Discourse (1)

Agnieszka Hess, Jagiellonian University, Poland
agnieszka.hess@uj.edu.pl

Discourse serves as both an area and a mechanism for the formation of diverse opinions. It is the entirety of messages in social circulation, thus both the area of communication in everyday life, i.e. colloquial discourse (e.g. conversations at the family table, phone conversations of friends), and the area of communication within institutions, that is, various institutional discourses (e.g. a court hearing, a teacher’s council meeting), the areas of communication specific to certain ‘social worlds’ (e.g. literary evenings, business meetings, conversations of members of the punk subculture), as well as the area of mass media (e.g. daily newspaper or TV talk-show). Discourse encompasses broad areas and thematic fields that make up this overall phenomenon. There are different types of discourse. Public discourse contains all messages available to the public, including institutional discourse, discourse of specific ‘social worlds’, or mass media discourse. Media discourse comprises media-mediated discourses (they are characterised by specific traits and communicative behaviour of message senders). Political discourse relates to politicians’ speeches in the framework of the roles to which they were assigned within political institutions, and statements made by individuals of the power elite, if related to their political roles and functions. Elite discourse relates to the discourse of authorities in the so-called symbolic sphere (journalists, writers, scholars, civil servants, intellectuals, experts, business representatives, and politicians – that are present in the media), to the cultural-normative control of public discourse.

Keywords: communication, conversations, media-mediated

Related Entries: Communication, Discourse (2), Political Expression, Social Media

References:
Czyżewski, M. (2010). W stronę teorii dyskursu publicznego. In M. Czyżewski, S. Kowalski, & A. Piotrowski (Eds.), Rytualny chaos. Studium dyskursu publicznego (pp. 49-117). Academic and Professional Publishing Houses.
van Dijk, T.A. (red.) (1985). Discourse and communication: New approaches to the analysis of mass media discourse and communication. Walter de Gruyter.
van Dijk, T.A. (1990). News as discourse. Routledge.