Discourse Studies In Public Communication

The collection of articles in Discourse Studies in Public Communication illustrates that public communication is a fascinating, evidence-based storehouse for research in discourse analysis. The contributions to this volume — in the spheres of political rhetoric, gender and sexuality, and corporate and academic communication — provide good evidence of contemporary social structure, social phenomena, and social issues. In this way, following the parameters of different analytical frameworks (critical discourse analysis, cognitive metaphor theory, appraisal theory, multimodality, etc.), the contributors address not only the linguistic aspects of texts but also, and more importantly, the cultural and cognitive dimensions of public communication in a range of real life communicative contexts and kinds of discourse. Although the volume is addressed, first and foremost, to readers with diverse interests in English linguistics, it may also prove valuable to scholars in other non-linguistic research fields like communication studies, social theory, political science, or psychology.

This book argues for an inherent connection between Critical Discourse Studies and Communication Studies. The volume begins with a comprehensive introduction that documents the shift towards Critical Discourse Studies in the study of socio-discursive phenomena, as well as its implications in terms of theories, methodologies, and objects of study within and beyond Communication. The diverse selection of case studies further demonstrates the possibilities located at the intersection of Communication and Critical Discourse Studies, ultimately providing solid ground for a firmer cross-fertilization between the two. The chapters as a whole provide an insightful state of the art of the kinds of research that emerge when we consider the traversing trajectories of Critical Discourse Studies and Communication, advancing our understanding of self-reflexivity, journalism production and social media, discourses of neurodiversity, the environment, autism advocacy, and national memory. They also provide promising emergent venues that speak to the value and the need of interdisciplinary theory building. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal, Review of Communication.

'Discourse Power Address' identifies the existence of 'directive' address, a form of strategic communication which is employed in a number of dominant practices, including Advertising, Politics, Public Relations and Corporate representation. Stuart Price argues that the simulation of intimacy in authoritarian address masks a drive to power, in which the creation of propositions by powerful social actors is based on the 'timeliness' of utterance rather than any real adherence to truth or genuine explanation. Election broadcasts, political speeches, TV commercials and corporate advertisements are all scrutinised in order to evaluate competing perspectives on the creation and circulation of meaning; particular reference is made to theories of discourse, ideology and address. In the course of his argument, the author proposes an original method for determining how authoritarian address attempts to make an impact on audiences. Providing a cross-disciplinary contribution to the fields of Communication, Language, Media and Political Studies, this book provides an original, clear-sighted contribution to the debate on language and power, and will provide an essential resource for lecturers, researchers, students, activists and policy-makers.

This book investigates linguistic strategies of threat construction and fear generation in contemporary public communication, including state political discourse as well as non-governmental, media and institutional discourses. It describes the ways in which the construction of closeness and remoteness can be manipulated in the public sphere and bound up with fear, security and conflict. Featuring a series of case studies in different domains, from presidential speeches to environmental discourse, it demonstrates how political and organizational leaders enforce the imminence of an outside threat to claim legitimization of preventive policies. It reveals that the best legitimization effects are obtained by discursively constructed fear appeals, which ensure quick social mobilization. The scope of the book is of immediate concern in the modern globalized era where borders and distance dissolve and are re-imagined. It will appeal to students and researchers in linguistics, discourse analysis, media communication as well as social and political sciences.

The Discourse of Public Participation Media takes a fresh look at what ‘ordinary’ people are doing on air – what they say, and how and where they get to say it. Using techniques of discourse analysis to explore the construction of participant identities in a range of different public participation genres, Joanna Thornborrow argues that the role of the ‘ordinary’ person in these media environments is frequently anything but. Tracing the development of discourses of public participation media, the book focusses particularly on the 1990s onwards when broadcasting was expanding rapidly: the rise of the TV talk show, increasing formats for public participation in broadcast debate and discussion, and the explosion of reality TV in the first decade of the 21st century. During this period, traditional broadcasting has also had to move with the times and incorporate mobile and web-based communication technologies as new platforms for public access and participation - text and email as well as the telephone - and an audience that moves out of the studio and into the online spaces of chat rooms, comment forums and the ‘twitterverse’. This original study examines the shifting discourses of public engagement and participation resulting from these new forms of communication, making it an ideal companion for students of communication, media and cultural studies, media discourse, broadcast talk and social interaction.

Ten noted rhetorical critics disrupt the silence regarding nonnormative sexualities in the study of American historical discourse and upend the heteronormativity that governs much of rhetorical history. Enacting both political and radical visions, these scholars articulate the promises of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender public address. The contributors consider figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Harvey Milk, Marlon Riggs, and Lorraine Hansberry; and issues as diverse as collective identity, nineteenth-century semiotics of gender and sexuality, the sexual politics of the Harlem Renaissance, psychiatric productions of the queer, and violence-induced traumatic styles.

As you are reading this, you are finding yourself in the ubiquitous public sphere that is the Web. Ubiquitous, and yet not universally accessible. This volume addresses this dilemma of the public sphere, which is by definition open to everyone but in practice often excludes particular groups of people in particular societies at particular points in time. The guiding questions for this collection of articles are therefore: Who has access to the public sphere? How is this access enabled or disabled? Under what conditions is it granted or withheld, and by whom? We regard the public sphere as the nodal point for the discourses of business, politics and media, and this basic assumption is also s reflected in the structure of the volume. Each of these three macro-topics comprises chapters by international scholars from a variety of disciplines and research traditions who each combine up-to-date overviews of the relevant literature with their own cutting-edge research into aspects of different public spheres such as corporate promotional communication, political rhetoric or genre features of electronic mass media. The broad scope of the volume is perhaps best reflected in a comprehensive discussion of communication technologies ranging from conventional spoken and written formats such as company brochures, political speeches and TV shows to emerging ones like customer chat forums, political blogs and text messaging. Due to the books' wide scope, its interdisciplinary approach and its clear structure, we are sure that whether you work in communication and media studies, linguistics, political science, sociology or marketing, you will find this handbook an invaluable guide offering state-of-the -art literature reviews and exciting new research in your field and adjacent areas.

This volume gathers the work of the Brussels Discourse Theory Group, a group of critical media and communication scholars that deploy discourse theory as theoretical backbone and analytical research perspective. Drawing on a variety of case studies, ranging from the politics of reality TV to the representation of populism, Communication and Discourse Theory highlights both the radical contingent nature and the hegemonic workings of media and communication practices. The book shows the value and applicability of discourse-theoretical analysis (DTA) within the field of media and communication studies.