Department of European Languages &

Literature
Fall Semester - 2022

Language
& Media
ELAN -
448
Language &
Discourse
The way people use language and
media together is not just an
individual choice.

Just as people’s use of media is

governed by social conventions, so is
people’s use of language.

And just as media conventions both

derive from and reinforce media
ideologies, linguistic conventions derive
from and reinforce language
 A1 - Language &
Mediation
A2 - Media, Modes &
Materialities
Section A A3 - Media, Genre &
INTRODUCTION Style

KEYTOPICS IN THE A4 - Media

Storytelling
STUDY OF
LANGUAGE AND A5 - Truth, Lies, &
Propaganda
MEDIA

Department. of
Fall - European Languages &
2022 Literature
 Section A1 - Language &
Mediation
A1 Introduction

Mediation

Language &
Discourse

Department. of
Fall - European Languages &
2022 Literature
 What is
mediation?

MEDIATIO
N
Mediation

This process of facilitating the

interaction between two entities is
called

MEDIIATII
 Mediatio
n

The idea of mediation comes from Soviet psychologist

Lev Vygotsky (1962)
Mediation
Vygotsky argued that all interactions between people and
between people and their environments are mediated
through 'cultural tools':

Physical Mental
Tools Telephones Tools
Hammers

Counting Languages
Systems
Mediation

Everything we do, according to

Vygotsky, including thinking, is
mediated by these tools, and
the kinds of tools we have
available to us determine the
kinds of things we can do, even
the kinds of thoughts we can
think.
Mediation

A person who has a hammer is able to

do things that a person without a
hammer is unable to do.

A person who is able to speak a

particular language is able to
do things that a person who
cannot speak that language is
unable to do.
 McLuhan (1964) took a
similar position when he
Mediatio

referred to media as
'extensions of man.'
n

WHY?
 WHY?
Because they extend our ability to do
things in the world: electric lights extend
what we can do with our eyes;
microphones and telephones extend what
we can do with our voices; and computers
Mediatio

extend what we can do with our brains.

n
Mediatio
n
Different kinds of media affect things
like:
-what we can communicate,
-how we can communicate it,
-and to whom we can communicate;
but scholars like Vygotsky and McLuhan
take this even further and argue that
media don't just affect how we
communicate,
Mediatio

What we Who
can we can
think! be!
n

The key word here is

Mediatio
n view that media
The
determine what we can
do, think, and
communicate is called
"technological
determinism", and that's
not the view the authors
of the book are
 Their view is:
W hile media affect human
actions, humans are also
creative in the way they use
media. How?
They think of 'new' ways to use 'old'
media,

Mediatio
They sometimes use media in ways
that seem to go against expectations
about how they 'should' be used.

In other words, just as media affect what

people do, what people do with media
affects how those media develop and
change over time.
Mediation
Among the most important
factors beyond media
themselves that affec t how
media are used are the soc ial
c onventions around media use
that grow up within partic ular
c ommunities and c ultures.
Mediatio
n
EXAMPLES
Some 'gamers', have strong
beliefs about how people
should interact with and
through particular games.

Art lovers might have certain

ideas about it and how
different media should be
used in art museums.
 Mediatio
n
Anthropologist Ilana Gershon calls these sets
of conventions and beliefs
media ideologies
They include people’s beliefs about how different media
should or should not be used, where and when they
should be used, what sorts of people should or should
not use them, whether they should be used alone or
with other people, and what sorts of messages should
be communicated through them.
 Mediatio
n

Example: Breaking up with a husband or a friend.

Some people think using email or instant messaging

to break up with someone is ‘inappropriate.’
Some people think that this is acceptable.
So, how do we develop media ideologies?
 Mediatio
n
W e develop media ideologies
through: watching other people
using media
using media ourselves with other people in our social groups
being exposed to metadiscourse about media use (e.g.,
advertisements for media products or devices, instruction
manuals, or the admonitions of teachers, parents, or
pundits criticizing how we or other people are using
media).
Mediatio
n
Media ideologies are also tied up
with other kinds of ideologies,
such as moral or ethical ideas
about things like romantic
relationships, privacy, and personal
responsibility.
These other kinds of beliefs can
affect how we use media, but
media themselves can also lead
to changes in beliefs about these
Mediatio
n
Historian Cecile Jagodzinski (1999), for
instance, argues that the printing press
helped to promote an ideology of
individualism in 17th-century Europe
because it enabled solitary reading, and
other media scholars have pointed out
how social media sites have altered
people’s beliefs about privacy.
 Section A1 - Language &
Mediation
A1c Introduction

Mediation

Language &
Discourse

Department. of
Fall - European Languages &
2022 Literature
Language &
Discourse
To understand media it is bett er to think about it in
terms of what media do rather than what they are;
the focus is on the processes of mediation t h a t they
make possible.
Similarly, we need to think about what language
does (or what people do with it) rather than what it
is.
Language & Discourse

The scientific study of language is

called linguistics and there are
many different ways linguists
study language. However,
language and media researchers
are interested in the branches
that help you understand what
people do with
language.
Language & Discourse
Pragmatics: the study of how people ‘do things with words using
what are called speech acts (such as threatening, apologizing,
and requesting).

Conversation Analysis: the study of how conversations are put

together and the kinds of rules that govern things like turn-
taking.

Interactional Sociolinguistics tools: which focus on how people

use language to construct identities and relationships with one
another and negotiate what the purpose of their interaction is.

Critical Discourse Analysis: reveals how language can be used

to manipulate people and the power relations that are ‘hidden’
in linguistic structures.
Language & Discourse

Actually, all these approaches to language are sometimes talked

about under the broad label of discourse analysis. There are four main
differences between discourse analysts and other linguists:

1. They are interested in what people do with language rather than in

language as an abstract set of rules.
2. They usually focus on longer stretches of language (texts
and conversations) rather than just sentences or words.
3. They are not just interested in language in its traditional sense, but also in
how language interacts with other forms of communication such as pictures,
gestures, and music.
4. They are interested in the relationship between language and the way
societies are organized, what sorts of ideologies govern peoples’ behavior,
and what sorts of people have power and what sorts of people don’t.
 Language & Discourse

Concerns of discourse analysts are affected by the kinds of media people use
to communicate. Different media:

allow us to do different things with language;

make it possible for people to transmit different kinds of texts and engage
in different kinds of conversations;
allow users to combine different forms of communication (pictures, words,
music, videos) together in different ways;
have different kinds of potential when it comes to manipulating people,
helping powerful people hold on to their power, or helping less powerful
people challenge those that are more powerful.
 Language & Discourse

One kind of discourse analysis that is particularly concerned with

these questions is mediated discourse analysis.

According to Ron Scollon and colleagues:

the main job of mediated discourse analysts should be to try
to figure out how different kinds of mediational means
(including both language and media) affect the kinds of
social actions that people can take (and ultimately the kinds
of societies they are able to create through these actions).
Language & Discourse

The way people use language and

media together is not just an
individual choice.

Just as people’s use of media is

governed by social conventions, so is
people’s use of language.

And just as media conventions both

derive from and reinforce media
ideologies, linguistic conventions derive
from and reinforce language
 Language & Discourse
Language ideologies are sets of beliefs about how people
ought to use language, including which languages or kinds of
language are ‘better’ or more ‘appropriate’ for different kinds of
situations.

Language ideologies also include beliefs about the effects

certain kinds of media have on people’s language.

Recent debates about how digital media is changing the

way young people use language, for example, come from
deep- seated ideologies about what constitutes ‘correct’
language.