Professional journalists are trained how to write and speak and to choose their wording according to their target audience. In this presentation I look at possible factors that influence language choice in German radio journalism. I focus particularly on globalisation and Pieterse’s (2009) question about hybridity and cultural development. Furthermore, I look at the media system, the station and the individual, which shape journalistic work (Shoemaker and Reese 2014; Preston 2008; Esser 1998). I analyse attitudes of journalists towards the usage of anglicisms in broadcasting content, based on a qualitative analysis of interviews I have undertaken with 19 journalists and journalists working in editorial positions involved in the production of morning show programmes on German radio. In order to think in new ways about language choice in professional journalism, I apply Blommaert’s concept of the sociolinguistics of mobility (2010), where I outline how different orders of indexicality are determined by different centres of authority, which can influence how language is used in radio journalism. My results indicate how professional journalists talk about language choice and the usage of anglicisms as part of their daily speech acts, which feeds back to how Blommaert talks about complex language phenomena associated with globalisation. Particular attention is paid as to whether journalists follow a certain strategy when they use anglicisms in their broadcasting content. The discussion is supported by data from my qualitative research.
References:
Blommaert, Jan. 2010. The Sociolinguistics of Globalization. Cambridge Approaches to Language Contact. Cambridge, UK ; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Esser, Frank. 1998. Die Kräfte hinter den Schlagzeilen: englischer und deutscher Journalismus im Vergleich. Alber-Reihe Kommunikation, Bd. 23. Freiburg: K. Alber.
Pieterse, Jan Nederveen. 2009. Globalization and Culture: Global Mélange. 2nd ed. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield.
Preston, Paschal. 2008. Making the News: Journalism and News Cultures in Europe. New York: Routledge.
Shoemaker, Pamela J, and Stephen D Reese. 2014. Mediating the Message in the 21st Century: A Media Sociology Perspective. New York: Routledge.
