Sociolinguistics

Influences of the media on language

Notes taken from Jane Stuart-Smith and Claire Timmins

And Gender Patterns on Facebook:

A Sociolinguistic Perspective

THE INFLUENCE OF THE MEDIAJANE STUART-SMITH

• Debate concerning influence of broadcast media, especially TV, on speech– e.g. Trudgill (1986); Chambers (1998); Stuart-Smith

(2006)

• Specifically with reference to consonant changes in UK accents– e.g. TH-fronting (e.g. Foulkes and Docherty 1999)

The Glasgow media project

Is TV a contributory factor in accent change in adolescents? (2002-5)

ESRC R000239757

• Gwilym Pryce (statistics)• Barrie Gunter (media studies)

All information is taken from

http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_70073_en.pdf

Research Questions

• The main research question is: Are the media a contributory factor in systemic language change under certain circumstances for certain individuals?

“Since answering this question is beyond the scope of any single project, we begin to tackle it through a specific question”:

• Do the media play a role in the appearance of ‘Southern English’ accent features in Glaswegian?

Here we considered evidence for a restricted set of factors.

We took a single medium (television) and considered the possible impact of one linguistic continuum (‘media Cockney’: a loose label for a few programmes set in London including EastEnders, The Bill, Only Fools and Horses) on another selected linguistic continuum (Glaswegian vernacular), with respect to pronunciation, in the speech of one stratified age group (working-class adolescents) within their overall social context.

We provide initial answers to this question by answering 14 specific research questions during the presentation of the results.

Methodology

The methodology was driven by the need first to establish profiles of our informants (linguistic, social, television), and second to investigate 1) the claimed impact of television (on attitudes and awareness) and 2) the evidence for a) potential short-term effects of television and b) possible links between media-Cockney and linguistic innovation.

Linguistic variables

• TH-fronting: [f] in e.g. think, both• DH-fronting: [v] in e.g. brother• L-vocalization: /l/ vocalized to high back (un)rounded

vowel e.g. people, milk, well

Data Collection

7 methods were carried out:• Media-Cockney analysis• Speech recordings• Questionnaire• Informal interview• TV/language experiment• Participant observation• Follow-up interviews

Ethics

Informed written consent was gained from all parents/guardians of under-age informants, and from adults.

We took advice from our Data Protection Officer on the appropriate processing of the data.

Questions

• Q1: What is the linguistic evidence for the diffusion of innovative variants in Glaswegian adolescents?

• Q2: What is the linguistic content of media-Cockney, and how does this compare to Glaswegian?

• Q3: How much exposure do Glasgow adolescents have to television and to media-Cockney?

• Q4: What role does television play within the overall social life of Glasgow adolescents, and do television figures speaking media-Cockney figure as role models for Glasgow adolescents?

• Q5: What is the social life of Glasgow adolescents like? • Q6: What is their social contact (if any) with people outside their

immediate area/Glasgow? • Q7: Do those who have high exposure to media-Cockney have

positive attitudes towards actual Cockney (and Londoners)?• Q8: Are those who have high exposure to media-Cockney aware of

the linguistic features of media-Cockney (and that they are similar/different to Glaswegian)?

• Q9: How successfully can Glasgow adolescents imitate accent features presented by television (and media-Cockney)?

• Q10: What type of phonetic/phonological variation occurs (if any) in front of the television?

(The short-term effects experiment allowed us to assess whether watching particular types of TV programme may lead to immediate changes in accent.)• Q11: Do speakers who have high exposure to media-Cockney also

use diffusing Southern English features? • Q12: Are positive attitudes towards media-Cockney linked to the

use of diffusing Southern English features? • Q13: Do any of the above [answers] vary according to age, and, is

the shift from primary to secondary school a factor? • Q14: What is the role of the individual, if any, in connecting

television with accent change?

Is TV a contributory factor in accent change in adolescents?

The regression results show a consistent pattern of significant factors, which include exposure and especially engagement with media-Cockney and EastEnders.

The experimental results are not entirely clear, but subtle phonetic alterations seem to take place after watching TV.

These results, taken together with other indications drawn from the project results, support the inclusion of TV in an account of these changes – alongside dialect contact and other social factors – with the reservations that a) the individual appears to be an important, if complex, set of additional factors and b) the precise nature of TV as a factor still remains to be clarified.

Social Media

“We're all part of social networks from the time we're born because our families serve as initial primary functioning networks. As we grow up, we become members of many networks simultaneously and our networks vary as we move through our lives. Childhood networks, however, have a greater effect on our linguistic patterns than do our adult networks”

(Meyerhoff 2006, p.195).

Slides 12 -18 taken from Karissa Kilgore blog notes on social networks and socialinguistics

• If Meyerhoff is right then the groups we were associated with as children have had an affect on the way we speak now.

• Consider the social groups you belonged to – swim club, book club, scouts, girl guides. Do you think they had an effect on you and if so how?

• How do you think those helped to define your speech?

Patterns of Association or Interaction

Defining social networks:

Horizontal - this encompasses age groups and social cohorts

Vertical - spanning generations and/or social divides (think of "climbing the social ladder") (Meyerhoff 2006, p. 185)

Slides 14 -18 taken from Karissa Kilgore

• We also have macro (large-scale) and micro (inter-personal) networks.

• Dense - all members know each other (significant overlap)

• Loose - not all members know each other (little overlap) (Meyerhoff 2006, p. 187)

• Uniplex - network tie is based on only one relationship

• Multiplex - network tie is based on more than one relationship, similarity, activity (Meyerhoff 2006, p. 188)

Community of Practice

• Mutual engagement - coming together in direct personal contact (narrow among social classes)

• Shared repertoire - speech styles and other social practices (in-jokes, jargon, word pronunciations); not requiring direct contact

• Jointly negotiated enterprise - specific definition under social networks, working towards “some shared goal, or are defining and satisfying some specific enterprise” (i.e. Special Interest Groups or SIG)

Questions to consider

• What do social networks facilitate/limit linguistically?

• How is individualization promoted/prevented?

• How does electronic Internet-based social networking change our linguistic competencies, metacognitive awareness of our language use, and our process of self-identification?

Gender Patterns on Facebook: A Sociolinguistic

Perspective

• General theory is that somehow the internet is ‘gendered’.

• Current studies suggest men and women have different speech styles (Holmes 1995 & Troennel-Ploetz 1994)

• Coley (2006) differentiates between three types of cyber communities:

- Social Networks

- Cyber Communities

- Blogs and personal websites

Women and social networks

Crawford (1995:61), studies ranging from the late 1960 have shown that women are: • easily influenced, • submissive,• sneaky, • tactful, • very aware of others feelings, • passive, • lacking in self-confidence, • dependent,• unlikely to act as leader and uncomfortable

about the process of behaving aggressively.

Eckert & McConnell-Ginnet (1994:448):• language is more standard

Fishman (1983):• ask more questions

Lakoff (1975):• mitigatiors (sort of, I think)• inessential qualifiers (really happy, so beautiful)

Raacke and Bonds-Raacke (2008):• change the appearance of their website more

Question: do women create more dynamic identities through their images than men?

Siibak (2007) discusses findings on Rate:• Displayed profile pics of them smiling

more (65% versus 24%)• Displayed a close up photo – head and

shoulders only. • Pose in more seductive ways and wear

clothes that emphasize sexuality.

Note that these findings might not apply to Facebook…or do they?

Men and Social Networks

Wajcman, 1991; Gill and Grint, 1995; Kramarae, 1988; Cockburn, 1985):• Institutionalized in the technology• through its creators• Embedded cultural association with

masculine identity

• Language is a neutral tool to communicate with others and describe the world

Activity

Part One:

Design a questionnaire which can be used to collect data which will be used to analyse whether gender is a significant factor on facebook e.g.

- How often do you change your profile pic?

- Describe your typical profile pic.

- How often do you upload photos?

- What are they usually of?

- What is your user name?

• You have 20 minutes to go out and gather as many survey results as you can.

• Make sure you gather 50% female 50% male

• If the participant has already been interviewed please do not ask them again.

• Once you have gathered your date – apply what you have read so far and see if your results show a gendered difference.

Part Two

Choose 2 male friends and 2 female friends pages and analyse them for the following replicating the original research:• Profile pics• Profile identities• Applications and groups• Topics• Emotiocons• Language e.g. F 1. hey lvly.hwx u n stuff ov lyf??? am

missing u aalllll. Lub u.• Code-switching and Code-Mixing• Phonemic Variations

Part Three• Putting it all together – you should analyse

all the data and summaries what you find.• Present your findings to the class in a

clear and logical manner.

If there is time…

Can you apply the same logic to other forms of new media such as:• My Space• Youtube• Mobile phones – text message• Blogs