Worthiness, unity, numbers and commitment: Strengthening qualitative corpus methods in the critical discourse analysis of protest press coverage

Abstract

The increasingly used method of corpus-assisted Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) has recently been criticised for lacking identifiable and accountable methods in its qualitative analyses. For example, manual concordance analysis (a popular corpus technique involving the ‘close reading’ of text) rarely explicates the qualitative method involved – that is, if any has been used at all. This article seeks to strengthen qualitative concordance analysis in the context of the press representation of protests. In doing so, it theoretically formulates the novel linguistic application of Tilly’s sociological ‘WUNC’ framework, which argues protests and social movements are successful when they display worthiness, unity, numbers and commitment. By mapping prominent CDA theories onto Tilly’s definitions of worthiness, unity, numbers and commitment, the article offers a replicable qualitative approach to the analysis of concordances specific to linguistic research about the press representation of protests.

Critical evaluation of disruptive transportation in Indonesia

“…The study used the technique of triangulation obtained from a comparison between the results of interviews, observations, and literature studies (Dzwigol, 2020;Jang and Kim, 2019;Kelle et al, 2019). This study paradigm is critical discourse analysis which is detailed to interpret data that has been obtained in the research process (Al Falaq and Puspita, 2021;Kennedy, 2022;Sahmeni and Afifah, 2019). Critical discourse analysis is increasingly used recently due to the lack of identifiable and accountable methods of qualitative analysis, e.g., corpus method analysis reveals linguistic patterns and frequency of information where the theoretical foundations of critical discourse analysis allow for in-depth analysis and thick explanations (Serafis, 2022;Wodak, 2020).…”

Mayores en movimiento

“…Las primeras son las que exceden al ámbito local, es decir, desde el movimiento se intentan captar constituyentes de distintas localidades y se organizan otros , en tercer lugar, otros factores que contribuyen a la constitución de los movimientos sociales son las manifestaciones WUNC33 que hacen referencia a los valores (dignidad), la unidad, el número (cantidad) y el compromiso de los participantes en las protestas. Los WUNC son elementos que aportan a la consolidación y al éxito de los movimientos sociales(Kennedy, 2022; Tilly y Wood, 2010; Wouters y Walgrave, 2017). A continuación, se expone en qué consiste cada uno:…”