Module Code - Title:

LI4004 - MEDIA DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Year Last Offered:

2025/6

Hours Per Week:

Lecture

2

Lab

0

Tutorial

1

Other

0

Private

7

Credits

6

Grading Type:

N

Prerequisite Modules:

Rationale and Purpose of the Module:

Critical awareness of and engagement with language are crucial skills for producing and consuming media in contemporary society. This module is aimed at students who are preparing to be journalists and expert linguists working in a range of roles where they will be producing texts that will be mediated for public consumption. Through lecture material and working in a practical way with texts, the module aims to raise awareness of the role of language used in mediated texts in shaping our society. The module is designed to offer intensive engagement with a range of media texts using methodologies from Critical Discourse Anlaysis and Ethnography of Communication.

Syllabus:

Critical awareness of and engagement with language are crucial skills for producing and consuming media in contemporary society. In this module, you will acquire knowledge about the linguistic features of media texts (texts being understood in the broadest possible sense), and how these relate to and impact on society; You will also acquire skills to enable you to engage critically with a range of media texts and domains (e.g. news, sports, entertainment, talk shows, advertising), both as producers and users of those texts. The module is also designed to provide you with skills for undertaking a media/discourse analysis as part of your final year project.

Learning Outcomes:

Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to: Demonstrate an understanding of the notion of text and discourse(s) as they relate to media discourse analysis; Produce an annotated transcript of a media text; Identify and critically analyse linguistic and discursive features of media texts; Theorize from their analysis on the ways in which media discourse impacts society.

Affective (Attitudes and Values)

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to: produce and consume media texts in a more critical and analytical way demonstrate a critical awareness of the language they use and encounter in media texts

Psychomotor (Physical Skills)

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:

How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:

A flipped classroom approach (providing lecture notes, readings and a text to prepare in advance) is designed to foster autonomy and personal responsibility and curiosity. The weekly tutorials are then used to apply the learning from the lecture to the prepared text and other examples. Working with their peers in tutorials - in-person and online - fosters intra-personal, empathic and collaborative skills. Material for texts is sourced from current events, and readings are drawn from a combination of key works (handbooks and standard texts) and latest thinking in the field (articles from the leading journals).

Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):

Prime Texts:

Fairclough, N. (2001) Language and Power , Longman

Wodak, R. (2009) The Discursive Construction of National Identity , Edinburgh University Press

Flowerdew, J, & Richardson, J. (2018) The Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Studies , Routledge

Tolson, A. (2006) Media Talk , Edinburgh University Press

Hutchby, I. (2013) Conversation and Technology , John Wiley

Cotter, C. (2010) News Talk: Investigating the Language of Journalism. , Cambridge University Press

Caple, H., Huan, C. & M.Bednarek (2020) Multimodal News Analysis across Cultures , Cambridge University Press

Other Relevant Texts:

Fairclough, N. (1995) Critical Discourse Analysis , Longman

Bednarek, M. & H. Caple (2012) News Discourse , Continuum

Bednaret, M. & H. Caple (2017) The Discourse of News Values , Cambridge University Press

Johnstone, B. & Marcellino, W. (2010) Dell Hymes and the Ethnography of Communication in R. Wodak, B. Johnstone and P. Kerswell (eds.) The Sage Handbook of Sociolinguistics , Sage

Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:

BAAPLAUFA - APPLIED LANGUAGES

BAULARUFA - ARTS

BAJDCOUFA - JOURNALISM AND DIGITAL COMMUNICATION

BLLAPLUFA - (LAW PLUS)

Semester(s) Module is Offered:

Spring

Module Leader:

Helen.Kelly.Holmes@ul.ie