Weaknesses of Discourse Analysis In social sciences, discourse analysis has many benets, especially in explaining the existence of power relations through the disclosure of the hidden meaning behind the text and spoken words (Jacobs! "here are at least two in#uential approaches in discourse analysis! "he rst aproach aproach is critical discourse analysis which was de$eloped by %airclough, the later is discourse analysis inspired by &ichael %oucault! 'ritical discourse analysis emphasies thought thought on the importance of ideology and discursi$e strategies used to achie$e political ob)ecti$es! Analytical tradition of 'DA uses three frameworks that bridge between policy texts and the wider political changes in three areas, ie* in micro domain which emphasies on linguistics, meso interpretation that emphasies the social production of the text, and macro analysis associated to the social theory! Although claimed as the most widely used discourse analysis, methodology and theoretical frameworks frameworks of 'DA has a disad$antage a+rms a+rms that to be able to re$eal the power relations, 'DA should be used with care and systematically! "he treatment of the context context on the micro micro and macro macro le$el is the biggest biggest methodological weakness of 'DA! %irst, the microle$el discourse analysis is slightly unable to gi$e a satisfactory analysis because it does not use the concepts in a more dynamic context! "he second is, in macro le$el the limited attention on distribution and a$ailability and access to $arious sources of communication! -esides methodological weaknesses, theoretical theoretical weakness of 'DA deri$ed from the linguistic perspecti$e xated on it! .ence discourse analysis is less able to bridge the linguistic and nonlinguistic dimensions of semiosis! .owe$er %airclough deny such criticisms by stressing the importance of mastering a $ariety of linguistic theory, because a $ariety of linguistic theory theory can be used as the basis for the textual analysis! Discourse analysis de$eloped by %oucault emphasies that discourses are contested! According to %oucault, discourse analysis is used to open up the con#ict meaning associated to power, power, so that discourse discourse analysis which which inspired by %oucault attempted to expose history, make it explicit in the context where the discourse occurs! "he weakness of this discourse analysis is it is not as systematically as 'DA because it does not pro$ide practical steps guidance to perform the discourse analysis! analysis! "he second weakness is related to the obsession to dismantle the deeper meaning of a text resulting in a reluctance to re$eal the plural and supercial meaning of the text! In %oucaultinspired discourse analysis, the change is not considered as a
mere rational cause and e/ect e$ent but it is seen as a result of the con#ict of interest between the owners of the political agenda! "hereby, the challenge to the users of this discourse analysis is to become much more cautious in reading a text, identify linkages of one text to another and examine the ideology, strategy and the rhetoric that is used to produce a meaning that goes along with its political ob)ecti$es! In general, both 'DA and %oucault0s discourse analysis ha$e fundamental #aws related to the methods! Discourse analysis is oftenly considered unclear in determining the methods and specify which text to be analyed and which text to be excluded! 1econdly, related to the focus on linguistic, so often neglect the material existence which independent to diskusi$e elements! "hird, discourse analysis is considered often ignores the complex structural factors! %ourth, lack of clarity in research step, and how text is selected lead to a point where discourse analysis considered less scientic!
