CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE ON A SHELL ADVERTISEMENT PUBLISHED IN NEWS WEEK, JULY 1, 2002

Abstract

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) can be defined as fundamentally concerned with analyzing opaque as well as transparent structural relationships of dominance, discrimination, power and control as manifested in language. In other words, CDA aims to investigate critically social inequality as it is expressed, signalled, constituted, legitimized and so on by language use (or in discourse). The object of this thesis is a Shell advertisement published in News Week, July 1, 2002. The advertisement shows that Shell is a company that has a big contribution on human right issues. This is inversely proportional to the history fact. The history has chalked up that Shell is a company that has many notes on violating human rights. The analysis is done by using Fairclough‟s 'three-dimensional' framework. According to Fairclough, Critical Discourse Analysis is intended to establish connections between properties of texts, features of discourse practice, and wider sociocultural practice. The text is the objects of analysis, the accordant method is description. The discourse practice is the processes of producing and receiving, the method is interpretation. The socio-cultural practice is the socio-historical conditions of producing and receiving, the method is explanation. The results of the analysis show that Shell‟s advertisement published in News Week, July 1, 2002 is very ideological, but controversial indeed. There are many historical facts that are inversely proportional with the message communicated by Shell in the advertisement. In the advertisement, Shell makes an impression that Shell has never hesitated in holding principle and not only hunting for profit. However, the historical fact has chalked up that Shell has many cases that involved it with human rights violation.