Making Silences Visible: Critical Discourse Analysis of High-Stakes Exam Media Coverage

Introduction. High-stakes school exams are central to educational policy debates and are often framed in the media as moments of crisis. In Lithuania, public discourse tends to focus on blame and disorder in exam organisation, reproducing neoliberal and meritocratic ideologies while largely backgrounding issues of justice and inequality. Research questions include how Lithuanian media constructs high-stakes exams, which narratives are foregrounded or silenced, and how authors’ positionality shapes interpretation. 

Goals and methods. The study examined media coverage of the national broadcaster, Lithuanian Radio and Television (LRT) portal, including more than 200 articles across three exam cycles (2023-2025). A version of critical discourse analysis (CDA), Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA), was applied using categories of nomination (how actors are named), predication (how they are positioned), argumentation/ topoi, perspectivisation and intensification (how arguments are foregrounded or backgrounded, enhanced or mitigated). Slemon’s framework on absence and silence guided the identification of marginalised narratives, especially those linked to structural inequality. Researcher positionality—our perspectives as academics, teachers, policymakers, and parents—supported reflexivity and interpretation. Collaborative and iterative coding was conducted in MAXQDA, supported by CAQDA-based visualisations (word frequencies, code co-occurrence maps, actor networks) to reveal discursive patterns.  

Results. Media coverage was dominated by narratives blaming ministries and agencies that control students’ futures. Exams were portrayed as a ‘machine’ sorting and selecting learners, with negative implications for well-being. Most debates centred on efficiency and meritocracy, stressing curriculum incoherence and washback on teaching. Narratives of equity, regional disparities, and socioeconomic inequality were largely absent. Visualisations underscored both the silences around justice-related concerns and the concentration of blame on institutional actors.  

Conclusions. The study demonstrates how CDA can integrate structured coding, reflexivity, and visualisation to examine presence and silence in discourse. Findings reveal how Lithuanian exam debates sustain neoliberal and meritocratic framings while neglecting disadvantaged learners.