Cover not available

Article published In: Thematising Multilingualism in the Media
Edited by Helen Kelly-Holmes and Tommaso M. Milani
[Journal of Language and Politics 10:4] 2011
► pp. 511–534

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Sex, lies and thematising Irish

New media, old discourses?

 | University of Limerick
Published online: 5 December 2011
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.10.4.03kel
Thematising Irish in the media reflects the complex and contradictory sociolinguistic and language-ideological situation in Ireland. This article explores some of that complexity by investigating a thread on an online discussion forum on the subject of the first ever party leaders’ debate in Irish that took place during the 2011 general election in Ireland. In the discussion thread, three particular discourses emerge: a “discourse of truth” about Irish as lacking both authority as a national language and authenticity as a minority language of a recognizable ethnic group; a discourse of “them and us”; involving a differentiation between “Irish speakers” and “non-Irish speakers”, largely based on notions of competence; and, finally, a newly emerging discourse of “sexy Irish”, which signals a commodification of Irish speakers as young, beautiful and mediatisable. The features of the forum and the online, real-time evolution of the discussion thread impact in a number of ways upon these discourses and ideologies. However, despite the possibilities afforded by the forum, which are utilized by posters for performing Irish in different ways, these everyday practices are effectively erased and invalidated by the prevailing discourses, which rely strongly on the notion of bilingualism as parallel and discrete monolingualisms.
References (43)
References
Androutsopoulos, Jannis. 2007. Bilingualism in the mass media and on the internet. In: Monica Heller (ed.). Bilingualism: A Social Approach. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 207–30. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Androutsopoulous, Jannis. 2010. Localizing the global on the participatory web. In: Nikolas Coupland (ed.). The Handbook of Language and Globalization. Malden: Blackwell, 203–231.
Atkinson, David and Kelly-Holmes, Hele. 2011. Codeswitching, identity and ownership in Irish radio comedy. Pragmatics 43(1), 251–260. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blackledge, Adrian. 2004. Constructions of identity in political discourse in multilingual Britain. In: Aneta Pavlenko and Adrian Blackledge (eds). Negotiations of Identities in Multilingual Contexts. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 68–92.
. 2010. Doing more harm than good: Racialisation of a debate about language in a BBC News item. In: Sally Johnson and Tommaso M. Milani (eds). 2010. Language Ideologies and Media Discourse: Texts, Practices, Politics. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blommaert, Jan (ed.). 1999. Language Ideological Debates. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. The Sociolinguistics of Globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boltor, Jay D. and Richard Grusin. 2000. Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duchêne, Alexandre and Heller, Monica (eds). 2007. Discourses of Endangerment. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fairclough, Norman. 1992. Language and Power. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gal, Susan, and Woolard, Kathryn (eds). 2001. Languages and Publics: The Making of Authority. Manchester: St. Jerome’s Press.
Heller, Monica. 2006. Linguistic Minorities and Modernity: A Sociolinguistic Ethnography, 2nd edn. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Herring, Susan C.. 2004. Computer-mediated discourse analysis: An approach to researching online communities. In: Sasha A. Barab, Rob Kling and James H. Gray (eds). Designing for Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning. Cambridge, UK. and New York: Cambridge University Press, 338–376. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Irvine, Judith. T. and Gal, Susa. 2000. Language ideology and linguistic differentiation. In: Paul V. Kroskrity (ed.). Regimes of Language, Ideologies, Polities and Identities. Santa Fe, NM: SAR Press, 35–83.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jaffe, Alexandra. 2007. Minority language movements. In: Monica Heller (ed.) Bilingualism: A Social Approach. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 50–70. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jaworski, Adam. 2007. Language in the media: Authenticity and othering. In: Sally Johnson and Astrid Ensslin (eds). Language in the Media: Representations, Identities, Ideologies. London: Continuum, 271–280.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kelly-Holmes, Helen. (ed.). 2001. Minority Language Broadcasting: Breton and Irish. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. Operation Sexy Irish. Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, San Jose, USA, Novembe. 2006.
. 2010. Rethinking the macro-micro relationship: Some insights from the marketing domain. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2021, 25–40.
Kelly-Holmes, Helen and David Atkinson. 2007. When Hector met Tom Cruise: attitudes to Irish in a radio satire. In: Sally Johnson and Astrid Ensslin (eds.) Language in the Media: Representations, Identities, Ideologies. London: Continuum, 173–87.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kelly-Holmes, Helen, Moriarty, Máiréad, and Pietikäinen, Sar. 2009. Convergence and divergence in Basque, Irish and Sámi media language policing. Language and Policy 8(3), 227–242.
Mac Giolla Chríost, Diarmait. 2005. The Irish Language in Ireland: From Goídel to Globalisation., London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. Micro-level language planning in Ireland. Current Issues in Language Planning 7(2–3), 230–250.
Makoni, Sinfree and Pennycook, Alastai. 2007. Disinventing and reconstituting languages. In: Sinfree Makoni and Alastair Pennycook (eds). Disinventing and Reconstituting Languages. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, 1–41.
Milani, Tommaso M.. 2008. Language testing and citizenship: A language ideological debate in Sweden. Language in Society 37(1), 27–59. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. What’s in a name: Language ideology and social differentiation in a Swedish print-mediated debate. Journal of Sociolinguistics 10(1), 116–142. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moore, Robert E., Pietikäinen, Sari and Blommaert, Ja. 2010. Counting the losses: Numbers as the language of language endangerment. Sociolinguistic Studies 4(1), 1–26.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
O’Connell, Eithne, Walsh, John and Denvir, Gearód (eag.). 2008. TG4@10: deich mbliana de TG4/ten years of TG4. Indreabhán, Co. na Gaillimhe: Cló Iar-Chonnachta.
Ó Laoire, Muiris. 2008. The language situation in Ireland: An update. In: Robert Kaplan and Richard Baldauf (eds). Language Planning and Policy in Europe, Vol. 31: The Baltic States, Ireland and Italy. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, 193–261. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pietikäinen, Sari and Kelly-Holmes, Helen. 2011. Gifting, service, and performance: Three eras in minority-language media policy and practice International Journal of Applied Linguistics 21(1), 51–70. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schiffman, Harold. 1996. Linguistic Culture and Language Policy: The Politics of Language. London and New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shohamy, Elena. 2006. Language Policy: Hidden Agendas and New Approaches. London and New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ricento, Thomas. 2006. Language policy: theory and practice: an introduction. In: Thomas Ricento (ed.). An Introduction to Language Policy: Theory and Method. Oxford: Blackwell, 10–23.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Dijk, Teun A. 1995. Discourse semantics and ideology. Discourse & Society 6(2), 243–289. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Watson, Iarfhlaith. 2003. Broadcasting in Irish: Minority Language, Radio, Television and Identity. Dublin: Four Courts Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. Recent and current trends in Irish language broadcasting. In: John Horgan and Helena Sheehan (eds). Mapping Irish Media. Dublin: UCD Press, 49–62.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth and Wright, Scott. 2007. The European Union in cyberspace. Journal of Language and Politics 5(2), 251–275. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Woolard, Kathryn. 2011. When the Linguistic Medium is the Message: The Linguistics of Political Parody and Politics of Linguistic Parody in Catalonia. Plenary delivered at the 4th International Language in the Media Conference, University of Limerick, Ireland, Jun. 2011.
Wright, Scott and Street, John. 2007. Democracy, deliberation and design: The case of online discussion forums. New Media and Society 9(5), 849–869. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wright, Sue. 2005. Language Policy and Language Planning: From Nationalism to Globalisation. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
www.boards.ie — verified 30th Augus. 2011.
Cited by (11)

Cited by 11 other publications

Heuman, Anna
2022. Trivializing language correctness in an online metalinguistic debate. Language & Communication 82 ► pp. 52 ff. DOI logo
Day, Rosemary & John Walsh
2020. Building a language community through radio in the age of social media: The case of Raidió na Life. Radio Journal:International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media 18:1 ► pp. 79 ff. DOI logo
Atkinson, David
2018. Catalan and Spanish in an independent Catalonia: Linguistic authority and officiality. Language in Society 47:5 ► pp. 763 ff. DOI logo
Brennan, Sara C.
2018. Advocating commodification: an ethnographic look at the policing of Irish as a commercial asset. Language Policy 17:2 ► pp. 157 ff. DOI logo
Jaworska, Sylvia & Christiana Themistocleous
2018. Public discourses on multilingualism in the UK: Triangulating a corpus study with a sociolinguistic attitude survey. Language in Society 47:1 ► pp. 57 ff. DOI logo
Van Hoof, Sarah
2018. Civilization versus commerce: on the sociolinguistic effects of the deregulation of the TV market on Flemish public service broadcasting. Language Policy 17:2 ► pp. 199 ff. DOI logo
Dlaske, Kati
2017. Music video covers, minoritised languages, and affective investments in the space of YouTube. Language in Society 46:4 ► pp. 451 ff. DOI logo
Kelly-Holmes, Helen & David Atkinson
2017. Perspectives on Language Sustainability in a Performance Era: Discourses, Policies, and Practices in a Digital and Social Media Campaign to Revitalise Irish. Open Linguistics 3:1 DOI logo
Atkinson, David & Helen Kelly-Holmes
2016. Exploring language attitudes and ideologies in university students’ discussion of Irish in a context of increasing language diversity. Language and Intercultural Communication 16:2 ► pp. 199 ff. DOI logo
Chambers, Angela, David Atkinson & Fiona Farr
2015. Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Limerick, Ireland. Language Teaching 48:2 ► pp. 288 ff. DOI logo
Shaikjee, Mooniq & Tommaso Milani
2013. ‘It’s time for Afrikaans to go’ . . . or not? Language ideologies and (ir)rationality in the blogosphere. Language Matters 44:2 ► pp. 92 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue