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Hong (2008) Changes in McDonald’s Discourse and Ideology: Intertextual Analysis of McDonald’s vs. Criticisms

Changes in McDonald’s Discourse and Ideology: Intertextual Analysis of McDonald’s vs. Criticisms

Joanne Jung-Wook Hong, Macquarie University

Abstract

The study is concerned with revealing some changes in the discourse of the multinational fast food company McDonald's in responding to the criticisms against its business practice, particularly through investigating two ideologically competing communicative voices: the criticisms of McDonald's business practice (e.g. the London Greenpeace leaflet ‘What's Wrong with McDonald's?') and letters from the McDonald's CEO (Chief Executive Officer) to shareholders titled ‘Dear Fellow Shareholders' in the annual reports published in 1997, 2003 and 2006. The study also discusses what caused those changes through looking at changes in consumer behaviour, culture and life style in society.

These changes are investigated by an analytical framework, Discourse Formations (DFs) (McAndrew, 2001, 2004), which provides a chance to witness the ideological struggles and changes in intratextual and intertextual relations. The intertextual analysis is based on analysing the consistently foregrounded intratextual meanings around core participants. In this study, the core participants are from the key terms in the criticism leaflet ‘What's Wrong with McDonald's?' which brought the most crucial impact on damaging McDonald's brand image through McDonald's business history. The meanings of core participants are investigated and compared intratextually and intertextually in McDonald's 1997, 2003 and 2006 CEO's letters, which relates the meanings of the corresponding core participants with using the terms, Alliance or Opposition. Through the intertextual analysis and using Critical Discourse Analysis perspectives, the study will find how McDonald's changes the construction of its social relationships, identities and beliefs in dealing with the criticisms.

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