Felicitas Macgilchrist

This site is a project of Felicitas Macgilchrist, research fellow at the Georg Eckert Institute in Braunschweig, Germany, occasional lecturer at the European University Viadrina (Frankfurt/Oder) and research associate with NewsTalk&Text (Ghent University, Belgium).

My current research project is an ethnographic discourse analysis, tracing the lifecycle of a set of education media from its conception and production to its use in schools. This in some ways develops my doctoral research on journalism and the political: now turning from texts to practices. Research interests include truth effects, discourse, curriculum theory and the relation of (new) media to emerging identifications, hegemonies and collective memories. Favoured theoretical frames remain Laclau and Mouffe and other approaches to radical democracy, or more broadly: post-foundational theories. I am always interested in hearing from colleagues interested in collaborative (especially multilingual) research.

Contact: fsm...(at)...discourse-analysis...(dot)...de

Blog: http://discoursology.net

Publications

Book

Macgilchrist, F. (2011). Journalism and the Political: Discursive tensions in news coverage of Russia. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Abstract: Journalism is often thought of as the ‘fourth estate’ of democracy. This book suggests that journalism plays a more radical role in politics, and explores new ways of thinking about news media discourse. It develops an approach to investigating both hegemonic discourse and discursive fissures, inconsistencies and tensions. By analysing international news coverage of post-Soviet Russia, including the Beslan hostage-taking, Gazprom, Litvinenko and human rights issues, it demonstrates the (re)production of the ‘common-sense’ social order in which one particular area of the world is more developed, civilized and democratic than other areas. However, drawing on Laclau, Mouffe and other post-foundational thinkers, it also suggests that journalism is precisely the site where the instability of this global social order becomes visible. The book should be of interest to scholars of discourse analysis, journalism and communication studies, cultural studies and political science, and to anyone interested in ‘positive’ discourse analysis and practical counter-discursive strategies.

Peer-reviewed articles/chapters

Macgilchrist, F & Christophe, B. (2011). Translating globalization theories into educational research: Thoughts on recent shifts in Holocaust education. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. 32(1), 145-158.

Macgilchrist, F. & Van Hout, T. (2011). Ethnographic discourse analysis and social science. Forum Qualitative Sozialforsching / Forum: Qualitative Social Research. 12(1).

Macgilchrist, F. (2010). Publish or perish? A genre approach to getting published in leading English-language journals. In K. Girgensohn (Ed.) Kompetent zum Doktortitel: Konzepte zur Förderung Promovierender. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag. 155-168.

Van Hout, T & Macgilchrist, F. (2010). Framing the news: An ethnographic view of business newswriting. In Text & Talk. 30(2), 169-191.

NewsTalk&Text Research Group (2010). Position Paper: Towards a linguistics of news production. In Journal of Pragmatics (pre-published online).

Macgilchrist, F. (2007) Metaphorical Politics – Is Russia ‘western’? In C. Baker, C. Gerry, B. Madaj, E. Mellish & J. Nahodilova (eds), Nation in Formation: Inclusion and Exclusion in Central and Eastern Europe. London: SSEES Occasional Papers. 73-90.

Macgilchrist, F. (2007) Positive Discourse Analysis – Contesting Dominant Discourse by Reframing the Issues. In CADAAD (Critical Approaches to Discourse across Disciplines) 1(1), 74-94.

Other articles/chapters

Macgilchrist, F. (2009). The view from elsewhere: Western mediation of potential sources of Russian dislocation. In P. Casula & J. Perovic (Eds) Identities and Politics During Putin's Presidency. Stuttgart: ibidem. 334-354.

Macgilchrist, F. (2008) Vom Osten zum europäischen Kern: Die Deutsche Berichterstattung über Polen. In I. Kollak & A. Kołodziej-Durnaś (Eds.), Formen des sozialen Lebens im multikulturellen Europa. Berlin: Schibri. 127-147.

Macgilchrist, F. (2007) Z Zachodu do centrum Europy: obraz Polski i Polaków w niemieckich sprawozdaniach prasowych. In I. Kollak & A. Kołodziej-Durnaś (Eds.), Formy życia społecznego w wielokulturowej Europie: polsko-niemieckie introspekcje. Szczeczin: Economicus.

Macgilchrist, F. (2005) Terrorist or Freedom Fighter? Evaluation in ‘objective’ press texts. In H. Lenk and A. Chesterton (eds) Contrasting Text Types in the Press, Hildesheim: Georg Olms, pp.59-78.

Journalese

Macgilchrist, F. (2009). Postkolonialismus und Schulbuchentwicklung: Ein Blick aus der Schulbuchpraxis. In Eckert: Das Bulletin 6, 9-11.

Macgilchrist, F. (2009). Lebensansichten eines Schulbuches. In Eckert: Das Bulletin 5, 38-39.

Macgilchrist, F. (2009) Gazprom, Ukraine und die deutschen Medien - Das Neujahrstrio. In Telepolis, 3 Januar. 

Macgilchrist, F. (2006) Bond and The Return of the Evil Empire. In Telepolis,  26 November.