The Media and the Message: The Promotion and Implementation of Language Planning in Print, Broadcasts, and on the Internet

Abstract

Given the extent to which the mass media permeate modern society, one would intuitively assume that they must play a key role in the codification and dissemination of the norms of standard languages, as well as in shaping attitudes towards these languages among their communities of users. However, the situation is complex, and the media may be simultaneously viewed both as models of standard usage and as corrupters of those standards. In the Croatian context, Hudeček and Mihaljević state in their textbook The language of the media: The journalistic functional style (Jezik medija: Publicisticki funkcionalni stil, 2009: 7) that ‘the mass media have a great influence on the linguistic culture of every individual’. According to them, while norms of usage can be best verified in the language of journalism, at the same time established norms are also most easily ‘destroyed’ in this style (10). These authors lament the state of the language in the Croatian media, the lack of respect for its norms, and the numerous mistakes that can be observed at all linguistic levels. They assert that journalists:

should use language that is consistent with the demands of the norms of the standard language and should be conscious of their responsibility, which is a result of the fact that readers, listeners, and viewers every day follow their language and that many of them form their linguistic consciousness in this way. (Hudeček and Mihaljevic 2009: 10–11)