Worksheet 3: Identifying and Describing Political Discourse
Political Discourse refers to the ways in which social problems and policies are talked about within the public realm – on TV, in social media, in popular culture, etc., – and in this worksheet you’ll provide the reader with a sense of how your social problem and policy area are talked about.
There are two forms of political discourse: the first is textual discourse – words that people use such as quotes by claims makers, text found in news stories and headlines, and phrases or slogans that are widely shared.
The second is symbolic discourse – images, pictures, internet memes, etc. – that use symbols to communicate ideas about the social problem.
Our recorded class presentations are filled with numerous examples of symbolic expressions – the cartoons, pictures, and images.
