ABSTRACT

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.

part Section A|60 pages

Introduction

chapter A1|6 pages

Language and Mediation

chapter A2|6 pages

Media, Modes, and Materialities

chapter A3|7 pages

Media, genre, and style

chapter A4|7 pages

Media storytelling

chapter A5|6 pages

Media and Discourse Processes

chapter A6|7 pages

Audiences, Interaction, and Participation

chapter A7|7 pages

Media and the Attention Economy

chapter A8|7 pages

Truth, Lies, and Propaganda

chapter A9|6 pages

Media, Censorship, and Resistance

part Section B|72 pages

Development

chapter B3|7 pages

Analyzing Genres and Styles in Media

chapter B4|7 pages

Telling and Retelling Stories

chapter B6|8 pages

Participation Frameworks

chapter B7|8 pages

Virality and Memetics

chapter B8|8 pages

Persuasive Discourse and Media Rhetoric

chapter B9|10 pages

Censorship and Semiotic Democracy

part Section C|62 pages

Exploration

chapter C1|6 pages

Media Uses and Users

chapter C2|9 pages

Analyzing Intersemiotic Relations

chapter C4|5 pages

Analyzing Narratives in the Media

chapter C5|7 pages

Analyzing Media Production

chapter C6|5 pages

Analyzing Participation in Media

chapter C7|5 pages

Analyzing Spreadable Media

chapter C9|10 pages

Offensive Language and Tactics of Resistance

part Section D|64 pages

Extension

chapter D1|6 pages

Media, Mediation, and Mediated Discourse

chapter D2|9 pages

Global Modes and Future Modes

chapter D3|5 pages

Media Talk and Media Genres

chapter D5|6 pages

Media Production

chapter D7|11 pages

Spreadability

from News Language to Internet Memes

chapter D8|7 pages

Political Rhetoric and Fake News

chapter D9|7 pages

Resistance and Citizen Journalism