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Dijk as “knowledge, attitudes and ideologies” (2001a, pp. 114-115). In this case, the
knowledge is cultural and the assumption is that it is:
...shared by all competent members of a society or culture, and forms the basis or
common ground of all social practices and discourses. Indeed, in principle all
cultural shared knowledge may therefore be presupposed in public discourses. Of
course, such common ground knowledge constantly changes, and what is common
ground yesterday, may be ideological group belief today (as is the case for the
Christian religion), or vice versa, as is the case for much scholarly knowledge. (van
Dijk, 2001a, p. 114, emphasis added)
The various attitudes that are represented in the data are categorised according to how they
have been constructed as “...socially shared opinions, such as the opinions people share about
immigration...or nuclear energy. These are usually complex, that is, consist of a cluster of
evaluative propositions” (van Dijk, 2001a, p. 115). Third, the ideologies present in the data as
“...basic social representations of social groups” (van Dijk, 2001a, p. 115) are categorised in
relation to how they are couched in the knowledge category, so ideologies such as neo-liberal,
colonial, progressive and social justice will be made explicit.
3.10 Post Analysis and Conclusion
The post analysis stage incorporates Fairclough’s stages four “identify possible ways past the
obstacles” and five “reflect critically on the analysis” (Fairclough, 2001, p. 124) into a
narrative comprising the various methodologies used as part of the bricolage approach used
in this project. The post analysis is reported in Chapter 8: Conclusion. Finally, this research
aims to use the methodologies selected to enable an accurate and clearly communicated
reporting of findings, adhering to what van Dijk describes as:
...CDA should be accessible. Esoteric style is inconsistent with the fundamental aims
of critical research namely that it can be shared with others, especially also by
dominated groups. Obscurantism promotes blind imitation, instead of insight. CDA
must be teachable, and hence comprehensible...Complex theorizing and analysis do
not require abstruse jargon and profound insights need no arcane formulations.
(2001a, p, 97)
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