Animating vernaculars, wired: critical discourse analysis on an awkward scale

• Published in: Critical discourse studies 2009-08, Vol.6 (3), p.165-183
• Main Author: Vann, Katie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: generalization; globalization; governmentality; Integrated Water Resources Management; keyword search; large-scale content analysis; levels of abstraction; participation; qualitative analysis; virtual ethnography; water management discourse; web corpora
• ISSN: 1740-5904; 1740-5912
• DOI: 10.1080/17405900902974852

In recent years critical discourse analysts have increasingly pointed to the World Wide Web as a distinctive site of discursive practice, and have urged that more research work be conducted with specifically web-based corpora. While the conduct of 'wired CDA' presents new possibilities for CDA, it also entails apparent dilemmas that stem from the scale of web-specific corpora and CDA's disciplinary remit to conduct close qualitative readings of relatively small sample texts. Social anthropology has grappled with similar dilemmas as the relevance of trans-local ethnography in the contemporary world has become increasingly apparent, and in this process has developed productive analytical resources that might fruitfully inform wired CDA. This article explores a range of associated methodological issues, with particular emphasis on the identification and use of 'keywords' as a moment in the conduct of wired CDA. The paper looks at methodological precedents that frame the use of 'keywords' as an analytical category that shapes processes of data gathering and analysis, and argues that alternative categories are called for that address the peculiarity of the scaling capacities of the web. The paper proposes the analytical category 'animating vernaculars' as a supportive alternative to 'keywords', and argues for its relative focus on the scaled character of wired discourse practices. A study of the web presence of the transnational policy model 'integrated water research management' serves as a case study that concretizes the methodological discussion.