A new approach to discourse analysis appropriate for public policy issues is presented in this book: the public consultative discourse analysis (PCDA). Scollon’s approach, situated within critical discourse analysis, emphasizes the importance of a multimodal approach to analyze written documents, transcripts, and Web sites (including layout, design, and images). Drawing on a case study of oil and gas leases in the Beaufort Sea, Alaska, for his examples throughout the book, Scollon lays out his approach systematically.
Chapter 1 explains the PCDA and the goal for the text, which is to encourage the reader to construct a PCDA project. Chapter 2 explains and illustrates mediated discourse analysis using action as the unit of analysis. In the term action, Scollon includes the individual actor, the social organization of relationships, and the texts themselves. Chapter 3 examines summarization, framing, and synchronization to illustrate the ways in which they affect the public process. Chapter 4 identifies the many discourses in the public process of this case study and the central notion of interdiscursivity that refers to the mixing of different discourses (e.g., politics, law, and energy policy). Chapter 5 describes the various document types in the case study. The final chapter, in keeping with the primary aim of the book, provides the steps to take action in a public consultation process, including World Wide Web addresses for public consultations in several English-speaking countries. Activities and clear guidelines on the heuristics of use in an analysis are suggested at the end of each chapter.
In his call to action and the practical application of critical discourse theory, Scollon presents a novel and balanced approach to political action. For researchers and students of discourse analysis, Scollon’s approach opens a way to examine and compare decision-making processes. Because he does not cite research within the text, but only briefly in chapter notes, familiarity with discourse theory or facilitation with the concepts is required. Most work in discourse in applied linguistics uses face-to-face interaction: This textbook could supplement work in discourse analysis by providing a way to analyze official transcripts.
