Mediated Discourse Analysis in Language and Sexuality Research

Abstract

This chapter outlines some of the main theoretical principles and analytical procedures of mediated discourse analysis and illustrates how they can be applied to studies of language and sexuality. Where mediated discourse analysis differs from other approaches to language and sexuality is its focus on the concrete social actions that people take in their lives, like putting on a condom or sharing a dick pic. The approach asks how language and other cultural tools that people have available to them make these actions possible, and, how through their actions, people reproduce or “technologize” these cultural tools so that they can be taken up and used in future actions. Sexuality emerges through a process of making our bodies (and parts of our bodies) meaningful in the ongoing negotiation of mediated actions through processes of entextualization, appropriation, and recontextualization.