Discourse, Media, and Nation

Abstract

The objective of this chapter is to outline this study’s main theoretical and methodological underpinnings. While it is noted that identity constructs are not exclusively discursive, it is suggested that having an identity entails the ability to articulate it in language and other semiosis. Thus, the study of identity must involve the study of discourse (Wodak, 2006b). The second part of the chapter illustrates the significance of communication technologies, from the printing press to the Internet, in the projects of identity construction. It is argued that in order to be effective, discursive constructs of identity must be disseminated and negotiated among people. Emphasis here is not only on the form and technological characteristics of media, which has been the prime focus for the vast majority of scholars on nation and media (e.g., in works by Carl Deutsch, Marshall McLuhan, Benedict Anderson, David Morley, and Philip Schlesinger), but also their content, the linguistic and audio-visual constructions that the media articulate and disseminate. The third section of the chapter brings together insights from the two other sections and suggests that an approach to media discourse needs to take into consideration not only the content and forms of media, but also the sociocultural contexts that bear upon the production and consumption of media products.

To have a national identity is to possess ways of talking about nationhood … the study of identity should involve the detailed study of discourse.

Billig, 1995, p. 8

… the construction and emergence of national identities cannot properly be understood without reference to the role of communications technology.

Morley, 1992, p. 267