Abstract
The question of how we engage with contemporary media texts has arguably never been more relevant, and so this revised second edition of How to do Critical Discourse Analysis: A Multimodal Introduction is welcome and timely. The aim of the book is to guide the reader through the complex and significant interactions between language, power and ideology in a range of (primarily) media texts and other kinds of ‘everyday’ language, including magazines, advertisements, YouTube videos, political speeches, online news articles, institutional policy documents and more. The authors provide a systematic toolkit for the reader to use in this endeavour. Practical approaches to textual and visual analysis, and their theoretical underpinnings, are clearly outlined. Throughout the book, the focus is very much on how the application of linguistic tools from (Multimodal) Critical Discourse Analysis (henceforth (M)CDA) can help the reader to better navigate our current media landscape and to further engage with broader societal issues of power and (in)equality in different contexts. The book’s toolkit includes, inter alia, modality, metaphor analysis, transitivity, quoting verbs, nominalisation and social actor analysis.
The main strengths of this book are, in my opinion, threefold. The first is the depth and breadth of the examples chosen. Some points are illustrated through use of shorter quotations, while longer extracts have been selected for more detailed case studies. The chosen examples span geographical borders, languages, time periods and genres, helping to ensure reader engagement: there is truly something for everyone. Given the political commitment of CDA to challenging taken-for-granted assumptions and power imbalances, the book’s attention is firmly on contemporary ‘everyday’ texts, including (as may be expected) an increased number of social media examples from the first edition. This revised edition has an even more heightened focus on how (M)CDA can help to identify and unpack the language of neoliberalism and ‘the commodification of absolutely everything’ (p. 41).
The second strength is the book’s accessibility. The target audience for this book is broad: anyone who wishes to learn more about how linguistic and visual tools can be applied to a range of contemporary texts. The book is likely to be of special interest to students from undergraduate levels and above studying linguistics, communication, journalism and media. Terminology is always unpacked (throughout the main body and in the helpful glossary) and no prior knowledge is assumed. The same examples are often returned to, and further built on, using new tools and new terminology, and the reader is therefore guided through complementary levels of analysis. Concepts that might be unfamiliar to the novice reader are introduced carefully and in context, with explanations linked to tangible examples. That said, even the more seasoned (M)CDA researcher will find this book helpful to refresh their knowledge and to update themselves on newer work (the book includes reference to several pieces of cutting-edge research in the field).
The third strength is the book’s reflexivity. Writing an accessible, introductory book about an arguably often inaccessible subject matter sometimes necessitates a focus on general trends and overall patterns. The authors are careful to explain where many of the nuances lie and to indicate where a full engagement with some complex debates is beyond the scope of this book. The final chapter is a thoughtful reflection on and engagement with critiques of (M)CDA where readers can grapple with the pros and cons of this framework from a well-informed perspective.
This book provides approaches for analysing both language and imagery, although the reader should be aware that more time is dedicated to the former. This is not necessarily a criticism of this book per se, but rather reflects (1) the general trend within CDA research to prioritise textual analysis and (2) the quality and quantity of analytical tools and frameworks currently available for detailed multimodal analysis relative to its textual counterpart. Multimodality, within both CDA and media discourse analysis more widely, is a growing area of inquiry, and the tools outlined in this book (in addition to the suggestions offered in the bibliography) will be useful for the reader wishing to conduct a combined textual and visual analysis.
(M)CDA aims to explore what is going on beneath the surface of texts, examining textual and visual manifestations of certain ideological positions. As outlined in compelling ways through the myriad of examples in this book, this approach often considers what alternative phrasings may have been used. There are some situations where outlining better alternatives would be arguably inappropriate (and even incompatible) with some broader goals of CDA (if the analyst were to provide ideas for political regimes that they find morally reprehensible to better communicate with their target audience, e.g.). However, there are certainly cases where CDA analysis could reveal, incidentally or otherwise, much better ways of doing things through language.
In the spirit of interdisciplinarity outlined in the book, and in the field of Critical Discourse Studies more widely, this good practice could then be taken up by others inside and outside academia to work towards shared goals (assuming, of course, a common understanding of these goals – which is, as this book has highlighted, quite a big assumption). For example, a critical discourse analyst working on the misrepresentation of violence against women in the media could arguably share those findings in a way that would inform charity-led good practice guides for journalists, to help avoid further harm and perpetuation of myths around gendered violence. Informed insights based on systematic and careful critical discourse analysis (alongside insights from scholars in media studies and, of course, insights from survivors of such violence whose voices are often side-lined) could certainly help and would be very much in keeping with CDA’s emancipatory agenda. This aspect of good practice guidelines has not always been explicitly stated in the book – and is arguably not the book’s focus – but could be considered a fruitful avenue for further exploration or for other scholars already engaged in this work to apply the book’s toolkit in this way. (M)CDA is, as the authors demonstrate compellingly, ‘[. . .] not only research about instances of communication, or texts, but just as in other disciplines, about exploring knowledge, understanding problems that often affect large swathes of people and offering solutions to them’ (p. 314). This book provides a range of comprehensive and accessible tools to help us do just that.