International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

Cultural →  discourse analysis (CuDA) is a theory and methodology for the study of communication. The approach treats communication as a socially situated practice which involves a rich semantic web of presumed or taken-for-granted knowledge. As such, social practices are heard to include for participants an implicit commentary which typically goes beyond the current topic of explicit concern. An understanding of both the practice and the commentary activated through it is at the heart of CuDA. As a theory, it treats communication as formative of social life and as culturally meaningful. As a methodology, it is based upon five distinctive modes of analysis ( Carbaugh 1996, 2005 ; Scollo 2011 ; →  Cultural Patterns and Communication ; Interpersonal Communication ; Language and Social Interaction ; Research Methods ). The five interrelated modes of analysis are: a theoretical mode which conceptualizes socio-cultural life as communication; a descriptive mode which involves careful and exacting documentation of communication practices; an interpretive mode which explicates the meanings of those practices to those who use them; a comparative mode which examines what is unique as well as common in the phenomenon of interest through cross-cultural study; and, if appropriate, a critical mode which offers an assessment of the phenomenon of concern. Each mode of analysis has its own ... log in or subscribe to read full text