A Critical Discourse Analysis on 12th Iranian Presidential Election Candidates in TV Debates

In the research, statements of 12th Iranian presidential election candidates have been scrutinized in order to analyze the discourses which candidates promote individually or in a coalition. For this end, the method of discourse analysis by Norman Fairclough was used and according to research method, the descriptive, interpretive and explanatory aspects of discourses were analyzed. In the methodology part of the research, a table developed using Fairclough critical discourse analysis and analyzing the debates were conducted based on the table. In description level, the discourse was examined at the micro level (discourse as a text) and in interpretation level, discourse was analyzed in an intermediate level (discourse as a process) and also in explanation level, the discourse was scrutinized at macro level (discourse as a social context). The result indicates that in the 12th presidential election debates, there is a controversy between the dominant discourse of reformists and the opponent conservatives. The representatives of reformists discourse are: Rouhani, Jahangiri and Hashemi-taba. The repress   entatives of conservatives discourse are: Raisi, Ghalibaf and Mirsalim. The common discourses in each of the debates are somehow a reconstruction of the discourses that have been present in the political history of the Islamic Republic of Iran in previous periods.