Discourse Analysis as Ideology Analysis

This chapter focuses on the ‘expression’ of ideologies in various structures of
text and talk. It is situated within the broader framework of a research project
on discourse and ideology which has been conducted at the University of
Amsterdam since 1993. The theoretical premise of this study is that
ideologies are typically, though not exclusively, expressed and reproduced in
discourse and communication, including non-verbal semiotic messages, such
as pictures, photographs and movies. Obviously, ideologies are also
‘enacted’ in other forms of action and interaction, and their reproduction is
often embedded in organizational and institutional contexts. Thus, racist
ideologies may be expressed and reproduced in racist talk, comics or movies
in the context of the mass media, but they may also be enacted in many
forms of discrimination and institutionalized by racist parties within the
context of the mass media or of Western parliamentary democracies.
However, among the many forms of reproduction and interaction, discourse
plays a prominent role as the preferential site for the explicit, verbal
formulation and the persuasive communication of ideological propositions.