The Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Studies

This chapter focuses on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), but embeds the discussion in some general reflections on the place of the concept of discourse in media studies. It reflects on the emergence of CDA as a distinct approach in the 1980s and 1990s, especially as it resonated with the theoretical division between political economy and cultural studies in media studies. The chapter considers possible future iterations of media discourse studies, in ways that go beyond the notion of a prescriptive CDA paradigm. Philo voices a criticism that, in its most benign form, is implicit in the media researcher's decision to combine CDA and political economy. The methodology suggests an obvious division of labour: CDA will be used to analyse media texts, while political economy will be used to explain their structural production and circulation. G. Philo's argument recalls J. Blommaert's critique of CDA for its "linguistic bias".