The extent to which the spoken media (e.g. films and television) might have an impact on language variation and change in the community has been considered for some time within different areas of sociolinguistics. In this course we will consider the following:
- previous research on the influence of the media on spoken language
- methods and models of media influence within mass communications research
- the findings of a recent variationist study on the impact of engaging with TV soap dramas on phonological variation and change
- different possible models of the influence of the media on speech
Students from a range of, and/or studying a range of, linguistic and sociolinguistic backgrounds will be encouraged to think critically about what it means to say that media influences language change.