Discussion Questions for Norman Fairclough’s Analysing Discourse
Chapter 1: Introduction
Introduction
Q1. Norman Fairclough (NF) writes that social science researchers ‘are often confronted withquestions about language, and are often working with language materials [= words]’ (1B).
(a) Do you think studying language is important or useful for Media Studies researchers? Why, or
why not (W/WN)?
(b) Are you, personally, interested in studying the language of the media? W/WN?
(c) Can you think of some reasons why Media Studies researchers should study media language?
(d) Can you think of some reasons why Media Studies researchers might NOT want to study
media language?
(e) Can you think of some methods with which Media Studies researchers might study media
language?
Social analysis, discourse analysis, text analysis
Q2. NF writes that his approach is based on the assumption ‘that language is an irreducible (=essential) part of social life, [that is] dialectically (= mutually) interconnected with other elementsof social life [such as people (their actions and relationships, values, attitudes and beliefs);
economic systems (e.g. capitalism), technology, and the natural/physical world] so that [=therefore] social analysis and research always has to [= must] take account of language’ (2C).
(a) Do you think this is a reasonable assumption?
(b) Do you think his conclusion [from ‘so that …’ ] logically follows from his assumption?
Terminology: text, discourse, language
Q3. Do you think it is a good idea to extend the meaning of the word ‘text’ to include media
products with images and sounds such as TV programmes? W/WN?
Q4. What is the best way to translate ‘discourse’ into Japanese for (i) the general meaning and (ii)the particular meaning?
Language in the new capitalism
Q5. Can you give some examples of the way in which the changes associated with the ‘newcapitalism’ have impacted on media texts themselves, or their production or reception, in Japan or
another country?
The approach to text analysis
Q6. In many fields of study these days, research approaches described as ‘interdisciplinary’ (or, as

NF prefers to say, ‘transdisciplinary’) have become very popular. Do you think this sort ofapproach is suitable for studying the media? W/WN?
Q7. Which traditional disciplines should be combined for doing interdisciplinary research on themedia? For example, philosophy? history? mathematics???
Q8. Which kind of research are you most interested in: quantitative or qualitative? Why? What are
the merits and demerits of each approach?
Social research themes
Q9. Which (if any!) of the themes listed in paragraph 7A are especially closely related to themedia, media texts and media discourses?
Social effects of texts
Q10. What sort of effects do media texts have on people and society? Are they generally good orbad? Are they getting better or worse?
Ideologies
Q11. Do you think Japanese media texts are very ideological?
Q12. How can we decide if a particular statement in a media text is ideological or not?
Texts, meanings and interpretations
Q13. Which of the three aspects of meaning-making do you think is most important for media
texts? Production, the Text itself, or Reception?
Texts and authors
Q14. How can we decide who is the ‘author’ of a typical TV news report?
Forms, meanings and effects
Q15. Can you think of any Japanese grammatical forms which might have ideologicalsignificance?
Critical analysis and ‘objectivity’
Q16. NF writes in 14C that ‘There is no such thing as an ‘objective’ analysis of a text.’ Do youagree?
The limits of textual analysis
Q17. How do you think we should link ‘micro’ analysis of texts with ‘macro’ analysis of power
relations in society?
END