ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces some of the ways the news media become interested in and talks about sociolinguistic endeavors. The “traditional” news media are a powerful tool for communicating ideas, especially ideas about linguistic discrimination. In today’s world of Twitter, blogs, and Facebook, the process of person-to-person contact may seem old-fashioned. But the “traditional” news media are still a powerful tool for communicating ideas, especially ideas about linguistic discrimination. Most universities have communications offices or media relations offices to help. As we know from lots of work in sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology, ideologies about language are ones that the public rarely confronts. Reporters sometimes like to play language games that reflect particular language ideologies as well. For most people, any language story will be a diversion, a curiosity to be looked at for a short while. These stories aren’t out there to provide a full education to news media consumers.
