The power of words: language use in present politics and media
Critical Discourse Analysis
We live in difficult times: events like Brexit, American Elections, the corona crisis or climate change keep us busy every day. The way we experience these big and important topics is through language. Language though, is never objective, words aren’t neutral and we constantly are being (mis)led by these words when we try to develop our own ‘independent’ opinions and beliefs.
In this seminar I would like to work with critical discourse analysis and study the language in all kinds of present texts (political speeches, newspaper articles, commercials, etc.), on topics you and I are interested in. Let us analyse and compare these texts in the way they use rhetorical means, framing etc. and become more aware which ways are being used to manipulate our way of thinking. Once we have found a good way to work with our materials, you could adapt our techniques in future high school English classes as well. |
