Gather information and theory on the context once you

•Gather information and theory on the context
Once you know your research questions and research materials, you must establish the
social and historical context in which the material was produced and intended to be
received. Gather factual details of when and where the content was created, who the author
is, who published it, and whom it was disseminated to. Also knowing the real-life context of
the discussion, you can conduct a literature review on the topic and construct a theoretical
framework to guide your analysis.
•Analyse the content for themes and patterns
This step involves closely examining various elements of the research materials such as
words, sentences, paragraphs, and overall structure and relating them to attributes, themes,
and patterns relevant to your research question.
•Review your results and draw conclusions
Once you have assigned attributes to elements of the research material, reflect on your
results to examine the function and meaning of the language used. Here, you will consider
your analysis in relation to the broader context that you established earlier to draw
conclusions that answer your research question.There is no concrete set of procedures for
conducting a discourse analysis. Data analysis usually consists of focusing on large segments
of language to identify key words, themes, imagery, and patterns in the text.In addition, the
researcher might conduct a rhetorical analysis that looks at how various arguments are
constructed and arranged within a given body of language. Finally, the investigator should
pay special attention to the context of the language, examining such factors as who is
speaking, the circumstances surrounding the message, and the intended audience.
Strength and Weakness of discourse analysis
Discourse analysis can be used to study different situations and subjects. It allows
researchers to uncover deeply held attitudes and perceptions that are important in an
organization’s image and communication practices that might not be uncovered by any other

methods.On the other hand, discourse analysis can take large amounts of time and
effort.Also,this technique focuses solely on language. Although language may be an
important component of public relations practice, it rarely tells the whole story.
Grounded theory
This refers to using qualitative data to explain why a certain phenomenon happened.
Grounded theory concerned with the generation of theory,which is ‘grounded’ in data that
has been systematically collected and analysed.It is used to uncover such things as social
relationships and behaviours of groups, known as social processes.It is a general
methodology for developing theory that is grounded in data which is systematically gathered
and analysed.