Critical discourse analysis and telecommunications policy: the myth of technological neutrality

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a powerful tool in the analytical toolkit of critical policy scholars. Situated between a method and a theory, CDA is an approach that provides the researcher with a set of prescriptions, such as a lens on power and an emphasis on praxis. Its focus on the reproduction and maintenance of power makes it ideally suited to analyse elite discourses, from policies, to reports, speeches and hearings. It primes researchers to investigate how the powerful maintain their power through discourse and how policymakers serve to maintain the status quo. CDA is both critical and normative, seeking not only to diagnose policy problems, but intervene in them. Using the example of the policy principle of technological neutrality as found in both United States and European broadband policy, this chapter describes critical discourse analysis and explains the value of the approach for critical communication policy studies and scholars.