Abstract
The digitalization and increase of digital media impact many aspects of our daily lives: the way we communicate, find information, and form relationships. It also impacts several parts of working life, especially for people working in journalism, PR and communication. This is the starting point and rationale behind the new book Digital Communication and Media Linguistics, written by Alexandra Gnach, Wibke Weber, Martin Engebretsen and Daniel Perrin. This textbook gives a thorough overview and introduction to media linguistics, with a specific focus on digital communication and digital media.
The book is divided into eight chapters, following the same overarching structure. First the reader is given a ‘preview’ of the chapter content, followed by the learning objectives. At the end of the chapter the reader is reminded of the content by means of key terms, and a chapter summary, along with recommendations for further reading. Aimed at upper-level undergraduates and graduates in applied linguistics, media studies, journalism, and PR, it also offers additional material, such as online resources, a glossary, and an appendix with analytical tools for multimodal analysis. Each chapter also has activities – both individual ones and group exercises. Together with the learning objectives and the detailed summaries, these elements further reinforce the clear pedagogical stance taken in the book.
Chapter 1 sketches a broad introduction to our nowadays digital society and introduces the reader to media linguistics, and concepts such as ‘mediatization’ and ‘media convergence.’ In chapter 2, public digital communication is approached from the perspective of network theories and theories about the public sphere, sociality and social capital, to mention just a few. This is a quite dense chapter in terms of the number of different perspectives and theories introduced, but the casual and reader-friendly style of the chapter makes it easy to follow. Chapter 3 then moves us from theory to practice, by considering not only how the new digital age can be theorized but also actual changes in writing and meaning-making. The orientation to practice is, however, not completely realized since the chapter also introduces social semiotic theory and multimodality. Following this, chapter 5 is directed at the digitalization in journalism and PR, for instance, detailing the ‘key characteristics of writing in digital environments’ and ‘media ethics.’
Then the book takes on a more practical orientation, which is signaled in the initial ‘Doing’ in chapter 5 and 6: ‘Doing Media Linguistic Research’ and ‘Doing Media Linguistic Analysis.’ These chapters introduce the frameworks and tools for analysis which are later revisited in the case studies of chapter 7. Except for case study 1, which mainly summarizes results of a previous study, the different case studies provide the reader with examples of how an analyst might approach a specific setting or product. Finally, chapter 8 is the most forward-pointing, as it deals with the future developments of public communication and the implications of AI and algorithms. As the chapters mostly can be read as standalones, the reader has the option of zooming in and out, and jumping between chapters according to their own interests and needs.
When writing about communication in a digital era, a potential pitfall is always to over-emphasize the ‘new,’ ‘changed,’ ‘transformed,’ or ‘increasingly x’ nature of communication and sociality. This is also a balancing act that the book performs: on the one hand it dedicates a lot of time and effort into capturing the unique features of communication today, and on the other hand it does not erase the origin and longer historical lines of communication. For instance, the book problematizes the idea of the new as carrying “a strong connotation of being better than the old, being innovative, cutting-edge, progressive, ground-breaking, or even revolutionary” (p. 12). The authors then go on to describe the new as “continuation of certain media traditions”. A nice example of this is also found in the section about media ethics (p. 130), where the historical lines are made explicit to the reader, and the ‘digital’ in ‘digital media ethics’ is given more meaning than just something new and changed. In this matter, I think the authors mainly manage to bridge the new with the old. The result is a thought-provoking book that feels up to date.
As the book introduces different ways of thinking about digital communication, there are an abundance of concepts and definitions. In some cases, though, certain concepts are left too vague and under-specified. An example is the quite central definition of ‘medium,’ where it is described how it can be used for “technical devices, media institutions, channels, or products” (p. 25), but that media linguistics primarily focuses on media as technical devices. In some cases, ‘media’ is used in a more usual meaning, denoting mostly news outlets in general. Another example is ‘mode.’ Here, the book provides the reader with an introduction to the discussions that have been circulating, for instance, about the differentiation between ‘mode’ and ‘medium’ (p. 82). However, no clear argument is presented about the stance taken in this book. As these are central concepts, both could have been more thoroughly explored, perhaps in relation to the distinctions made by Van Leeuwen (2021).
On my wish list is also a more in-depth account for the critical potentials of media linguistic research. There are some hints at the possibility to use media linguistics to “solve real-world problems of communication” (p. 34), and “to uncover shady marketing practices such as greenwashing…” (p. 234), but the actual critical potentials of this field of research are left unarticulated. Do we just need this book to understand contemporary communication, or do we need it to also examine it critically and engage in discussions? Another thing to expand on is the norms and discourses which enable or hinder participation in online communities. Although social networking sites allow people from geographically distant places to connect and interact, research shows that both linguistic accuracy (cf. Heuman, 2020; Švelch, 2015) and certain norms and ideas (Lee, 2017; Stommel and Koole, 2010) will influence if a participant is included or not. In terms of journalistic writing, some sections on how journalistic content must adapt to the logics of social media platforms and algorithms would have also enriched the book.
Perhaps more importantly, the book would have benefitted from a stronger linguistic perspective. Early in the book, it is described how media linguistic researchers “make use of methods from
With that said and returning to the contribution of the book as a whole, Digital Communication and Media Linguistics is an accessible and relevant book that provides insights into contemporary mediated communication. It will no doubt be of use to students and people seeking a career in journalism and communication.