2nd Edition
Language and Media A Resource Book for Students
Routledge English Language Introductions cover core areas of language study and are one-stop resources for students.
Assuming no prior knowledge, books in the series offer an accessible overview of the subject, with activities, study questions, sample analyses, commentaries, and key readings—all in the same volume. The innovative and flexible 'two-dimensional' structure is built around four sections—introduction, development, exploration, and extension— which offer self-contained stages for study. Each topic can also be read across these sections, enabling the reader to build gradually on the knowledge gained.
This revised second edition of Language and Media:
- Provides an accessible introduction and comprehensive overview of the major approaches and methodological tools used in the study of language and media.
- Focuses on a broad range of media and media content from more traditional print and broadcast media formats to more recent digital media formats.
- Incorporates practical examples using real data, including newspaper articles, press releases, television shows, advertisements (print, broadcast, and digital), blogs, social media content, internet memes, culture jamming, and protest signs.
- Includes key readings from leading scholars in the field, such as Jan Blommaert, Sonia Livingstone, David Machin, Martin Montgomery, Ruth Page, Ron Scollon, and Theo van Leeuwen.
- Offers a wide range of activities, questions, and points for further discussion.
The book emphasises the increasingly creative ways ordinary people are engaging in media production. It also addresses a number of urgent current concerns around media and media production/reception, including fake news, clickbait, virality, and surveillance.
Features of the new edition include:
- Special attention on ‘new media’ forms such as websites, podcasts, YouTube videos, social media sites, and mobile apps such as Snapchat and Instagram;
- Additional material on: mobility and materiality in media, memes and virality, discourse processes in media production, collaborative production and user created content, reality TV, fake news, the role of algorithms and bots in media production and circulation, and media and resistance;
- Discussion of media surveillance, privacy boundaries, and the so-called ‘right to be forgotten’ related to Internet archiving;
- Brand new readings from key scholars in the field including Piia Varis, Jan Blommaert, Monika Bednarek and Martin Montgomery;
- Updated examples and references throughout, to reflect more contemporary issues.
Written by three experienced teachers and authors, this accessible textbook is an essential resource for all students of English language and linguistics.
CONTENTS
Contents cross-referenced
List of figures
List of tables
Acknowledgements
A Introduction: Key topics in the study of language and media
1 Language and mediation
2 Media, modes, and materialities
3 Media, genre, and style
4 Media storytelling
5 Media and discourse processes
6 Audiences, interaction, and participation
7 Media and the attention economy
8 Truth, lies, and propaganda
9 Media, censorship, and resistance
B Development: Approaches to language and media
1 Language, mediation, and sites of engagement
2 Making meaning with modes and materialities
3 Analyzing genres and styles in media
4 Telling and retelling stories
5 Production formats and discourse representation
6 Participation frameworks
7 Virality and memetics
8 Persuasive discourse and media rhetoric
9 Censorship and semiotic democracy
C Exploration: Analyzing language and media
1 Media uses and users
2 Analyzing intersemiotic relations
3 Analyzing news stories and media interviews
4 Analyzing narratives in the media
5 Analyzing media production
6 Analyzing participation in media
7 Analyzing spreadable media
8 Detecting biased, fallacious, and fake news
9 Offensive language and tactics of resistance
D Extension: Readings in language and media
1 Media, mediation, and mediated discourse (Ruth Finnegan; Sonia Livingstone; Ron Scollon)
2 Global modes and future modes (David Machin and Theo van Leeuwen; Astrid Esslin)
3 Media talk and media genres (Martin Montgomery, Paola Catenaccio)
4 Media storytelling and the shaping of reality (Michael Toolan; Ruth Page)
5 Media production (Colleen Cotter; Eva Gredel)
6 Participation frameworks and surveillant media (Anne O’Keeffe; Rodney H. Jones)
7 Spreadability: From news language to internet memes (Monika Bednarek and Helen Caple; Piia Varis and Jan Blommaert)
8 Political rhetoric and fake news (Martin Montgomery; Johan Farkas and Jannick Schou)
9 Resistance and citizen journalism (Paolo Peverini; Rodney H. Jones and Neville C.H. Li)
Glossarial index
References
Index
Biography
Rodney H. Jones is Professor of Sociolinguistics, University of Reading, UK.
Sylvia Jaworska is Associate Professor of Language and Professional Communication, University of Reading, UK.
Erhan Aslan is Lecturer of Applied Linguistics, University of Reading, UK.
Language and Media is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in learning more about media discourse. It provides a clear foundation in relevant theoretical concepts, balanced with plenty of engaging examples. In addition, the sections featuring extension activities and key readings make this an ideal course textbook.
Camilla Vasquez, University of South Florida
This book is a key volume for the new media age: updating, assessing, and expanding our understanding of media and the many ways language and communication dynamics operate across a changed and changing mediascape. The authors characterize native online media features such as memes, viral spreads, surveillance capacities, and resistance; as well as resituate longstanding elements of media research such as stories, participation frameworks, production dimensions, and representation. It is definitely the go-to resource for understanding the media now.
Colleen Cotter, Queen Mary University London
