Module Code - Title:

CU4014 - ANALYSING MEDIA DISCOURSE

Year Last Offered:

2023/4

Hours Per Week:

Lecture

3

Lab

0

Tutorial

0

Other

0

Private

7

Credits

6

Grading Type:

N

Prerequisite Modules:

Rationale and Purpose of the Module:

* Students will acquire knowledge about the linguistic features of media texts; * Students will acquire skills to enable them to engage critically with a range of media texts; * Students will be exposed to both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysing media texts; * Students will acquire specific skills in Critical Discourse Analysis and Corpus Analysis and multimodal discourse analysis.

Syllabus:

Text linguistics: This section of the course will introduce students to a range of concepts required to analyse media texts (e.g. morphology, syntax, semantics, grammar, lexicon, pragmatics) (3 weeks) Critical Discourse Analysis: Theory and Practice (3 weeks) û students will carry out an in-depth qualitative analysis of a number of media texts on a chosen topic. Corpus Textual Analysis: Theory and Practice (3 weeks) û students will build up a corpus of media texts on a particular topic from a variety of media and then analyse them using corpus linguistics software. Multimodal Discourse Analysis: Theory and Practice (3 weeks) û students will carry out a project in the area of New Media discourse analysis.

Learning Outcomes:

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

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to: Demonstrate knowledge of the linguistic features of media texts; Apply a range of skills to the analysis of media texts; Analyse media texts using both qualitative and quantitative methods Demonstrate knowledge of critical discourse analysis, corpus analysis and multimodal discourse analysis Evaluate a range of methodologies and select the most appropriate to a particular analysis.

Affective (Attitudes and Values)

On successful completion of them module, students will be able to demonstrate greater criticial thinking in relation to media texts.

Psychomotor (Physical Skills)

n/a

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

The module is taught in weekly two-hour lecture slots, followed by one hour tutorials. The first three weeks of the module is more focussed on imparting knowledge about text linguistics, while the remaining weeks are focussed on applying that knowledge and acquiring skills in three methods of text analysis: corpus, criticial discourse and multimodal/nexus analysis. Students will work in groups to complete projects using each of these methodologies.

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

See study resources

Prime Texts:

Fairclough, N. (1995) Media Discourse , Edward Arnold

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

O¿Keeffe, A (2006) Investigating Media Discourse , Routledge Taylor Francis

Other Relevant Texts:

Bell, A. (1991) The Language of News Media , Basil Blackwell

Johnson, S. and Ensslin, A. (2007) Language in the media , Continuum

Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:

Semester - Year to be First Offered:

Spring - 09/10

Module Leader:

Helen.Kelly.Holmes@ul.ie