Van Dijk proposes a multidimensional theory of ideology that relates cognition, society, and discourse. At the cognitive level, ideologies involve shared beliefs and attitudes. At the social level, they relate to social groups and power structures. At the discursive level, ideologies are expressed and reproduced through language and communication. A key aspect is how ideologies function to stabilize power relations and legitimate dominance. Van Dijk also discusses how ideologies operate implicitly through persuasion and manipulation in public discourse.

1. Van Dijk’s Interdisciplinary Theory of Ideology
PRESENTED BY
MOHAMMED I. KHALIL
COURSE TUTOR
PROF. DR. AHMED QADOURY ABED

2. VAN DIJK’S MULTIDISCIPLINARY
THEORY OF IDEOLOGY
• The notion of ‘power’ is very essential in CDA studies, to the extent
that it has been interchanged with terms like ‘hegemony’, ‘dominance’
and ‘control; even Chomsky is not a CD analyst but his use of the
term ‘control’ in his media control involves many common themes
with CDA studies. The most common theme is that “groups have
more or less power if they are able to more or less control the acts
and minds of other groups”. That is, the dominating groups could
not have more power control than the dominated groups unless they
have particular privileges in all fields. And one of those influential
privileges is holding ideology.

3. VAN DIJK’S MULTIDISCIPLINARY
THEORY OF IDEOLOGY
•A vast majority of works on ideologies pay
extensive attention to the social, political,
economic and cultural dimensions of ideology
and relations of power and domination in
society, the most important who focused on
ideology van Dijk’s 1998 who defined it as

4. VAN DIJK’S MULTIDISCIPLINARY
THEORY OF IDEOLOGY
• Ideologies are not personal beliefs of individual people;
they are not necessarily ‘negative’; they are not some
kind of ‘false consciousness’ ; they are not necessarily
dominant, but may also define resistance and
opposition; they are not the same as discourses or other
social practices that express, reproduce or enact them;
and they are not the same as any other socially shared
beliefs.

5. VAN DIJK’S MULTIDISCIPLINARY THEORY OF
IDEOLOGY
•He locates ideology in a triangle which relates
cognition, society and discourse; therefore, he calls
his theory ‘multidisciplinary’. In his words,
“ideologies are not merely defined in cognitive
terms, but also in terms of social groups, group
group relations, institutions, at the macro-level and
level and in terms of social practices at the micro-
micro-level”.

6. VAN DIJK’S MULTIDISCIPLINARY
THEORY OF IDEOLOGY
•The cognitive level involves ‘social representations’,
namely socially shared beliefs, values, attitudes and
opinions. Examples of these social representations are
religious beliefs, communism, feminism and racism.
Notions which are associated with the cognitive and
and mental functions of ideology include truth, falsity,
‘false consciousnesses’ and common sense.

7. VAN DIJK’S MULTIDISCIPLINARY
THEORY OF IDEOLOGY
• The social level (the macro-level) involves the social structures
of society, namely social groups, group relations, classes,
institutions and organizations, such as school, nursing, church or
news media. The social functions of ideology include power,
control, etc. Van Dijk prefers the term ‘beliefs’ to ‘ideas’, since
beliefs can be true or false, whereas ideas are normally associated
with new thoughts or knowledge, hegemony, inculcation, and
imposition. To him, “these belief systems are socially shared by
members of a collectivity of social actors”.

8. VAN DIJK’S MULTIDISCIPLINARY
THEORY OF IDEOLOGY
•The discursive level (the micro-level) involves
language use, or discourse, among other forms of
interpersonal interactions, i.e. Discursive practices.
To Van Dijk, ideology does not only stabilize
society, but also regulates social practices, and
legitimate, or conceal, relations of power and
dominance. This function is primarily manifested in
discourse.

9. VAN DIJK’S MULTIDISCIPLINARY
THEORY OF IDEOLOGY
• Discursive practices, as explained earlier, express, produce and
reproduce ideologies through the use of language. To Van Dijk:
• Ideologies are not any kind of socially shared beliefs, such as
sociocultural knowledge or social attitudes, but more fundamental
or axiomatic. They control and organize other socially shared
beliefs…ideologies are foundational social beliefs of a rather
general and abstract nature.
• Ideological representations refer to the socially shared beliefs,
values and opinions which are expressed at the textual, structural
and linguistic levels of discourse analysis

10. THE COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS OF
IDEOLOGY
• The concept of ‘ideology’ as false consciousness has been associated
with Marx and Engels’ conception of truth and falsity of beliefs. To
Van Dijk the term ‘false’ is assigned two meanings:
• Misguided factual beliefs indicate wrong, partial and biased
information, in contrast with true information and facts.
• Evaluative beliefs are those which entail attitudes, opinions and
social practices which are not necessarily in the concern of the
dominated group.

11. THE COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS OF
IDEOLOGY
• Furthermore, the term ‘consciousness’ indicates that ideologies
can be either explicit, i.e., In the consciousness of social
members of society, or implicit. That is, social members of
society are either aware of the ideologies which they have or
not.
• However, self-awareness is frequently rare. It can also signify
oppression, manipulation, or inculcation by the dominant and
powerful group.

12. THE COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS OF
IDEOLOGY
• Further marks: -
• 1-ideologies as false consciousness are very influential when the
dominated group is beyond being able to distinguish their own
interests, attitudes, and ends from those of the dominating group.
• 2- ideologies become part of everyday life and everyday social
practice and experience to the degree that people will not realize that
they have them.
• 3- ideologies become common sense assumptions and ‘taken-for-
granted beliefs.

13. THE COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS OF
IDEOLOGY
•However, not all ideologies are common sense
assumptions and implicit beliefs. Leaders and elites tend
to be more aware of the ideological beliefs and
representations that they try to inculcate among
members.
•Dominant ideologies tend to be implicit, while
oppositional ideologies tend to be explicit.

14. THE COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS OF
IDEOLOGY
• Ideological awareness can be enhanced through
discursive and social practices such as communication,
group parties, meetings, seminars and media messages.
Implicit beliefs and opinions are rare, especially in modern
democratic societies, where mass media and new media
are accessed and available for people. In news media
reports, ideological awareness can be enhanced by the
textual and linguistic analysis of discourse.

15. THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF
IDEOLOGY
• Another form of power, which is associated with ideology and the
Gramscian theory of hegemony, is persuasion.
• Jowett & O'donnell have examined the use of the terms 'propaganda'
and ' persuasion'; and these in turn "have been used interchangeably
in the literature on propaganda and everyday speech.
• Propaganda employs persuasive strategies, but it differs from
persuasion in purpose".
• Unlike power, persuasion indirectly controls people’s actions by
winning their consent

16. THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF
IDEOLOGY
Q: What are the certain conditions and techniques for successful
persuasion?
1-deception .
2-emotions .
3-implications .
4-direct repetition and interpretations .

17. • Van Dijk demonstrated that rational discourse is "the
ultimate force of persuasion". However, the persuaders
deceive the persuadees by denying any intention for
persuasion. As a result, the persuadees rationalize, legitimate
and justify the facts and statements presented in the
persuasive discourse.

18. THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF
IDEOLOGY
• Another condition for successful persuasion is to encourage
interpretation. The persuaders never present facts in isolation.
Facts are presented with other propositions, assumptions and
beliefs, which the persuades join together to formulate particular
views and opinions. These conditions and techniques give the
persuades the illusion that they are actively involved in discourse
rather than passively absorbing what is provided by the
persuaders.

19. THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF
IDEOLOGY
• Van dijk argued other forms of ideology are manipulation and
propaganda. Unlike persuasion, manipulation has negative moral
implications. It implies that:
• 1- the listeners are unaware of the manipulative act which is
exerted upon them.
• 2- the effects of a successful manipulation are only in the concern
of the manipulators, but unlikely in the best interest of the
listeners.

20. THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF
IDEOLOGY
• Van Dijk defined social representations as: social members
who can express and articulate the goals and interests of the
group can persuade others of their ideologies. Thus, in order
to communicate effectively, social members must have
common knowledge and shared social beliefs.
• In a mass society, social representations, information and
facts are mainly obtained through public discourse, such as
education, information campaigns, and the media.

21. THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF
IDEOLOGY
• Groups, social movements, elites, institutions and organizations which have
control on public discourse and mass media can in turn influence and
manipulate the public by various mechanisms
• Media language is also influenced by a tendency towards ‘marketization’,
i.e. Information is presented as a branch of entertainment and a commodity,
as a result of commercial pressure and competition among institutions. The
marketization of media language subjects information to the values of the
market to persuade the public into accepting their statements and beliefs.

22. The ideological square
• Van Dijk’s theory of ideology is directly connected to his notion of ‘ideological
square’. To him, in a discourse, one needs to look at:
1- topics, schematic structures
2- implicit and explicit expressions
3-coherence
4- lexical items
5- syntactic structures
6- rhetoric, and interaction strategies in spoken communication to the text and the
message.
* Van Dijk considers the above-mentioned points as an important analytical tool in
the discoursal function of ideology.

23. The ideological square
•This ideological square is summarized as “the strategy of
positive self –representation or face-keeping when
describing the in-group members, and negatives other –
representation when describing the out-group members”.
He also states that there should be particular lexical items
describing in-group members, while both negative and
neutral ones for out-group members.

24. • We have seen above that one crucial power resource is privileged or
preferential access to discourse. some (elite) participants may control the
occasion, time, place, setting and the presence or absence of participants in
events. Thus, In some such situations in parliamentary hearings, court
trials, the presence of specific participants may be legally required, and
their absence may be sanctioned.
• A critical analysis of such access modes to communicative events pays
special attention to those forms of context control that are legally or
morally illegitimate or otherwise unacceptable. For instance, if men exclude
women from meetings, whites restrict the access of blacks to the press, or
immigration officers do not allow lawyers or social workers to
interrogations of refugees, we have instances of discourse dominance,
namely communicative discrimination or other forms of marginalization
and exclusion.

25. •Another example, if immigrants, refugees and (other)
minorities suffer from prejudice, discrimination and
racism, and if women continue to be subjected to male
dominance, violence it will be essential to examine and
evaluate such events and their consequences essentially
from their point of view.

26. Example
• To illustrate the general approach to critical discourse analysis above
mentioned, let us finally discuss the following examples on discourse,
communication and racism:
• The study of parliamentary discourse focused on debates during the 1980s on
immigration, ethnic relations, affirmative action and civil rights in the
Netherlands, the UK. France. Germany and the USA.
• I know no other country on this earth that gives
more prominence to the rights of resident
foreigners as does this bill in our country.

27. • such nationalist rhetoric may also function as disclaimers that
precede negative statements and decisions about minorities or
immigrants. the decisions advocated by such speakers restrict the
immigration and litigation rights of immigrants or minorities.
Similarly, all speakers, including the most racist ones, will
emphatically deny that they or their country are racist. Even the
leader of the Front National will say so:
• ((We are neither racist nor xenophobic. Our aim is only that,
quite naturally. there be a hierarchy, because we are dealing
with France, and France is the country of the French)).

28. • such nationalist rhetoric may also function as disclaimers that
precede negative statements and decisions about minorities or
immigrants. the decisions advocated by such speakers restrict the
immigration and litigation rights of immigrants or minorities.
Similarly, all speakers will emphatically deny that they or their
country are racist. Even the leader of the Front National will say
so:
• (Instead of an Apparent Denial, we here find an Apparent
Concession. That is, although racism as such is denied. This
concession, however, is embedded in euphemism and
indirectness).

29. • First, racism is redefined as less serious sounding xenophobia.
• Secondly, however, even this concessions hedged by the phrase
reactions that come close to .
• Thirdly, xenophobia is restricted by localization: in certain cities
and neighborhoods , which usually implies poor white inner city
neighborhoods. That is, as usual, the elites transfer racism down
to the lower class.
• Finally, xenophobia is explained and thereby half-excused by the
initial clause facing this continuous increase of the foreign
population in France , a presupposition which incidentally is false:
compared to previous decades the percentage of immigrants has