Thematising Multilingualism in the Media
Editors
This volume analyses the complex relations between multilingualism and the media: how the media manage multilingualism; how multilingualism is presented and used as media content; and how the media are discursive sites where debates about multilingualism and other language-related issues unfold. It is precisely this inter-relatedness that we want to flag up when we talk about “thematising” multilingualism in the media. More specifically, the focus of this volume is on the empirical and theoretical opportunities and challenges posed by the thematisation of multilingualism in the media. The volume, originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Language and Politics 10:4 (2011), presents a number of case studies from a variety of linguistic, media, political, social, and economic contexts: from print-media debates on trilingual policies in Luxembourg to “new media” discussions about the “sexiness” of Irish or the “national” value of Welsh; from issues of linguistic “authority” and “authenticity” in an American television programme to Wikipedia’s multilingual policy and practice.
[Benjamins Current Topics, 49] 2013. v, 151 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
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Introduction
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Thematising multilingualism in the mediaHelen Kelly-Holmes and Tommaso M. Milani | pp. 1–22
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Articles
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Media representations of multilingual Luxembourg: Constructing language as a resource, problem, right and dutyKristine Horner | pp. 23–42
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Sex, lies and thematising Irish: New media, old discourses?Helen Kelly-Holmes | pp. 43–66
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“What an un-wiki way of doing things”: Wikipedia’s multilingual policy and metalinguistic practiceAstrid Ensslin | pp. 67–93
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Sociolinguistic diversity in mainstream media: Authenticity, authority and processes of mediation and mediatizationAlexandra Jaffe | pp. 95–119
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Unity in disunity: Centripetal and centrifugal tensions on the BBC Voices websiteTommaso M. Milani, Bethan Davies and Will Turner | pp. 121–147
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Index | pp. 149–152
“This volume addresses the many – frequently creative – ways in which linguistic diversity is represented in the media (both traditional media as well as new social media), for the first time in such an innovative linguistic, detailed, systematic and comprehensive way. Thus, salient questions such as the management of multilingualism and metalinguistic comments about linguistic diversity are investigated as well as technical issues such as dubbing of films or issues of subtitling. Moreover, case studies illustrate how the specific national language policies interact with policies of media outlets and identity politics, i.e. the discursive construction of individual as well as collective multilingual identities. A ‘must read’ for everybody as multilingualism has become an inherent and necessary characteristic of everyday and institutional discourses in our globalised world.”
Ruth Wodak, Lancaster University
“Kelly-Holmes and Milani have provided a valuable synthesis of critical sociolinguistic research on mass media, but also a range of stimulating original new frameworks and perspectives. The volume is a theoretically rich interpretation of what media 'do' with linguistic diversity and multilingualism, based on well-chosen case studies. It is a persuasive demonstration of why sociolinguistic theorising must orient to mass media, and why media research needs sociolinguistics.”
Nikolas Coupland, Cardiff University
“The close and detailed analyses of situated discursive practices in the media have made valuable literature to the field on multilingualism and the media.”
Jing Huang, Lancaster University, in Journal of Language and Politics, Vol. 15:6 (2016)
Cited by
Cited by 12 other publications
Berezkina, Maimu
2018. ‘Language is a costly and complicating factor’: a diachronic study of language policy in the virtual public sector. Language Policy 17:1 ► pp. 55 ff. 
Chambers, Angela, David Atkinson & Fiona Farr
2015. Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Limerick, Ireland. Language Teaching 48:2 ► pp. 288 ff.
Davier, Lucile & Kyle Conway
2019. Introduction. In Journalism and Translation in the Era of Convergence [Benjamins Translation Library, 146], ► pp. 1 ff.
de Saint-Georges, Ingrid
2016. Researching Media, Multilingualism, and Education. In Research Methods in Language and Education, ► pp. 1 ff.
de Saint-Georges, Ingrid
2017. Researching Media, Multilingualism, and Education. In Research Methods in Language and Education, ► pp. 113 ff.
Gouma, Assimina & Judith Purkarthofer
2021. Mehrsprachigkeit, Gender und Medien im linguizistischen Kontext. In Handbuch Medien und Geschlecht [Springer Reference Sozialwissenschaften, ], ► pp. 1 ff.
Gouma, Assimina & Judith Purkarthofer
2023. Mehrsprachigkeit, Gender und Medien im linguizistischen Kontext. In Handbuch Medien und Geschlecht, ► pp. 853 ff.
Kelly-Holmes, Helen
2019. Multilingualism and Technology: A Review of Developments in Digital Communication from Monolingualism to Idiolingualism. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 39 ► pp. 24 ff.
Lee, Carmen
2023. ‘English is our 2nd language, konglish is our mother tongue’: Recolonizing English Through Translingual Activism in a Social Movement. Applied Linguistics 44:5 ► pp. 900 ff.
Stæhr, Andreas Candefors
2020. Multilingualism in the Media. In Handbuch Mehrsprachigkeit und Bildung, ► pp. 365 ff.
[no author supplied]
2014. Publications Received. Language in Society 43:1 ► pp. 137 ff.
[no author supplied]
2014. Publications Received. Language in Society 43:2 ► pp. 263 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CFA: Philosophy of language
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General