Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is an interdisciplinary approach that focuses on power and its relationship with inequality in society. It uses various analytical methods to explain how discourse affects its audience, including non-verbal communication. CDA aims to understand how sources of power use communication to legitimize ideologies and manipulate consensus. It also studies social groups and their reactions to messages based on their ideologies. CDA is proactive and aims to change or stop social and political problems of inequality. Practitioners accept that language and power are closely related, and they must recommend counterpowers and strategic ideologies.
Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is an interdisciplinary study of all forms of communication that primarily focuses on power and its relationship between inequality and society. It became an important form of communicative analysis after the 1989 publication of Norman Fairclough’s Language and Power. Unlike other forms of discourse analysis, its purpose is to use all analytical methods to not only describe discourse, but to explain how it affects its targeted audience.
A common misconception about critical discourse analysis is that it is a method. In fact, it is not a method, but a specific approach and perspective for studying speeches. What makes CDA work is that it takes from both social and political methods of analysis, making it an interdisciplinary field, which separates it from other types of analysis. The practitioner of critical discourse analysis must study not only oral and written communication, but also every other way of communicating. This includes, but is not limited to, movies, gestures, music, and pictures.
The purpose of critical discourse analysis is to focus on social and political problems, primarily those involving inequality and the dominance of power. Put simply, this means that the focus is on how a source of influence and power uses communication methods to influence and legitimize ideologies within people. Find out how the energy source manipulates and produces consensus.
CDA also studies social groups, their differences and how each one reacts. The reactions of people of different sexual orientations, classes, age groups, places and other groups vary according to their own ideologies. Their ideologies underlying the messages communicated are compared during critical discourse analysis.
Instead of being a purely descriptive form of discourse analysis, the purpose of the CDA is to explain. It’s not enough to know what’s going on. The reasons why and how are also important. This makes critical discourse analysis more proactive. The ultimate goal is to change or stop the social or political problem of inequality.
Those who practice critical discourse analysis accept certain facts about social and political issues. The first is that language and power are closely related. The second is that the professional is intrinsically biased and influenced by the communication he studies. Finally, the practitioner must also recommend counterpowers and strategic ideologies.
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