7. ‘Discourse is language in real contexts
of use….looking at choices of words and
grammar in texts in order to discover
the underlying discourse(s) and
ideologies.’
Machin & Mayr (2012)
‘reveal the kinds of ideas, absences
and taken-for-granted assumptions
in the images as well as the texts
which will also serve the ends of
revealing the kinds of power
interests buried in them’
Rationale
Definitions
Marketing strategies
Problem – solution construction
Van Dijk describes CDA as socio-political, concerned with role of discourse in the production of power and inequality.
Fairclough – ‘critical social research’ – aims to reveal hidden connections between language, power and inequality.
Recognising that language can be communicated through visual features as well as language, theorists such as Kress & Van Leeuwen highlight the need for a ‘multimodal’ critical approach to discourse analysis.
Modality
Start to see problem construction
Before and after – typical in advertising.
Offer image – eyes closed
Calm and serene – gone are the circus metaphors
He’s wearing an old fashioned nightcap that we might remember from childhood storybook characters, he’s pushing up zzzs, he’s smiling.
Loveheart has taken on iconographic symbolism, representing love at a glance, as opposed to the more technically accurate representation of a heart with its valves and chambers.
Gym membership – common commodity
Labels – bold colour against a white background – salient points
But what do they mean? Pathologising normal aspects of the human condition – consumerist model
The headspace website uses a number of strategies to construct the problem that modern life is chaos and is leading to stress and unhappiness (next slide).
Circus metaphors are used throughout the site and are well used tropes in describing modern lifestyles – ‘juggling’ busy lives
Read AP extract.
“We live in an incredibly busy world. The pace of life is often frantic. Our minds are always busy, and we’re always doing something.
There was a research paper that came out of Harvard just recently, that said on average our minds are lost in thought almost 47% of the time. 47%. At the same time, this sort of constant mind-wandering is also a direct cause of unhappiness.”
Whole section dedicated to stress. Prominent mobile phone – reinforcing mobile platform.
Familiar image of hand cradling phone
Compared to chirpy clown character, this features a stark warning sign, framed in black. Green echoes ‘sign up’ button. White background increases prominence.
Behind are icons of a stressful life – clock has downturned hands to represent a sad face – looking directly at the viewer, but positioned slightly lower so the viewer has to look down at it.
Short fuse
All intensify the image on the phone, simply labelled ‘stress’.
Text beneath:
Synthetic personalisation, conversational tone. Reference to ‘doctors’ to add credibility. Grave consequences of ignoring stress.
Holy trinity of modern stressors: work, relationships, money.
Reflects the warning in the image – you are the ticking time bomb.
But don’t worry – there is a solution. Again, use of conversational style ‘are you finding coping with stress difficult?’
Viewers can scroll down through the ‘stress’ section for an explanation of the myriad ways stress can be harmful
New slide
Finally, to illustrate their point, they refer to ‘a study’ demonstrating how mindfulness can help that most stressful of professions – nursing.
Colours, images, objects and the male character are all to be found elsewhere on the site. But….
This is now referred to as the obligatory science message in advertising.
Definite article – this is true fact
Modality – text - ‘there is’ – meditation and mindfulness have benefits for you – no hedging.
Modality – image – initially abstract/low modality. Stereotypical scientist figure – a favourite in advertising discourse. Lab coat/pens/test tubes – laptop = modernity
Image of the mind – before and after. White background and he’s pointing to the heart-shaped ‘loved’ mind at the top. This is the promise of the product, the fantasy, the new.
Clicking on ‘the science’ the viewer is shown a number of topics which are scientifically proven to benefit from mindfulness…. Next slide
So here we are again, back to stress.
This image can be divisded into the quadrants of a cross – a fundamental spatial symbol in the west:
Again scientist on the left, usual symbols and props. What is interesting is that he is once again guiding our eyes to the loved mind, the ‘after’ in this before and after image. This occupies the central, most salient position in this section.
To the right , where we might expect to see the ‘fantasy of the product’, we are told in bold capitals, that your brain ‘physically changes’ after meditation. This is given credibility by being backed up by neuroscientists.
Does the image of the brain here – looking like a colon – represent the ‘rest and digest’ part of the brain referred to? Again, a test-tube is used to symbolise science, but whatever it is emitting has eyes! This personification could be an attempt to obscure agency – who are the scientists? Who is making claims relating to rest and digest and your brain changing shape?
Still in ‘the science’ section, we appear to wander into the realms of pseudoscience as we find sections on creativity and focus
One might question how either of these concepts are measured to withstand the rigours of scientific enquiry, but ‘research’ and ‘scientists’ have found that mindfulness helps with such vague concerns as ‘divergent thinking’ and ‘fewer task switches’ – what does it all mean? This inclusion (again) of iconic symbolism (lightbulbs) and fashionable props (laptops, beards), are essential features of lifestyle discourse.
One has to delve further into the science before coming across anxiety, an actual measurable problem for many people, it is ranked below creativity and focus (new slide)
Again we have the sad triangle on the left – the known point of departure, before we arrive at the happy triangle in the upper right quadrant. Bottom right – you wouldn’t want to be the 10% guy who still has the black cloud over him, would you?
First sign of any hedging here, with phrases like ‘research suggests’ and ‘research has found’….
There is a section on relationships in ‘the science’ but the actual science seems to have diminshed almost entirely by that point.
I have spent the last 20 minutes offering you my devastating critique of the Headspace website. However, we need to consider it in the context of an impoverished NHS. This graph shows the % of people receiving treatment per disorder.
NICE recommends MBCT for preventing recurrent depression, but chances are, you aren’t going to get it.
