Drugs and Decriminalization Discourse Analysis
Report Length: 1200-1500 words, excluding your bibliography. Use proper in-text citation when citing your sources (APA, MLA, Chicago).
In this assignment you will analyze a current issue of relevance by using critical discourse analysis to examine messages contained in a newspaper articles (online or hard copy).
You will need to produce a written assignment that answers the questions listed throughout these instructions. As you answer these questions, please make reference to the course readings. Use proper citation and bibliography formatting in your report. Submit your assignment on Canvas for grading.
1) Getting Started
Read the newspaper articles that you will use for your discourse analysis.
a) Think about the theory of media framing and how media represents a version of reality. That version is neither correct nor wrong; rather it’s a way for media to represent and frame reality. Your task is to analyse two articles that represent “two sides a story,” typically one “pro” side and an “anti” side. The articles assigned for this assignment are:
• 2 article about the impact of foreign buyers/foreign money on Vancouver’s real estate market.
OR
• 2 articles about drug decimalization in B.C.
Question 1: Describe the topic/issue that you are going to analyze. Explain the context of your comparison. For example, are you comparing content in articles published with different audiences in mind? Or are the intended audiences the same for both articles? Why does that matter?
Question 2: Research to see who/which companies own these two publication. What’s their editorial mandate, in your assessment? For example, are their more progressive or conservative in their tone and coverage of news and current affairs? What might this suggest about the journalistic practices of these sources and their wider social implications? What’s their reputation like? Why does that matter?
2) Doing the analysis
Question 3: Explain your methodological toolbox (i.e., discourse analysis) and the properties of text and context that you will be focusing on for your analysis (See the 3 readings by van Dijk, Mautner, and Weintraub for their discussion of a methodological toolbox for doing discourse analysis). (Tip: You will not be able to look at all properties of text and context that they describe, but the assignment, as you see below, directs you to a very specific method of analysis which involves choosing a word and looking at the lexical properties of the word and its association to other words in the news articles analyzed).
Question 4: What words, keywords, and metaphors appear frequently in text. Create a list of the words/phrases/sentences that stand out in the articles. What patterns do you observe in the use of key words? What perspective do these words, phrases, metaphors, lexical structures, etc. communicate to the reader? What is the main argument/statement the article aims to make using these terms?
Question 5: How do you think each of the articles are framing the issue? Ask yourselves: what aspects or events of a particular phenomenon do these articles highlight? Even if each article addresses the same case, each article has a different emphasis, so this also implies a specific selection/exclusion process in the representation of reality. So, what is included or excluded? Who is foregrounded or backgrounded? Why do you think these selections were made by the publication/writer?
Question 6: Are there any images accompanying the text? If so, how do the images help to frame the issue? Positively, negatively, neutral? Discuss.
Question 7: Looking at the lecture slides from Week 10, and Norman Fairlough’s diagram on discourse structure (the text, the discursive practices, and the socio-cultural practices; slide number 18), what discursive and social-cultural practices do you think inform the creation of these texts?
Question 8: In conclusion, what do you think of the framing of the topic in both of your articles? Do you see bias in these articles? How are these biases manifested? If you were to write this article, what would you focus on? Who would you interview? Why? What data/facts/language choice/etc. would you rely on?
Submit: your assignment, plus your two articles, demonstrating your analysis (for example, words highlighted, articles annotated, etc.) all as one document.
Drugs and Decriminalization Analytical Paper
Your Name
Subject and Section
Professor’s Name
April 7, 2023
Understanding the creation of discourse and representation in literary texts is essential for everyone. It allows the reader to be more analytical and critical in her ability when consuming information. In line with this, this paper will focus on two texts regarding decriminalization in British Columbia (B.C.), Canada. The context of the comparison involves analyzing two articles published by different news outlets with different editorial mandates. The first article written by Hopper (2023), published by the National Post, presents a "pro" side of the story, arguing for drug decriminalization as a means of reducing harm for drug users. The second article written by Gordon (2023), as published by The Tyee, presents an "anti" side of the story, arguing against drug decriminalization as it might create unintended consequences. The intended audiences for both articles might differ, with the National Post catering more to a conservative audience and The Tyee catering to a progressive audience. This matters because the media plays a significant role in framing issues and shaping public opinion, and news outlets' editorial mandates influence the perspectives they present to their readers.
Publication and Biases
The articles, in this case, are published by different publishers. On the one hand, the National Post is a national Canadian newspaper owned by Postmedia Network Inc. Its editorial mandate is generally conservative and pro-business. The Tyee, on the other hand, is a progressive online news outlet based in B.C. Its editorial mandate is to report on issues that matter to B.C. residents, focusing on social and environmental justice. The National Post is known for its right-leaning editorial stance, while The Tyee is known for its left-leaning editorial stance. This suggests that the journalistic practices of these sources might prioritize different values and perspectives, which can shape their reporting and the perspectives they present to their readers. Their reputations can also influence how their audiences receive their reporting and how their reporting might be used to shape public policy.
Methodological Toolbox
In recent years, discourse analysis has emerged as a valuable tool for understanding the representation and construction of social phenomena in media discourse. Discourse analysis is a methodological approach that analyzes language use in social contexts, seeking to understand how meaning is constructed and conveyed through various linguistic features such as metaphors, keywords, phrases, and structures.
Discourse analysis has been applied to various social phenomena, including the representation of marginalized groups and political discourse. For instance, a study published in Discourse & Society examined the representation of climate change in two Australian newspapers using discourse analysis. The study found that the newspapers framed climate change as a political issue rather than a scientific one and relied on the voices of political elites and scientific experts. Similarly, a study in Journalism examined the representation of immigration in British newspapers using discourse analysis and found that the newspapers used language that framed immigration as a problem to be managed or controlled and relied on sensationalist headlines and images.
In light of these studies, the author of this paper believes that discourse analysis is the best method to use when analyzing news articles about climate change. Discourse analysis can identify how news articles construct and convey meaning by focusing on the lexical properties of words and their association with other words in news articles. Furthermore, discourse analysis can identify the linguistic features that contribute to framing issues and shaping readers' perceptions.
In particular, the analysis will identify keywords, phrases, metaphors, linguistic structures, and other linguistic features that communicate the perspectives of the articles to the reader. In addition, the context of the articles, such as the publication, audience, and images used, will be analyzed to understand how these factors contribute to framing the issue. Through discourse analysis, this study will provide insights into h...