombie Apocalypse?
Discourse &Society, Ahead of Print.
Digital resistance: Discursive construction of polarization and otherness in Oduduwa secessionists’ social media discourse
Discourse &Society, Ahead of Print.
This paper investigates the discursive strategies employed by Oduduwa secessionists to construct polarization and otherness on Twitter. Using the socio-cognitive approach to CDA combined with social media CDA, the study illustrates how socio-cultural and spatiotemporal contexts are embedded in digital performances of resistance. Findings show that the secessionists employ four main discursive strategies, namely: (1) vitriolic socio-cognitive labels and coinages; (2) generalization and ethnocentrism; (3) language of threat; and (4) use of Yoruba language to legitimize their resistance, accentuate their ideological stances, construct polarization and otherness, and do social mobilization. These strategies are achieved via discursive, linguistic, and stylo-orthographic resources made available by digital technology. The paper concludes that the discursive strategies employed by the secessionists do not directly reflect polarization but are simply constitutive of it.
This paper investigates the discursive strategies employed by Oduduwa secessionists to construct polarization and otherness on Twitter. Using the socio-cognitive approach to CDA combined with social media CDA, the study illustrates how socio-cultural and spatiotemporal contexts are embedded in digital performances of resistance. Findings show that the secessionists employ four main discursive strategies, namely: (1) vitriolic socio-cognitive labels and coinages; (2) generalization and ethnocentrism; (3) language of threat; and (4) use of Yoruba language to legitimize their resistance, accentuate their ideological stances, construct polarization and otherness, and do social mobilization. These strategies are achieved via discursive, linguistic, and stylo-orthographic resources made available by digital technology. The paper concludes that the discursive strategies employed by the secessionists do not directly reflect polarization but are simply constitutive of it.
Book review: Political Myth-Making, Nationalist Resistance and Populist Performance: Examining Kwame Nkrumah’s Construction and Promotion of the African Dream
Discourse &Society, Ahead of Print.
Rule 1: Remember the human. A socio-cognitive discourse study of a Reddit forum banned for promoting hate based on identity
Discourse &Society, Ahead of Print.
Detecting internet hate speech automatically is an important but difficult task that is recognised as ethically problematic. In comparison to typical computer science approaches, the current study focuses on psychologically meaningful aspects of language, and not on terms pre-defined as hateful. Data consists of the naturally occurring discourse of a gender critical feminist group banned from the Reddit discussion platform for promoting hate based on identity; this is compared with discourse of a feminist group from Reddit, that has not been banned. Notable psychologically meaningful terms of the gender critical group include third-person plural pronouns, and metonymic acronyms that reference the gender critical outgroup, which may represent outgroup derogation, and outgroup homogeneity. It is noted that the banned forum, which is shown to be an online community, may be responding to threats to identity in recognised ways. It is concluded that a socio-cognitive discourse approach to hate speech detection may help address related ethical concerns, including potential social injustice.
Detecting internet hate speech automatically is an important but difficult task that is recognised as ethically problematic. In comparison to typical computer science approaches, the current study focuses on psychologically meaningful aspects of language, and not on terms pre-defined as hateful. Data consists of the naturally occurring discourse of a gender critical feminist group banned from the Reddit discussion platform for promoting hate based on identity; this is compared with discourse of a feminist group from Reddit, that has not been banned. Notable psychologically meaningful terms of the gender critical group include third-person plural pronouns, and metonymic acronyms that reference the gender critical outgroup, which may represent outgroup derogation, and outgroup homogeneity. It is noted that the banned forum, which is shown to be an online community, may be responding to threats to identity in recognised ways. It is concluded that a socio-cognitive discourse approach to hate speech detection may help address related ethical concerns, including potential social injustice.
Book review: Complicity in Discourse and Practice
Discourse &Society, Ahead of Print.
From criticism to conspiracies: The populist discourse of COVID-19 sceptics in Germany’s Querdenken community on Telegram
Discourse &Society, Ahead of Print.
Telegram is a central space for unifying far-right actors and ideology, activists and movements, alternative media, conspiracies, and Coronavirus scepticism. While much research has focused on network dynamics and topic modelling, there is a scarcity of large scale, in-depth content analyses. The present research examines this environment through a semi-automated content analysis of German COVID-19 protest movement Querdenken on Telegram, to determine discursive features of the politicisation of this public health crisis within Querdenken’s communities. The analysis of 1.4 million chat messages shows that key elements of right-wing populist discourse can be detected in several sub-communities. The people and the homeland are antagonised by the corrupt, oppressive elite. Within this environment, politicised anti-COVID-19 restrictions narratives combine with populist discourse, distributed from Querdenken channels via general information channels, connecting to activist, protest, news, lawyer, and doctor-themed chats. Within these channels, external links lead towards publications promoting far-right ideology and conspiracies.
Telegram is a central space for unifying far-right actors and ideology, activists and movements, alternative media, conspiracies, and Coronavirus scepticism. While much research has focused on network dynamics and topic modelling, there is a scarcity of large scale, in-depth content analyses. The present research examines this environment through a semi-automated content analysis of German COVID-19 protest movement Querdenken on Telegram, to determine discursive features of the politicisation of this public health crisis within Querdenken’s communities. The analysis of 1.4 million chat messages shows that key elements of right-wing populist discourse can be detected in several sub-communities. The people and the homeland are antagonised by the corrupt, oppressive elite. Within this environment, politicised anti-COVID-19 restrictions narratives combine with populist discourse, distributed from Querdenken channels via general information channels, connecting to activist, protest, news, lawyer, and doctor-themed chats. Within these channels, external links lead towards publications promoting far-right ideology and conspiracies.
‘Italians locked at home, illegal migrants free to disembark’: How populist parties re-contextualized the anti-immigration discourse at the time of COVID-19 pandemic
Discourse &Society, Ahead of Print.
By drawing on a Critical Discourse Studies perspective, we analyze language and discursive strategies used by 36 Italian populist right-wing politicians in constructing the narration of immigration during the covid-19 period on their Facebook pages, combining Corpus Linguistics and the analysis of the discursive argumentation. The main aim is to verify a potential discursive construction between immigration and the spread of the virus also considering the change of the government and the role assumed by different parties. Results suggest that the connection between migration and pandemic has not been traduced in a discourse able to systematically blame migrants as vehicles for the virus, rather politicians operated a re-contextualization of past discursive strategies based on the ‘us’ versus ‘them’ dichotomy. Moreover, lexicon and argumentative analysis identified interesting differences between parties especially with the change of government and the new conformation of the alliance. The article shows elements of continuity concerning the political discourse on immigration, but it also stressed important outputs concerning the politicization process showing that pandemic constitutes a critical ‘politicizing moment’ that operated as a mechanism of further normalization of anti-immigration discourse.
By drawing on a Critical Discourse Studies perspective, we analyze language and discursive strategies used by 36 Italian populist right-wing politicians in constructing the narration of immigration during the covid-19 period on their Facebook pages, combining Corpus Linguistics and the analysis of the discursive argumentation. The main aim is to verify a potential discursive construction between immigration and the spread of the virus also considering the change of the government and the role assumed by different parties. Results suggest that the connection between migration and pandemic has not been traduced in a discourse able to systematically blame migrants as vehicles for the virus, rather politicians operated a re-contextualization of past discursive strategies based on the ‘us’ versus ‘them’ dichotomy. Moreover, lexicon and argumentative analysis identified interesting differences between parties especially with the change of government and the new conformation of the alliance. The article shows elements of continuity concerning the political discourse on immigration, but it also stressed important outputs concerning the politicization process showing that pandemic constitutes a critical ‘politicizing moment’ that operated as a mechanism of further normalization of anti-immigration discourse.
Can space be conceptualized in a different way in political discourse? An extended application of Discourse Space Theory
Discourse &Society, Volume 34, Issue 6, Page 712-731, November 2023.
Political discourse can be considered as consisting of conflictual discourse and cooperative discourse in view of the relationship between power entities. From the perspective of spatial conceptualization in cognitive discourse analysis, cooperative discourse is supposed to be different from conflictual one in terms of the spatial representation, with Chilton’s Discourse Space Theory, which mainly conceptualizes space as an inside/outside dichotomy, only accounting for the latter instead of the former. This paper attempts to further apply Chilton’s three-dimensional model to involve the alternative way of spatial conceptualization with different kind of construals and to compare the differences of the two types of political discourse in the construction of discourse space. Taking the speeches by two state leaders for the purposes of cooperation and accusation respectively as the cases in point, this paper concludes that cooperative discourse displays an outward-extensive discourse space representation as opposed to the inward-contractive discourse space representation of conflictual discourse. This study contributes to expand the scope of discourse space analysis, which is primarily for antagonistic relations only, to incorporate cooperative relations with an extended application of DST based on alternative ways of spatial conceptualization and an elaboration on the dynamics of its three dimensions, and hence to shed some lights on political discourse studies.
Political discourse can be considered as consisting of conflictual discourse and cooperative discourse in view of the relationship between power entities. From the perspective of spatial conceptualization in cognitive discourse analysis, cooperative discourse is supposed to be different from conflictual one in terms of the spatial representation, with Chilton’s Discourse Space Theory, which mainly conceptualizes space as an inside/outside dichotomy, only accounting for the latter instead of the former. This paper attempts to further apply Chilton’s three-dimensional model to involve the alternative way of spatial conceptualization with different kind of construals and to compare the differences of the two types of political discourse in the construction of discourse space. Taking the speeches by two state leaders for the purposes of cooperation and accusation respectively as the cases in point, this paper concludes that cooperative discourse displays an outward-extensive discourse space representation as opposed to the inward-contractive discourse space representation of conflictual discourse. This study contributes to expand the scope of discourse space analysis, which is primarily for antagonistic relations only, to incorporate cooperative relations with an extended application of DST based on alternative ways of spatial conceptualization and an elaboration on the dynamics of its three dimensions, and hence to shed some lights on political discourse studies.