m 4

INTRODUCTION

have been simult aneously listening to the radio and driving cars or watching TV
and
¡:AN-GUAGE ANO
MEDIATION 5

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l

talking to their family members for man y years.

This example, then, highlights a couple of important points about lan
guage and
media:
First, media are complicated:

O They can indude all sorts of things from buildings to furniture, to paintings
, to
photographs to electronic devices to internet platforms.
□ Toey are often connected to or used together with other media in complex ways.
O Toey affect the kinds of messages we can transmit to others, how those messages
can be formulated, y.rho can formulate those messages, who can receive them, and
what recipients can do with-them.
O They ha.ve an effect on the way people experience the world-in fact, all our expe­
riences of the world are in one way or another mediated (see beow).
O People often have strong feelings ·about where, when, and how different media
ought to be used.. •···

Second, language is complicated:

O It can include all sorts of things from verbal language (both written and spokeri)
to various kinds of non-verbal language such as 'body lan guage; the 'lan age' of
gu
images, of sounds, or music, and the 'language' of synibols such as emojis.
O Different kinds of 1anguage' are often used together and understanding what
a message 'means' depends upon how these different kinds of 1an age' work
gu
together.
___ .. ....._
O We don't just use these different 1anguages' to 1:11ake meaning, but alsQ.!.o do things
�
with and to other people (such as thanking, apologizing, requesting, áttracti.ng
people's attention, or complaining about things like the. way teenagers u�e their
mobile phones), to show that we are certain kinds of people (such as 'tech-savvy
tweeps' or 'sophisticated art lovers'), and to create certain kinds of relationships
with the people we are communi
° cating with or communicating about.
O Messages communicatea through different kinds of1an age' never just commu­
gu
nicate 'facts; they always communicate somebody's point ofview.