scholarly journals The Marketization of Higher Education Discourse: A Genre Analysis of University Website Homepages in China

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tongtong ZHANG
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Prospective Students ◽  
Conversational Discourse ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Education Market ◽  
Marketization Of Higher Education ◽  
Higher Education Market ◽  
Education Discourse

The past three decades have witnessed the growing influence of market forces on higher education, resulting in what is defined by Fairclough (1993) as the marketization of academic discourse. The present study attempts to examine the effect of such trend on university website homepages in China, which is an under-researched genre of higher education discourse. By applying the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and genre analytical approach, this article describes the generic characteristics of the “About Us” section in five university website homepages, analyzing the structural organization, rhetorical moves, communicative purposes as well as the discursive strategies used in the text. Research shows that authoritative discourse forms the key note in this genre, a reflection of the centralized operation of Chinese universities. Meanwhile, the existence of conversational discourse reveals the university’s endeavor to establish a friendly relationship with the prospective students. Furthermore, promotional elements in terms of both contents and linguistic choices have been employed to help construct a positive image of universities to stand out in the stiff competition in today’s higher education market in China.

scholarly journals Genre Analysis of Saudi Universities’ Websites: Analysis of Rhetorical Moves and Discursive Strategies for Marketization Purposes

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Ahmad I. Alhojailan
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Business World ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
World University Rankings ◽  
Common Trend ◽  
Education Market ◽  
Higher Education Market

The field of education has experienced numerous shifts, including internationalization, greater competitiveness and collaboration, and globalization. Today, higher education branding has become a common trend. To differentiate themselves in the business world, universities apply different branding techniques and this study aims to examine how some Saudi universities advertise themselves. Incorporating Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study analyzes the “About Us” sections of seven Saudi universities’ websites to explore the rhetorical moves and discursive strategies employed for marketization purposes. The selected universities all featured in the top 1000 universities in the QS World University Rankings 2020. The results show diversity in these universities’ choices of implemented rhetorical moves and sub-moves. They used eight rhetorical moves and 13 sub-moves, with only one of these sub-moves occurring on all seven universities’ websites. The discursive strategies were employed to foster self-promotion, while the results demonstrated that the “About Us” sections of all universities were promotional. Finally, some recommendations are provided for universities for marketization purposes if they want to be global and compete with other international universities in the higher education market, in addition to providing suggestions for future studies.

scholarly journals Authenticity work in higher education learning environments: a double-edged sword?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oskar Hagvall Svensson ◽  
Tom Adawi ◽  
Anders Johansson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Higher Education Research ◽  
Transfer Of Knowledge ◽  
Educational Discourse ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Strong Position ◽  
State Of Affairs

AbstractEducational authenticity occupies a strong position in higher education research and reform, building on the assumption that correspondence between higher education learning environments and professional settings is a driver of student engagement and transfer of knowledge beyond academia. In this paper, we draw attention to an overlooked aspect of authenticity, namely the rhetorical work teachers engage in to establish their learning environments as authentic and pedagogically appropriate. We use the term “authenticity work” to denote such rhetorical work. Drawing on ethnography and critical discourse analysis, we describe how two teachers engaged in authenticity work through renegotiating professional and educational discourse in their project-based engineering course. This ideological project was facilitated by three discursive strategies: (1) deficitization of students and academia, (2) naturalization of industry practices, and (3) polarization of the state of affairs in academia and in industry. Our findings suggest that authenticity work is a double-edged sword: While authenticity work may serve to bolster the legitimacy that is ascribed to learning environments, it may also close down opportunities for students to develop critical thinking about their profession and their education. Based on these findings, we discuss implications for teaching and propose a nascent research agenda for authenticity work in higher education learning environments.

scholarly journals Marketization of Higher Education: A European Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Amedeo Toderoiu
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Market Mechanism ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
European Perspective ◽  
Accounting Systems ◽  
Education Market ◽  
Marketization Of Higher Education ◽  
European Higher Education ◽  
Higher Education Market

This paper introduces the research and understanding of European higher education experts on the newly raised higher education marketization. Their point of view is that higher education marketization is by introducing market mechanism and making operation with market characteristics of higher education. Higher education market is a "quasi market". higher education institutions under the condition of marketization is "a hybrid institution", in which students are the biggest consumers. Colleges and universities are encouraged to introduce accounting systems of enterprises in marketization competition, etc.

scholarly journals The Enemy Next Door: The Image of Russia in Georgian and Ukrainian Political Discourses Amid Conflicts Escalation

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 194-203
Author(s):  
Aram Terzyan
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Image Representation ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
The Core ◽  
Standing Up

Abstract This article presents an analysis of the evolution of Russia’s image representation in Georgian and Ukrainian political discourses amid Russian-Georgian and Russian-Ukrainian conflicts escalation. Even though Georgia’s and Ukraine’s troubled relations with neighboring Russia have been extensively studied, there has been little attention to the ideational dimensions of the confrontations, manifested in elite narratives, that would redraw the discursive boundaries between “Us” and “Them.” This study represents an attempt to fill the void, by examining the core narratives of the enemy, along with the discursive strategies of its othering in Georgian and Ukrainian presidential discourses through critical discourse analysis. The findings suggest that the image of the enemy has become a part of “New Georgia’s” and “New Ukraine’s” identity construction - inherently linked to the two countries’ “choice for Europe.” Russia has been largely framed as Europe’s other, with its “inherently imperial,” “irremediably aggressive” nature and adherence to illiberal, non-democratic values. The axiological and moral evaluations have been accompanied by the claims that the most effective way of standing up to the enemy’s aggression is the “consolidation of democratic nations,” coming down to the two countries’ quests for EU and NATO membership.

Constructing the myth of protest masculinity in Chinese English language news media

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yating Yu ◽  
Mark Nartey
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
English Language ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Social Harmony ◽  
Chinese Media ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
News Reports ◽  
The Media

Although the Chinese media’s construction of unmarried citizens as ‘leftover’ has incited much controversy, little research attention has been given to the ways ‘leftover men’ are represented in discourse. To fill this gap, this study performs a critical discourse analysis of 65 English language news reports in Chinese media to investigate the predominant gendered discourses underlying representations of leftover men and the discursive strategies used to construct their identities. The findings show that the media perpetuate a myth of ‘protest masculinity’ by suggesting that poor, single men may become a threat to social harmony due to the shortage of marriageable women in China. Leftover men are represented as poor men, troublemakers and victims via discursive processes that include referential, predicational and aggregation strategies as well as metaphor. This study sheds light on the issues and concerns of a marginalised group whose predicament has not been given much attention in the literature.

scholarly journals The Journalistic Representations of Saudi Women in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA): A Corpus Critical Discourse Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 320
Author(s):  
Waheed M. A. Altohami ◽  
Amir H. Y. Salama
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
American English ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Context Model ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Saudi Women

This paper is a corpus critical discourse analysis of the journalistic representations of Saudi women as they appear in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) (Davies, 2008). It follows a sociocognitive approach (van Dijk, 2008) to explore the thematic foci discussing issues related to Saudi women and to discuss the discursive strategies implemented to propagate such issues. The study has reached four findings. First, the thematic foci related to Saudi women are textually and referentially coherent as they were meant to provide a grand narrative underlying a specific context model. Second, Saudi women are negatively represented as no social roles are ascribed to them throughout the corpus. Third, different social actors are also represented alongside Saudi women to put them in a wider socio-cultural context to aggravate their problems. Finally, the most effective discursive strategies which mediated the running context model included victimization, categorization, stereotyping, normalization, and exaggeration.

scholarly journals The New CAAT: (Dis)illusions of Freedom and the New College Charter in Ontario

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-120
Author(s):  
Anita Arvast
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Performance Indicators ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
New Era ◽  
Post Secondary

In 2002 a new Ontario college charter signaled a new era for higher education in Ontario. The charter was presumed to usher in a new way of doing higher education, one that provided greater freedom for Ontario colleges and presumably greater access for communities to higher education. Coupled with the Post-Secondary Choice and Excellence Act of 2000, which provided colleges the opportunity to offer degrees, the colleges appeared well set for the freedom they sought. With the decentralization of approval for curriculum comes an appearance of greater autonomy and authority at the local level; however, with steering mechanisms of funding, performance indicators, and discourses of the marketplace, globalization and performativity permeating curriculum processes, “freedom” remains strongly tempered. This paper uses Foucauldian and critical discourse analysis as a means of considering power and higher education in Ontario, and the limitations and opportunities for “freedom” within our existing discourses.  

An introduction to the special issue on “Language, politics and media: The Hong Kong protests”

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liu Ming ◽  
Guofeng Wang
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Mass Movement ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract Protests and social movements have become part of Hong Kong’s local politics since the 1970s. However, protests against the proposed extradition bill in 2019‒20 turned out to be the most violent political mass movement in Hong Kong after its return to the People’s Republic of China in 1997. It not only drew wide international attention but also evoked another round of “news war” over Hong Kong (Lee et al. 2002). This special issue collects six articles which address the representations of the protests in Hong Kong by different parties on different media platforms. Adopting a critical discourse analysis approach, these studies examine discursive strategies employed in media representations of the protests and the ideologies and power struggles at play. It aims to present different perspectives towards the issue and shed light on the complex relations between language, media and politics in the representations of the Hong Kong protests.

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