Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2015 Media Linguistics: On Mediality and Culturality Luginbühl, Martin Abstract: This article draws on recent developments within media linguistics, both regarding the changing objects of research as well as crucial theoretical questions. Regarding the objects, an expansion can be observed, overcoming the long-lasting limitation to journalistic mass media. This change is above all due to changes that came along with digital media communication permeating our everyday lives, but also blurring the lines between one-to-one and one-to-many communication. These far-reaching changes also led to an intensified discussion of central concepts like medium and mediality. As current tendencies within the field, multimodality, culturality, and the triad of production – product – reception are discussed. Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-118869 Scientific Publication in Electronic Form Published Version Originally published at: Luginbühl, Martin (2015). Media Linguistics: On Mediality and Culturality. 10plus1 | Living Linguistics: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik. 9 Media Linguistics: What is Media Linguistics? lies in the use of language in actual communi- On Mediality cative situations. and Culturality f the number of published essays, anthol- The specific focus of media linguistics lies in the (Opener) ogies and introductory books are taken into account, media linguistics can be consideration of a medium-specific processing I considered as one of the most dynamic fields of signs and their semiotic materialities, as well of applied linguistics in the German-speaking as associated institutions or non-institutiona- Martin Luginbühl lised social groups, their discursive and cultural area (which this article will focus on). This practices by means of and within these media, can be explained by the fact that the subject of analysis of media linguistics has evolved in with a strong focus on the use of linguistic signs. This article draws on recent develop- various ways with the emergence of digital ments within media linguistics, both regarding the changing objects of re- media – which can hardly be described as This implies an emphasis on the micro level search as well as crucial theoretical “new media” any longer in the second decade of media texts. However, as language use questions. Regarding the objects, an st always takes place in a situational and wider expansion can be observed, overcoming of the 21 century. This expansion has also the long-lasting limitation to journal- led to an intensified discussion on some of cultural context, media linguistic analysis istic mass media. This change is above the fundamental concepts. In what follows, I should also reflect on aspects of the meso all due to changes that came along with digital media communication permeat- will address both of these aspects. Finally, I and the macro levels. This includes questions ing our everyday lives, but also blurring will highlight some central tendencies and on intertextual relations or questions on the lines between one-to-one and one- cultural practices of social groups. to-many communication. These far- desiderata in present-day media linguistics. reaching changes also led to an intensi- The object of media linguistic analysis fied discussion of central concepts like What does Media Linguistics Study? essentially depends on the concept of the medium and mediality. As current tendencies within the field, multimodal- medium. In early media linguistic “milestone ity, culturality, and the triad of produc- A recent introduction on media linguistics publications” (Stöckl 2012: 16, my transla- tion – product – reception are dis- cussed. written by Ulrich Schmitz opens as follows: tion) on “Language of the Press” [“Press- “Media linguistics studies how language is esprache”] (Lüger 1983), “Communication of the Press” [“Pressekommunikation”] (Bucher used in the media” (Schmitz 2015: 7, my translation). According to this quote, the 1986), as well as “Language of the Mass Me- focal point of media linguistics, similar to dia” [“Sprache der Massenmedien”] (Burger conversation analysis and sociolinguistics, 1984), things used to be relatively clear: the objects of analysis were mass-media texts, 1 0 p l u s 1 10plus1: Living Linguistics | Issue 1 | 2015 | Media Linguistics L I v I n g L I n g u I s t I c s Martin Luginbühl | Media Linguistics: On Mediality and Culturality 10 i.e. texts from newspapers, from radio and (but see e.g., Bednarek 2010; Queen 2015). ferentiation processes prompt the question from television. Authors of the texts investi- Even though the scope of the field of tradi- of what differences there are between vari- gated were mostly professional writers who tional media linguistics is wide, its delimita- ous versions and how they relate to mediali- produced texts collaboratively in an institu- tions are clear-cut. ty. Schwarzl (2015) and Burger & Luginbühl tionalised context. Such texts were pro- This has changed with the emergence of (2014: 487-499) show that content and form duced (i.e. printing press), duplicated, and digital communication technologies in the in such and similar cases are not the same. received (i.e. television) by technical means. mid-1990s. On the one hand, the new com- When it comes to newspapers, for instance, They were made publicly available in the municative practices that could be observed there are substantial differences in the ver- form of one-way communication to a vast in the context of these technologies have sions mentioned regarding the production, number of people. The audience remained generally increased our sensitivity to the the product itself and its reception. Nowa- anonymous. mediality of communication. On the other days, the print version is usually published Traditional mass media texts can be dis- hand, they have also blurred the lines be- once a day, the place for the written text is tinguished from other texts by a certain pe- tween individual and mass communication limited by the number of pages, only static riodicity and in general a short “validity peri- when for instance both are likely to happen pictures can be used, reactions to the texts od” [“Gültigkeitsdauer”] (Adamzik 2004: 78). on the same electronic platform or when are only possible in the form of letters to the Prototypically, they appear on a daily basis there are many different intermediate forms editor, and readers are only rarely invited to and are meant for a short-term use (see between one-to-one, one-to-many and participate in text message or online sur- Burger & Luginbühl 2014: 1f. on these prop- many-to-many communication. Further- veys. erties); many introductory books have not more, recent studies on the production and – In these respects, online newspapers taken advertising into account (but see even though still rare – on the reception differ greatly from their print versions: Typi- Schmitz 2015). Journalistic mass media are have been conducted. cally, they are updated continuously; not the object of research of ’traditional’ media Along with this new sensibility for medi- only written texts or static pictures but also linguistics, with a pronounced focus on the ality effects, reflections on the concept of videos, interactive infographics etc. can be analysis of products rather than processes. the medium itself have gained momentum. integrated. Also, the opportunity to react to Linguistic studies on the production and re- The emergence and appropriation of new the news text is important: for instance by ception of texts used to be rare; analyses of technologies has, for instance, led to the writing a comment, clicking on “like”- non-journalistic mass media (i.e. books or possibility of reading newspapers in various buttons, and sharing content onto social me- movies on DVD) are scarcely found in these ways: in print, online, on mobile phones, as dia platforms, etc. But already the very act of media linguistic works and have not yet been well as with special apps for tablets, reading an online article has an impact on in the centre of interest of media linguistics smartphones, or smartwatches. These dif- 10plus1: Living Linguistics | Issue 1 | 2015 | Media Linguistics Martin Luginbühl | Media Linguistics: On Mediality and Culturality 11 the list of articles that are most frequently different versions? Or can we assume that communication. This can either encompass viewed. there are five distinct media because of the one-to-one communication (prototypically In addition, the individual texts of these five different versions of a newspaper, i.e. its e-mail or text messages, see the early works two newspaper versions are not simply ’the print, online, mobile, tablet, and smartphone of Günther & Wyss 1996; Baron 1998, 2000; same‘: even though large parts of the word- versions? If a technical understanding of the Androutsopoulos & Schmidt 2002; Döring ing in the printed and online version may be medium is adopted, the networked comput- 2002a & b; Elspaß 2002; Ziegler & Dür- similar or almost identical, they are charac- er would be the medium of the online news- scheid 2002; Thurlow 2003) or many-to- terised by different segmentations and con- paper. This medium, however, would not many communication (prototypically chat, textualisations. So called ‘Anreißertexte’, a only include