Being acquainted with discourse analysis. Types of discourse. What (Exactly) Is Discourse Analysis?

Step 3: Investigate the context
A key part of discourse analysis is context and understanding meaning in context. For this reason, it is vital that you thoroughly and systematically investigate the context of your discourse. Make sure that you can answer (at least the majority) of the following questions:

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  What is the discourse?
  
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  Why does the discourse exist? What is the purpose and what are the aims of the discourse?
  
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  When did the discourse take place?
  
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  Where did it happen?
  
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  Who participated in the discourse? Who created it and who consumed it?
  
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  What does the discourse say about society in general?
  
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  How is meaning being conveyed in the context of the discourse?
  

Make sure that you include all aspects of the discourse context in your analysis to eliminate any confounding factors. For example, are there any social, political, or historical reasons as to why the discourse would exist as it does? What other factors could contribute to the existence of the discourse? Discourse can be influenced by many factors, so it is vital that you take as many of them into account as possible.
Once you’ve investigated the context of your data, you’ll have a much better idea of what you’re working with, and you’ll be far more familiar with your content. It’s then time to begin your analysis.

Step 4: Analyze your data
When performing a discourse analysis, you’ll need to look for themes and patterns. To do this, you’ll start by looking at codes, which are specific topics within your data. You can find more information about the qualitative data coding process here.
Next, you’ll take these codes and identify themes. Themes are patterns of language (such as specific words or sentences) that pop up repeatedly in your data, and that can tell you something about the discourse. For example, if you’re wanting to know about women’s perspectives of living in a certain area, potential themes may be “safety” or “convenience”.
In discourse analysis, it is important to reach what is called data saturation. This refers to when you’ve investigated your topic and analyzed your data to the point where no new information can be found. To achieve this, you need to work your way through your data set multiple times, developing greater depth and insight each time. This can be quite time consuming and even a bit boring at times, but it’s essential.
Once you’ve reached the point of saturation, you should have an almost-complete analysis and you’re ready to move onto the next step – final review.