Globalization, Discourse, Media: In a Critical Perspective

This volume deals with communicative, social and media-related aspects of discourses under globalization. In one way or another, all the contributions touch upon issues relating to new multilingualism and new multiculturalism, which are being propelled worldwide by politically and economically motivated processes of migration. The pivotal topics covered are: postmodern social identities (esp. national, transnational and consumer identities), linguistic and cultural variation and change under the influence of global English and new technologies, as well as the ideologization of public discourses and that of the media in particular. The chapters are united by their focus on in-depth critical interpretations of public (often political) discourses. While most of the contributions are couched in a Critical Discourse Analysis framework, room has been made for cognate interdisciplinary approaches to social communication. Alongside well grounded empirical studies, this volume features innovative theoretical reflections and proposals of how new approaches and methods for investigating social and linguistic phenomena might be employed to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The bilingual format of this volume (English and German) affords the possibility to elucidate on language- and culture- based variation and on how these respective issues are academically researched and socially mediated.