The Handbook of Discourse Analysis

Discourse Analysis in Communication 725
37 Discourse Analysis in
Communication
KAREN TRACY
0 Introduction
Communication refers to many things: it is the process through which individuals as
well as institutions exchange information; it is the name for the everyday activity in
which people build, but sometimes blast apart, their intimate, work, and public relationships;
it is a routinely offered solution to the problems engendered in societies in
which people need to live and work with others who differ from themselves; it is a
compelling intellectual issue of interest to scholars from diverse academic disciplines;
and it is the name of the particular academic discipline I call home. In this chapter I
offer my take on the field of Communication’s take on discourse analysis. I draw
attention to this chapter being my view, not to undermine what I have to say, but
because I am an individual speaking for “the group,” where the group is a diverse,
squabbling family that does not see things the same way.
The chapter begins with background about the field of Communication 1 and how it
connects with discourse analytic studies. Then, I focus on five exemplars of discourse
research, book-length analyses that make apparent differences among traditions within
Communication. In discussing each example, additional studies that are topically
and/or methodologically similar are identified. I conclude by identifying the intellectual
features that give discourse studies conducted by communication scholars a
family resemblance.
1 Background on Communication
Although the importance of communication in everyday life is relatively transparent,
what exactly Communication is as a discipline is not so. The field of Communication
is a particularly American phenomenon, tracing its institutional origins to around
1900, when it initially existed as a pedagogical area within English departments
(Cohen 1994). College speech teachers, as communication professionals then thought