This volume contributes to the burgeoning field of interactional linguistic media studies. It focuses on how people appropriate media in their daily lives. Thus here it is not the talk in the medium itself, but naturally occurring interactions in different media reception situations that are analysed. The idea that media function like a hypodermic needle injecting messages into the masses has long been questioned. Still, the actual moment when people use media in their daily lives has largely been ignored in media studies. This book analyses the minutiae of the moment when people actively appropriate media for their own purposes in different fashions. The reception communities analysed include families watching television, girls gossiping about a talent show, teenagers playing video games, a team of fire-men implementing a new medium in their workplace, radio listeners´ phone ins and others. The languages studied comprise English, German, French, Swedish and Finnish.
Editorial Reviews
Review
What makes this volume more fascinating is the chosen studied genres; from sport broadcasting (Cornelia Gerhardt), to quiz shows (Alla V. Tovares), children’s cartoons and films (Kristy Beers Fägersten), comedy shows (Kristy Beers Fägersten), political shows (Bauldauf-Quilliatre), talent shows (Janet Spreckels), commercial (Ruth Ayaß) and video games (Arja Piirainen-Marsh, Lorenza Mondada), this variations really helps in providing a more holistic justification on the appropriation of media in everyday life. — Siti Nurnadilla Mohamad Jamil, Lancaster University, in Language in Society
This collection of thoroughly researched papers highlights the importance of studying language in use. Against the backdrop of the current burgeoning of mundane media use, this investigation into the interplay between media and language in everyday life represents an important contribution to pragmatics in its widest sense. — Neal R. Norrick, Universität des Saarlandes
Setting as its analytical focus a range of genres produced by different kinds of media in different languages and various types of data collected in different contexts from different countries, it provides an informative and entertaining discussion of media appropriation in media reception. I would definitely recommend the book as offering an accessible introduction to the topic to non-specialists, A-level students, or even first-year undergraduates on English language and/or media studies courses. — Songqing Li, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, in Discourse Studies Vol. 17:1 (2015)
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