REVIEW: Carving a niche for minority language media studies not so easy

Abstract

Book review of: Social Media and Minority Languages: Convergence and the Creative Industries, edited by Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones and Enrique Uribe-Jongbloed. Bristol, UK: Multilinguial Matters, 2013, 267pp. ISBN 9781847699046

Whenever a new field of research emerges a lot of shuffling and sorting of knowledge is required to establish a niche, to define its boundaries, to encourage acknowledgement of the area and to stimulate debate concerning the application of various methodologies and theoretical frameworks. This is the case with Social Media and Minority Languages: Convergence and the Creative Industries. The catalyst for the book’s production, as implied by the title, is the technological advancement of social media, the resulting convergence of media in the digital age, and perhaps most importantly the positive and negative effects these have on minority or minoritised languages. Yet in reviewing its 17 chapters by more than 30 authors, it is clear the overall objective appears to be strongly focused on the reinforcement of Minority Language Media (MLM) as a field of study distinct from mainstream media studies because of its specific concern with ‘how media can be used to help languages’ (p. 255).