As for the analysis of data, without specific steps, it will not be straightforward to operate. As for the difficulties in data processing, Tonkiss thinks they mainly focus on the following points: defining research problems, selecting and obtaining data, classifying, compiling, and analyzing data. I want to focus on the “Sorting, coding, and analyzing data” section (Tonkiss, 2011).
The difficulty for discourse analysts in the study of discourse analysis is how to look for the stringency of interpretation and the internal consistency of arguments. Analysis of discourse is an interpretive process that relies on careful study of specific texts. The first thing the analyst of the debate has to do is drop all preconceptions (Tonkiss, 2011). Here is an example of how vital the neutrality of discourse analysis is.
In August 2015, the documentary “Secrets of China” produced by BBC attracted full attention from many audiences once it was broadcast. The documentary starts with hot social topics such as the education system, social pressure, and the gap between the rich and the poor, showing Chinese young people’s responses and thoughts to a series of social realities such as love, wealth, leisure, education and pressure. The word choice of the documentary was the first to be criticized by many Chinese audiences. At the lexical level of a language system, the same word can usually convey a variety of messages, and the same message can also be expressed through different words. Researchers are often faced with the problem of how to choose words to convey information. In the documentary “Secrets of China”, researchers mostly use the strategy of the ideological square. This strategy is characterized by positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation (Van Dijk, 1998).
For example, the documentary frequently mentions in the commentary showing the attitude of Chinese young people towards online games (League of Legends): “For us (British youth), League of Legends is a kind of moderate entertainment, while they (young Chinese) are addicted to this game.” Moreover, when describing the academic pressures faced by young Chinese students, the documentary continually reminds the audience: “Our (British) studies were relaxing, and they (the Chinese youth), busy from morning till night, almost choked (BBC,2015).”
For the researchers of this documentary, he believed that his values, recognized political system, and way of life were the only advanced mode with global universality. Any alternative approach to development that does not conform to its values and social system is considered heretical and antithetical (Zhu and Huang, 2017). I do not deny that in discourse analysis, if researchers can integrate their views when they are doing discourse analysis, they may give the audience more thinking angles. However, if the researcher carries out discourse analysis with too much personal bias and does not follow the facts, what is the purpose of discourse analysis? Is it to get people to admit what they agree with?
The discourse analysis may sometimes impose an interpretation on the sample of the discourse, but the evidence does not support this and thus does not provide a compelling analysis. The analytical assertions should instead be based on textual evidence and detailed evidence. In this regard, discourse analysts need to work on challenging the knowledge of common sense and undermining simple assumptions about organizing social meaning (Tonkiss, 2011).
Reference
BBC NEWS, 2015. Secrets Of China (2015) Season 1 Episode 1. Available at: <https://youtu.be/VDECYSZI8J8> [Accessed 2 August 2020].
Tonkiss, Fan. 2004 “Discourse Analysis.” In Researching Society and Culture, ed by. Clive Seale, 405–423. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
van Dijk, T., 1998. Ideology: A Multidisciplinary Approach.
Zhu, G. and Huang, J., 2017. A Study on the Image of Chinese Youth from the perspective of Western mainstream Media — A critical discourse analysis based on the BBC documentary Secrets of China. China Youth Study, 05(1002-9931), p.107.
MCS Group One 