Understanding the role of broadcast media in sound change

Abstract

The idea that broadcast media can be a factor in sound change has been widely and controversially debated. This chapter outlines the main posits, issues, and evidence surrounding the ongoing debates and offers a new empirical perspective on the subject matter. It hypothesizes that mass media may be the primary factor initiating and promoting sound change if there are limited opportunities for face-to-face contact, with media being the only or main source of exposure to sound innovation and dialectal variability. Such situations occur frequently during second language acquisition, which is the focus of the study discussed in the chapter. Eighteen German teenage learners of English were divided into two groups and asked to watch either a British or an American television series daily for the duration of two consecutive weeks. Comparisons of sound productions recorded before and after the two-week exposure period revealed significant changes in the participants’ frequency of /t/-flapping and rhoticity, in the direction predicted by the media accommodation account. In line with previous discussions, the observed influence of the media was partly moderated by the participants’ emotional involvement with the series they watched. A change towards the televised variety was observed primarily in high-involvement (but not in low-involvement) speakers. The chapter concludes with a discussion that aims to inspire innovative directions in future research of this much-debated topic that currently lacks pertinent empirical study.