In order to understand, create awareness, expose and fight against the social unjust, the researcher or the critical discourse analysts takes full use of media and broadcasts. The method has the following implications for the individuals, groups, institution and society: (i) The method allows the researcher as well as the research to be an “active agent” while attempting to expose “inequality and injustice”. (ii) As the researcher critically tries to evaluate the social conditions, the method emphasises on both the structure and the social context of media texts .This enables the media critic to “denaturalise,” or expose the “taken-for-granted” of ideological messages as they appear in isolated speech when combined with methods of discourse analysis. (iii) The discourse analysis is also being used critically (CDA) in applied linguistics which has led to the development of a different approach to understand the messages spread by the media. (iv) With the help of critical discourse analysis language can be used as an interdisciplinary tool and can be used by scholars with various backgrounds, including media criticism. v) Undoubtedly, the method of critical discourse analysis helps in having a cross cultural study of the social activities with the help of media texts. vi) The method of critical discourse analysis critically tries to examine the dimensions of theoretical and descriptive accounts of texts.

Assumptions of Discourse Analysis: Theoretically discourse analysis is an interdisciplinary approach and has been widely used by special scientists and cognitive psychologists. Some of the basic assumption of this approach can be outlined as follows:

Psychologists assume that the human behaviour can only be studied with objectivity that is, without involvement of any biasness or subjectivity of the researcher as well as the subject/people under study. However, this has been disputed – people, including researchers, cannot be objective. A researcher is very likely to hold some position (expectation, belief or set of cultural values) Discourse Analysis when they are conducting their research.

Those expectations may be revealed while interpreting and explaining the events and experiences. The approach also assumes that, reality is socially constructed. It is assumed in a scientific research that ‘reality’ can be categorised. The constructs generally used by psychologists like – personality, intelligence and thinking are explained as real and naturally occurring categories or events. However, the assumption ignores the fact that it is language which gives a shape to the categories and constructs we use. Since language is a social and cultural thing, our sense of reality is socially and culturally constructed.

It is also assumed that, people are the result of social interaction. In the scientific approach it is assumed that many of the constructs used are ‘inner essences’. That is to say that personality, anxiety, drives, and so on exist somewhere within our heads and our bodies and are revealed only when the individual socially interacts with others. However, it may be the case that many of these so-called essences are actually the products of social interaction.

Approaches or Theories of Discourse Analysis: There are numerous “types” or theories of discourse analysis. The various discourses has been explained or categorised on the basis of several theories and approaches. Some of them are:

Modernism: The theorists of modernism were guided by achievement and reality based orientation. Thereby they viewed discourse as being relative to talking or way of talking. They emphasised that the discourse and language transformations are needed to develop new or more “accurate” words in order to describe new inventions, innovations, understandings, or areas of interest. Both language and discourse are now conceptualised as natural or real products of common sense usage or progress. Modernism gave rise to various discourses of rights, equality, freedom, and justice.

Structuralism: The structuralism theorists squabble that the human actions and social formations are related to language and discourse and they can be implicated or considered as systems of related elements. The approach believed that the individual elements of a system only have significance when they are considered in context to the structure as a whole. The structures can be defined as self-contained, self-regulated and self-transforming entities. In other words, it is the structure itself that determines the significance, meaning and function of the individual elements of a system. Structuralism has made an eminent contribution to the world of language and social systems.

Postmodernism: Unlike the approaches of the modern theory, the postmodern theorists examined and investigated the variety of experience of individuals and groups and emphasised more on differences over similarities and common experiences. Postmodern researchers insisted more upon analysing discourses as texts, language, policies and practices.

Steps in Discourse Analysis: The method of discourse analysis evaluates the patterns of speech, such as how people talk about a particular subject, what metaphors they use, how they take turns in conversation, and so on. These analysts see speech as a performance. The analysts or the researchers of the discourse analysis believe that the speech performs an action instead of describing a specific state of affairs or specific state of mind. Much of this analysis is intuitive and reflective, but it may also involve some form of counting, such as counting instances of turn-taking and their influence on the conversation and the way in which people speak to others. The researchers collect and interpret information in the following steps:

(i) Target orientation: First of all, the analysts need to know their target or focus of study. Since the beginning, they need to think about the ways by which they will analyse and interpret data after collecting the information.

(ii) Significance of data: Once the relevant information is collected, the researchers need to judge or examine the value of the collected data, especially those which may have come from more than one source.

(iii) Interpretation of the data: As the research progresses the analyst needs to try to understand and interpret the data so that the researchers as well as others can gain an understanding of what is going on.

(iv) Analysis of the findings: Finally, the researcher needs to undertake the mechanical process of analysing, interpreting and summarising the data collected. On the basis of the analysis of the information, the findings can be summarised and concluded. There are many qualitative analysis programs available to social researchers that can be used for a variety of different tasks. For example, software could locate particular words or phrases; make lists of words and put them into alphabetical order; insert key words or comments; count occurrences of words or phrases or attach numeric codes. With the help of the software, the analysts or the researcher can retrieve text, analyse text and build theories. Although a computer can undertake these mechanical processes, it cannot think about, judge or interpret qualitative data.

Relevance/ Implications/ Significance of the Discourse Analysis: With the usage of talks, languages and texts the analysts or the researchers can easily understand the connotations behind historical events as well as current social practices. Some of the other relevance or significance of this approach are:

• Discourse analysis enable us to understand the conditions behind a specific “problem” and make us realise that the essence of that “problem”
• Discourse Analysis helps us in gaining a comprehensive view of the “problem” and helps ourselves to relate with that “problem”.
• It helps the researcher in understanding hidden motivations within ourselves and researchers as well and therefore enable us to solve concrete problems.
• Though critical thinking about and analysis of situations/texts is as ancient as mankind or philosophy itself, and no method or theory as such.
• It helps in meaningful interpretation of the people and the world.
• It also aids in “deconstructing” concepts, belief-systems, or generally held social values and assumptions.

From MPC-005 Research Methods – IGNOU