As a PhD student embarking on a qualitative research journey, choosing the right analytical method is crucial. If your study involves language, communication, or the relationship between language and power, discourse analysis might be the most appropriate and intellectually rewarding approach. This article explores what discourse analysis is, how it functions in qualitative research, and how to apply it—focusing in particular on critical discourse analysis, multimodal discourse analysis, and thematic discourse analysis.
What is Discourse Analysis?
At its core, discourse analysis is the study of language in use. It’s not just about what people say or write, but how language constructs social reality. In research, discourse analysis allows you to examine how language reflects, maintains, or challenges power relations, identities, ideologies, and social structures.
Discourse can include anything from political speeches and media articles to interviews, policy documents, and even memes or social media posts. It’s a flexible method that can be adapted to various disciplines—sociology, linguistics, education, political science, media studies, and more.
Discourse Analysis in Qualitative Research
In qualitative research, discourse analysis plays a key role in understanding context, meaning, and representation. Unlike statistical methods that quantify patterns, discourse analysis explores how meaning is constructed through language and how it varies across time, space, and social groups.
PhD-level qualitative research often aims to produce nuanced, critical insights into social phenomena. Discourse analysis aligns with this goal because it delves deeply into how language shapes knowledge, perception, and power.
What is Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)?
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is a specific branch of discourse analysis that focuses on the relationship between discourse and power. Developed by scholars such as Norman Fairclough and Teun van Dijk, CDA examines how language serves to reproduce or resist social inequality.
For example, a PhD student researching migration might use CDA to analyse how government policies or media narratives construct immigrants as threats or burdens. This form of analysis doesn’t just describe patterns—it critiques them, uncovering underlying ideologies and power relations.
CDA is inherently interdisciplinary and often draws on social theory, particularly from Marxism, feminism, post-structuralism, or postcolonial studies. It typically involves analysing both micro-level language features (e.g., word choice, syntax, metaphor) and macro-level structures (e.g., institutional discourse, political ideologies).
How to Do Critical Discourse Analysis
Doing CDA involves a number of key steps, which should be guided by your research questions and theoretical framework:
- Select your texts: Choose materials that are relevant to your research problem—e.g., speeches, interviews, press releases, academic articles.
- Contextualise your data: Understand the socio-political and institutional context of the texts.
- Analyse discursive strategies: Look for how language constructs meaning. This includes examining word choice, tone, narrative structures, framing, and intertextuality.
- Identify ideologies and power relations: Determine how certain discourses sustain or challenge dominant views.
- Reflect critically: As a researcher, consider your own positionality and the impact your interpretation may have.
Because CDA is interpretive and reflexive, it requires deep engagement with theory and text. It is especially suitable for PhD-level research due to its conceptual complexity and critical edge.
Discourse Analysis Examples
To better understand how discourse analysis works in practice, consider the following examples:
- Media discourse: Analysing newspaper articles to examine how climate change is framed—as a scientific issue, a political controversy, or a moral responsibility.
- Policy discourse: Studying government education policies to reveal how they construct ideas of ‘good teaching’ or ‘student success.’
- Institutional discourse: Exploring internal communications in a university to uncover how hierarchy and authority are maintained.
- Everyday discourse: Analysing casual conversations to investigate how gender roles are reinforced in seemingly neutral talk.
These examples show the range of materials and contexts you can engage with using discourse analysis in qualitative research.
Multimodal Discourse Analysis
While traditional discourse analysis focuses on written or spoken text, multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) considers how meaning is made through multiple modes—such as images, gestures, layout, sound, and video. This is particularly relevant in the digital age, where communication often combines text with visuals, emojis, or video.
In MDA, you might study:
- The interplay of visual design and language in a corporate brochure.
- The use of emojis and GIFs in online conversations to reinforce tone or emotion.
MDA draws on tools from linguistics, semiotics, media studies, and even design theory. For PhD students working on digital cultures, social media, advertising, or educational materials, multimodal analysis provides a way to explore the full spectrum of communicative meaning.
Thematic Discourse Analysis
Thematic discourse analysis blends thematic analysis (commonly used in qualitative research) with discourse analysis, allowing researchers to explore both what is said and how it is said. It’s particularly helpful when dealing with interview or focus group data.
Here, the goal is not just to identify recurring themes, but also to understand how these themes are constructed linguistically. For instance, if you’re analysing interviews with patients discussing mental health, you might explore how they describe their experiences—whether they draw on medical, emotional, or social discourses.
Thematic discourse analysis is often used in PhD research that aims to balance accessibility with interpretive depth. It’s also useful for large data sets, where it helps structure findings while retaining analytical sophistication.
Challenges of Discourse Analysis at PhD Level
Discourse analysis can be deeply rewarding, but it also presents several challenges:
- Theoretical demands: It often requires a solid grasp of complex theories of language, power, and society.
- Time-consuming: Close textual analysis can be slow and labour-intensive.
- Subjectivity: Interpretations can be difficult to ‘prove’, requiring careful justification and reflexivity.
- Data management: Especially in multimodal or longitudinal projects, organising and coding data can become complex.
That said, when done well, discourse analysis offers profound insight into the hidden workings of society and communication—precisely the kind of depth expected at doctoral level.
Tips for Doing Discourse Analysis as a PhD Student
- Start with a strong theoretical foundation: Understand the assumptions behind your chosen approach.
- Be selective with data: Quality is more important than quantity. Rich, meaningful texts are key.
- Be systematic: Even if the analysis is interpretive, it should follow a clear method.
- Use software wisely: Tools like NVivo can help manage and code data, especially for thematic analysis.
- Engage critically: Go beyond description to question the power dynamics and ideologies at play.
- Write reflexively: Acknowledge your role in shaping the analysis.
Conclusion
Discourse analysis, in all its forms, offers PhD researchers a powerful lens for interrogating the relationship between language, meaning, and power. Whether you’re drawn to the politically engaged stance of critical discourse analysis, the visual complexity of multimodal analysis, or the accessibility of thematic discourse analysis, this approach can produce richly textured, theoretically robust research. Choosing the right kind of discourse analysis—and applying it with care and critical insight—can elevate your thesis and contribute meaningfully to your field.
Need support in developing your methodology or applying discourse analysis to your data? Our team of academic experts can help you craft a robust, well-structured methodology research plan and your methodology chapter for your PhD project. Get in touch today and let our academic consultants guide you in choosing the best service for your needs.
FAQs
What is discourse analysis in research?
Discourse analysis is a qualitative method that studies how language constructs meaning and reflects social structures. It is widely used to analyse texts, speech, and other communicative forms.
What is critical discourse analysis?
Critical discourse analysis (CDA) focuses on how language relates to power and ideology. It critically examines how discourse reproduces or resists inequality.
How do I conduct critical discourse analysis?
CDA involves selecting relevant texts, analysing their context and language, and identifying how they sustain or challenge dominant ideologies. It is interpretive, theory-driven, and requires a critical approach.
What are some examples of discourse analysis?
Examples include analysing media coverage of refugees, political campaign speeches, educational policy documents, or interview transcripts from patients or professionals.
What is multimodal discourse analysis?
Multimodal discourse analysis studies how communication is constructed using various modes—such as images, layout, gestures, and sound—in addition to language.
How is thematic discourse analysis different?
Thematic discourse analysis identifies key themes in data while also analysing how those themes are linguistically constructed and communicated.
