Combining DNVA with other types of Discourse Analysis
In Chapter 10 of The Discourse of News Values we propose that it often makes sense to combine DNVA with other tools, especially when used in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). As a reminder, our aim is not to replace existing discourse analytical tools but rather to add DNVA to the toolbox (Bednarek and Caple 2014: 139). Through its analysis of agency and its identification of victim-blaming, Chapter 6 of our book provides one example of how DNVA can be combined with other tools used in CDA. In addition, Chapter 7 combines DNVA of images with a critical discussion of the use of stock photography in the news. To give another brief example here, Table 1 presents the beginnings of two news items about student protests in Sydney.
As far as news values go, both stories exhibit certain similarities in that they construct Negativity, Superlativeness, Timeliness and Proximity, with some differences in how these are constructed (e.g. riot squad vs. police; 1,000-strong crowd vs. thousands of students). DNVA might focus on what news values are emphasized, how they are constructed, and how this event has been packaged as news, but analysis of metaphor (e.g. descends), appraisal (e.g. clashed violently), transitivity (e.g. protesters clash with police vs. thousands of students protesting… were involved in a stand-off with police) or construal of operations (protesters clash with police rather than police clash with protestors, c.f. Hart 2014a, b) would be useful for analysing the different ideological points of views in these two news stories. As we argue in The Discourse of News Values, DNVA could be combined with analysis of attribution, transitivity, nominalization, modality, appraisal/evaluation, figurative speech, social actor representation, and so on. More generally, a discursive news values analysis is not an analysis of news bias or power structures, but could be fruitfully brought together with such analyses.
References
Bednarek M. and Caple H. (2014). ‘Why do news values matter? Towards a new methodological framework for analyzing news discourse in Critical Discourse Analysis and beyond’. Discourse & Society 25(2): 135-158.
Hart, C. (2014a). ‘Construal operations in online press reports of political protests’. In C. Hart and P. Cap (Eds.). Contemporary Critical Discourse Studies, 167-188. London: Bloomsbury.
Hart, C. (2014b). ‘Constructing contexts through grammar: Cognitive models and conceptualization in British newspaper reports of political protests’. In J. Flowerdew (Ed.). Discourse in Contexts, 159-184. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
How to cite this page:
Caple, H. and Bednarek, M. (2017) ‘Combining DNVA with other types of discourse analysis’. Discursive News Values Analysis (DNVA). http://www.newsvaluesanalysis.com/our-book/extensions/dnva-and-cda/