Critical Discourse AnalysisJan Blommaert and Chris Bulcaen give a brief introduction to the study of critical discourse analysis (CDA). CDA intends to use the socio-theoretical method in discourse analysis and is mainly based on language (Blommaet & Bulcaen, 2000, p.447). We intend to analyze the structural relationships of dominance, discrimination, power and control through a textual study (Blommaet & Bulcaen, 2000, p.448). Based on the assumption that social discourse is constructed and socially conditioned, CDA explores the power dynamics in this process. According to Fairclough, CDA analysis can be divided into three dimensions: first, discourse as text which analyzes textual linguistic elements as concrete instances of discourse; second, discourse as discursive practice, focusing in particular on discursive processes such as the speech act, coherence and intertextuality; third, discourse as a social practice which examines the effects and hegemonic process in discourse (Blommaet & Bulcaen, 2000, p.448-9). While both the second and third dimensions consider the arrangement of textual elements or quotations as intertextuality, the second dimension makes visible the interaction between text and context and the third dimension also makes visible the dynamics of discursive power. Furthermore, they point out that CDA aims to take on a social responsibility to correct particular discourses for “change, empowerment and practice orientation” (Blommaet & Bulcaen, 2000, p.449). For this reason, the CDA pays great attention to social issues and works on two main directions: power and ideology, and change of structuralist determinism (Blommaet & Bulcaen, 2000, p.452). Although in the 1960s he so ambitiously placed emphasis on social phenomena, which reflected two opposing public opinions on television and radio respectively. A more current example could be the different experience of the same news text that people read in a traditional newspaper and on a Facebook sharing page. Since Blommaert and Bulcaen suggest the incorporation of linguistic and non-linguistic dimensions, this could be taken into account in further studies. References: Blommaert, J., & Bulcaen, C. (2000). Critical discourse analysis. Annual Review of Anthropology, 29, 447-66. Schroder, K. C. (2007). Media Discourse Analysis: Searching for Cultural Meaning from Inception to Reception. Textual cultures: texts, contexts, interpretation 2, 2, 77-99. Steensland, B. (2008). Why do political frameworks change? actor-ideacoevolution in debates on welfare reform. Social Forces, 86(3), 1027-54.