Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of a Newspaper Article
Index
3. Critical Discourse Analysis(CDA)
4. Critical Discourse Analysis of an opinion article.
Discourse analysis simply refers to a general term for a number of approaches to analyze written, vocal, or sign language use, or any significant semiotic event (Wikipedia.org). The objects of discourse analysis (discourse, writing, conversation, communicative event) are variously defined in terms of coherent sequences of sentences, propositions, speech, or turns-at-talk. Moreover, Critical Discourse Analysis or CDA is an advanced approach of Discourse Analysis where any genre of discourse is analyzed in a systematic manner. However, it has been a popular method to analyze, to be more specific, newspaper article through the use of CDA.
In this paper, we are going to analyze an opinion article from a daily newspaper in Bangladesh. The article has been cited from The Daily Star (see appendix). A CDA approach will be used to analyze the text.
Paltridge (2006) maintains that, Discourse Analysis focuses on language beyond sentence, clause or phrase. Contrary to much of traditional linguistics, discourse analysts not only study language use 'beyond the sentence boundary' but also prefer to analyze 'naturally occurring' language use, not invented examples.
3. Critical Discourse Analysis(CDA)
Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of discourse that views language as a form of social practice. Scholars working in the tradition of CDA generally argue that (non-linguistic) social practice and linguistic practice constitute one another and focus on investigating how societal power relations are established and reinforced through language use. It is generally agreed upon that any explicit method in discourse studies, the humanities and social sciences may be used in CDA research, as long as it is able to adequately and relevantly produce insights into the way discourse reproduces (or resists) social and political inequality, power abuse or domination.
4. Critical Discourse Analysis of an opinion article.
Analyzing any genre of discourse through the use of CDA is a Part of critical theory. There are a number of rubrics through which an article may be judged and analyzed. Three main rubrics are focused below:
The article in the appendix is a composition of ten paragraphs containing an introduction and a conclusion. In the beginning of the article a picture was used as a visual element. Just below the picture, a quote was inserted. The Main composition was in the subsequent position. In the middle of the composition the focused lines were highlighted using larger fonts. The format chronology is depicted below:
Paragraph 1: Introduction or starter
Paragraph 2: Problems introduced
Paragraph 3: Problems described
Paragraph 4: Suggestions for solving the problems
Paragraph 5: Suggestions with illustration
Paragraph 6: Suggestions continued
Paragraph 7: Suggestions using statistical data
Paragraph 8: Suggestions using information
Paragraph 9: Suggestions ended
Our selected excerpt is, in terms of genre, a non-fictional prose. The writer used his niece’s story to make the article more comprehensible and enjoyable. The targeted audience is the common readers as it was published in the opinion column of a daily.
The Title of the article “What not to learn from Dhaka City” is self-explanatory and pretty much tells that it is a problem and solution article. The visualizer has been used to draw readers’ attention and help them to suppose what is stated in the body of the article. The quote by an expert of the topic, which is a definition, is showing the readers the scholarly value of the article.
The head paragraph does not have the thesis statement clearly stated in the beginning; rather the thesis statement is implied in the paragraph. At the end of the paragraph there is a hilarious comparison which drives the addressee to read the next paragraph.
The next two paragraphs are the description and work as the introductory session to the problems. In the fifth paragraph, the first suggestion is made which is a clear sign of the cohesive organization of the article. In the next three paragraphs, comments were made using information and statistical data.
In the conclusion, using fictional possibility, the writer emphasizes on his suggestions for having a good Dhaka-city.
The mostly focused part of this discourse is the use of language. The writer makes the use of various rhetorical devices which help the reader to grasp the taste of reading a non-literary text. Both formal and informal language was used. The use of language is explained in chronological order:
At the very beginning the writer used a quote of Louis Kahn. In the third paragraph, another quote was used as “something happens because something happens because something happens,”
“The case had a happy ending and my niece learnt her first lesson in Dhaka 101”
In the cited line, the writer calls Dhaka 101 as it is a lesson which makes it hilarious to the readers.
“Dhaka city, to a child, is like an open book”
Here, the Dhaka city is compared to a book.
The writer uses here a lot of cohesive devices such as unfortunately, however, moreover, for instance etc.
“On the streets, it is the VIP vehicle or a Dhaka University student bus on the wrong side of the road that reinforces the lesson”
In this line the addresser targeted Dhaka University and criticized it.
“It is an irony, however, that in Dhaka while the police is responsible for managing traffic, the lights are managed by the City Corporations.”(Paragraph 5)
Let the impossibility of politeness as a word synonymous with police be reduced.(Paragraph 7)
In the sixth paragraph a colloquial word "lagunas" was used to refer to a particular vehicle.
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| Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) |
2. Fairclough, Norman, Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language, Longman, 1995.
3. Fairclough, Norman, Language and globalization, Oxon: Routlege
4. Paltridge, Bryan, Discourse Analysis, New York:2006
What not to learn from Dhaka City
“A city is the place of availabilities. It is the place where a small boy, as he walks through it, may see something that will tell him what he wants to do his whole life.” — Louis Kahn
The other day my seven-year-old niece learnt about bribes. Not in school, but while on the way to school. Her dad had parked the car on Mirpur Road so she and her mom could get down and walk their way into the inner Dhanmondi streets. A policeman appeared in no time and informed that since the car was parked in the wrong place at the wrong time, it is to be towed away by a "wrecker" vehicle and a "wrecker charge" is to be paid. The dad, a lawyer and with full knowledge of Article 66 Chapter 7 of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ordinance 1976, sensed that towing away can lead to more complexities and quickly offered an amount little lesser than the "wrecker charge". There was no necessity for a money receipt, he said, since "we are all in a hurry". The case had a happy ending and my niece learnt her first lesson in Dhaka 101—you can get way without punishment if you spend money.
Dhaka city, to a child, is like an open book. It speaks volumes about the people who live in it and the people who design or decide how we live. Unfortunately, due to many elements contained in it, the book, like a movie, requires at least a PG 13 rating. Corruption in city governance comes in many layers—some discreet, some rampantly visible even to the disinterested. With more than a third of Dhaka's 15 million inhabitants under the age of 18, the daily dose of lapses in city governance has resulted in irreversible damages in the collective conscience of young minds. A lack of faith in the system and in institutions that create the systems leads individuals to behave recklessly as citizens and to justify it. Children grow up in Dhaka city watch their elders break the law, benefit from it and get away without punishment. The perception of the city, therefore, is a space where boundaries between right and wrong are ruinously blurred.
"Let us ban the obscenities called posters, vinyl banners, billboards and the so-called welcome gates from the city. When political, these are often unashamed displays of sycophancy and arrogance to a young citizen, abhorrent to the idea of a democratic space.
As my niece walks to her school, she finds motorcyclists on footpaths desperate to avoid the gridlocked street. She learns that it is alright not to respect the rights of others in order to get somewhere fast. On the streets, it is the VIP vehicle or a Dhaka University student bus on the wrong side of the road that reinforces the lesson—something that stays on and will be repeated when her time comes. What is alarming is that this stimulation by preceding acts often appears normal in the contemporary narrative of a competitive society. It is tempting to take totally out of context Danish architect and urban designer Jan Gehl's famous quote, “something happens because something happens because something happens,” and use it in a negative way. The child will flout the law because she saw someone else do it because someone also saw someone else do it.
It is important that we realize the need to have a short-term objective to eradicate the visible elements of Dhaka city's mismanagement and corruption. These elements are numerous and the long-term impacts are too huge to be overlooked by any sensitive person in charge of city governance.
For instance, our traffic police, instead of having that desperate stick on his stretched-out-and-gesturing hands, may well have a remote control device to switch the green light off and turn the red on. Let it be entirely his call to decide the duration of each, but let the people know that a red light is the scientific, graphical and unambiguous signal to indicate it is time to put on the brakes—instantly. The most important factor that drives a city smoothly is discipline and in spaces that people use collectively, order has no alternatives. It is an irony, however, that in Dhaka while the police is responsible for managing traffic, the lights are managed by the City Corporations.
Let there be no underage drivers steering those scarred and dented behemoths called mini-buses and "lagunas" In the first place, let there be no bus allowed on the streets having a single scratch—an act that may prevent the driving lunacy witnessed in Dhaka streets causing accidents leading to prolonged or permanent disabilities. These accidents are frequent and, unless fatal, go unreported in the press. The faith in the regulatory authorities like DMP Traffic and BRTA has eroded so much that after any incident people tend to take upon themselves the task of punishing the offending driver or vehicle. Lesson for a child: Take the law into your own hands because law enforcers are hopeless.
Let the impossibility of politeness as a word synonymous with police be reduced. It is common in Dhaka to see policemen beating up errant rickshaw drivers. Tempers can flare in a tropical city where about 4,000 traffic police are tasked with the daily drudgery of managing 900,000 vehicles. But men in uniform out on the streets are the ones children should admire and idolise, not fear or loathe. It takes a superman to be a traffic controller in the lawless Dhaka roads and an errant superman can be more dangerous than the criminal in ways more than one.
Let good taste and good sense get some priority in the visual elements of traffic management. Let us not instill in a child's mind that it is alright to tie bamboos with dirty concrete posts with galvanized wires to create a barrier in front of an architectural masterpiece like the National Assembly building in Manik Mia Avenue or to divert traffic in Mohakhali rail gate. In a country that has graduated to the middle income segment, it is only logical to expect that urban elements are designed and installed in a manner that reflects such status. In designing pavements, police boxes, planters, roundabouts, dividers, metal frames and street furniture as a whole, a freshness in approach is required. The best cities of the world put great emphasis on urban design. As recently as last year, the prestigious Red Dot Design Award went to architect Alec Tzannes for his street furniture design for Sydney. The ludicrous acts of putting in sculptures that reflect abysmal artistic quality and animal figures not even fit for amusement parks are an embarrassment to any culturally sensitive city. Visuals are important as they create a benchmark of urban aesthetic. Visuals are important because seeing leads to believing in the strengths of our rich history in arts and culture.
Let us ban the obscenities called posters, vinyl banners, billboards and the so-called welcome gates from the city. When political, these are often unashamed displays of sycophancy and arrogance to a young citizen, abhorrent to the idea of a democratic space.
Cities are landscapes of learning. If Louis Kahn's small boy does not learn anything from Dhaka that will tell him what he wants to do his whole life, it gives the message that something is rotting here. The number of educated young people leaving Bangladesh each year in search of permanent addresses in cities ranked best in the world is huge and unhealthy. We cannot afford a sick city transmitting incurably disruptive ideas to its young population who willingly choose to stay back.
Contributed by:
MD.DIDARUL ISLAM
