The Corporate Voice of the New Higher Education: The Private Discourse of Capital in California State Universities

This study explores the discourse, and identifies the predominance of the language of commercial capital now dominating the two State University Systems in California, the State University of California and the University of California. Data for analysis were from the webpages of the thirty-three campuses of these systems. Lexical analysis was used to identify discourse patterns. Findings showed lexical choice/lexical fields, overlexicalization, modality, nominalization, personification, justification, and quantification strategies occurred systematically. Several discourse strategies were dominant to change the role and the operations of these public universities. As a conclusion, California State University Systems, within an isomorphic manner rather than using diverse forms, are growing as corporate and commercialized entities relying on deliberative discursive power relations.