How to make a discourse analysis? An approach for Social Communication students to the practice and its levels of research

Abstract

The paper examines in a panoramic way what research and discourse analysis studies mean for Social Communication students. The field of discourse analysis is presented as a tool, technique and episteme for understanding and approaching social reality, its complexities of interaction and the dangers of manipulation, segregation and political control. The development of discourse analysis is associated to the field of communication studies and other disciplines of the Social and Humanistic Sciences. The student of Social Communication has in this reading a simple journey through the levels of research and study of discourse; focusing on the level of macrostructure, superstructure and persuasion the possibilities to carry out a rigorous research on social phenomena mediated by language and communication. In the last part of the article we close with an example of critical discourse analysis: I Have a Dream (1963) by Martin Luther King, Jr.. There we address the various levels of discourse analysis from the perspective of social, cognitive, historical, cultural and socio-spatial interaction.