ICDC - the Institute of Culture, Discourse and Communication

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https://hdl.handle.net/10292/1107
ICDC - the Institute of Culture, Discourse and Communication is grounded in collaborative, trans-disciplinary research projects. The Institute is committed to engaging with contemporary cultural issues, while analysing the social, economic and political discourses and communicative practices that shape meaning around these.

In recent years, work at the Institute has focused on the key concerns of culture, discourse and communication. Scholars from various disciplines have come together on projects spanning language use, media such as the internet and television, and national identity.

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Browsing ICDC - the Institute of Culture, Discourse and Communication by Subject "Critical discourse analysis"

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    ‘Don’t call me European - I’ve never been to Europe!’ Identity politics in post-colonial New Zealand
    (Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines (CADAAD), 2014-09-02) Smith, P
    A rejection by some white majority New Zealanders of the category of ‘European’ to describe their ethnicity in the 2006 census raises questions about how national identity is perceived in a country that has become increasingly multicultural in the last 60 years. Although British culture still remained at the core of New Zealand European identity, why was there a greater impetus by some at this time to seek out a true New Zealand identity or, as some see it, a majority group identity, by claiming ‘New Zealander’ as their ethnicity rather than ‘NZ European’ ? This paper draws on the theoretical writings of sociologist David Pearson who takes an historical view of the challenges to majoritarian national narratives of antipodean societies that include “the demise of the British Empire …[and] the rise of a neo-Europe, increasing racial and ethnic diversity and burgeoning regional, indigenous, and religious nationalisms, plus globalization and radical economic and political responses to the insecurities of a new world order” (2008, p.49). In this research I apply the discourse-historical approach of CDA (Wodak et al, 1999; Wodak & Meyer, 2009) to investigate the discourses surrounding people’s rejection of their European heritage based on these pivotal factors. Following a review of the historical emergence of a New Zealand national identity since the British first colonised the country in the 1800s, this paper uses a case study of a public online discussion about the 2006 census ethnicity question to explore people's construction of identity in relation to European origins. It focuses on content, discursive strategies and linguistic features in the discussion that contributed to the construction of the nation’s identity. Two opposing discourses are identified and discussed – one that legitimises the use of ‘New Zealander’ as an ethnicity based on the premise that many people no longer feel a connection with Europe and in fact have never ‘been there’, while the other discourse views the claiming of ‘New Zealander’ by NZ Europeans for themselves to be a form of discrimination and subtle racism that marginalises other ethnic groups. The transformation of national identity is considered in the context of political rhetoric that called for New Zealanders to be more accepting of ethnic minority groups. Pearson, D. (2008). Reframing majoritarian national identities within an antipodean perspective. Thesis Eleven, 95(November), 48–57. Wodak, R., de Cillia, R., Reisigl, M., & Liebhart, K. (1999). The discursive construction of national identity. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press. Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (2009). Critical discourse analysis: History, agenda, theory and methodology. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (pp. 1–33). London, England: Sage Publications.
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    ‘New Zealand passport holder’ versus ‘New Zealander’? The marginalization of ethnic minorities in the news – A New Zealand case study
    (Sage, 2015-05-11) Smith, P
    This article uses critical discourse analysis to investigate audience criticism of the news media's marginalization of ethnic minority members in New Zealand through the use of the words 'New Zealand passport holder'. Following my presentation of a case study where a group of readers objected to these words being used to describe a New Zealander with Kurdish origins, I examine the meaning and use of this descriptor at a time of increased diversity. Analyzing a selection of news stories from the beginning of the new millennium, I consider aspects of journalistic practice (namely news values and the sourcing of information), as well as the wider sociocultural context in which the articles were embedded. I argue that the media, rather than creating prejudice by using 'New Zealand passport holder', reproduced and legitimated the political and public discourse of elite groups that disassociated immigrant groups from mainstream New Zealanders. I conclude by emphasizing the ongoing need for journalist training to include an understanding of how the reproduction of the language and discourse of elite groups in news stories can have a negative effect on the representation of minorities.
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