625 - 630 Jones EHG.indd 627Palabra Clave - ISSN: 0122-8285 - Vol.16 No. 2 - Agosto de 2013 Jones, E.H.G., and Uribe-Jongbloed, E. (Eds.). (2013). Social Media and Minority Languages: Convergence and the Creative Industries. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Kyle Conway (University of North Dakota, USA, kyle.conway@und.edu) Social Media and Minority Languages is a collection of timely, metic- ulous reports about minority language media (MLM) in the era of conver- gence. In di!erent ways, the contributors all address the question of how MLM can strengthen language use and speakers’ sense of belonging to a linguistic and cultural community. "ey adopt an engaged approach and investigate a wide range of phenomena, such as the tensions between cen- tralized and decentralized modes of production and between passive and active modes of reception. "e book is divided into three parts sandwiched between an intro- duction and a conclusion. In the introduction, Donald R . Browne and En- rique Uribe-Jongbloed provide a thorough overview of the state of MLM research. "ey begin with the historical development of MLM, from news- papers to radio to television. "ey identify #ve factors that have in$uenced the development MLM, including 1) the cost and availability of technol- ogy (for reception historically and production more recently), 2) the eco- nomic viability of MLM outlets (based on the potential audience size), 3) the presence of social movements that seek to provide a minority voice, 4) the resistance by members of the “national” community who are suspi- cious of minority voices, and 5) the perceived utility of MLM to the ma- jority community (i.e., whether MLM outlets are worth the expense). "ey also provide an overview of MLM research in which they identify 1995 as a turning point a%er which research increased dramatically. "ey conclude with a list of future perspectives for MLM research, including 1) language (standards, dialects, and language instruction), 2) professionalism (as MLM norms converge with and deviate from “mainstream” media norms), 3) #- nancing, and #nally 4) the development of a sense of community among minority language speakers organized around MLM outlets. 628 Reseña Jones, E.H.G., and Uribe-Jongbloed, E. (Eds.). (2013). - Kyle Conway Part 1 includes three chapters on MLM theory. Uribe-Jongbloed (chap. 1) asks a series of conceptual questions about the trade-o!s and contradictions of policy-driven and user-driven approaches to media as the boundaries between formerly distinct technologies blur. László Vincze and Tom Moring (chap. 2), working within the uses-and-grati#cations tradition of media studies, ask whether “ethnolinguistic identity can be a motivation- al factor worth considering when studying the impact of media on language minorities” (p. 47). Elin Haf Gru!ydd Jones (chap. 3) reconsiders the role of media as indices of linguistic vitality. Historically, she says, such indices have privileged interaction in community, but in the convergence era, no- tions of “interaction” and “community” have both moved online. Part 2 examines social networking, and part 3 examines the creative media industries, with a focus on radio and television. "e distinction is arti#cial, of course, because of the way users incorporate televisual content into their social networks, either directly (through hyperlinks) or indirect- ly (through their discussions of TV), and the chapters at the end of part 2 might have #t equally well in part 3. "e fourteen chapters in these sections present a wide range of brief reports that each address one main point, al- though they address their respective points well. ("eir brevity seems due to the fact they were originally papers presented at a conference.) "ey ad- dress the combinations of language and media described in Table 1. "eir methods are also varied. "ey include quantitative approaches, including surveys, sampling, and various forms of content analysis (Dunli!e et al. [chap. 4], Wagner [chap. 5], Johnson [chap. 6], and Cunli!e and ap Dyfrig [chap. 8]) and ethnographic/participatory approaches (Dołowy-Ry- bińska [chap. 7] and Lysaght [chap. 16]). "ey also draw on policy analysis, o%en in light of authors’ professional experience (Law [chap. 11], O’Con- nell [chap. 13], Cordonet and Forniès [chap. 13], Chalmers et al. [chap. 14], and Pavón and Zuberogoitia [chap. 15]). In the #nal chapter, Mike Cormack returns to the book’s central theme, MLM in the era of convergence: “But if the raison d’être [of MLM studies] is language, the question arises as to how media—and more spe- ci#cally, new media—can be used to help languages” (p. 255). New media 629Palabra Clave - ISSN: 0122-8285 - Vol.16 No. 2 - Agosto de 2013 pose a range of conceptual challenges: notions of text and audience rooted in broadcasting cannot be translated easily to the internet because hyper- texts do not necessarily have a stable form and internet users are far more individuated than the term “audience” implies. "e book coheres well in its structure. "e case studies in parts 2 and 3 are valuable on their own as contributions to the empirical study of MLM, but they also provide material for the inductive approach the authors take in the more theoretical sections of the book. Indeed, throughout the book, the authors make explicit links with the work of the other contributors (a bene#t, no doubt, of the book’s origins in a conference). "e book’s main weakness, however, is the brevity of the case studies. For instance, Bea Nar- baiza and her coauthors (chap. 17) interviewed managers at eight Europe- an media companies, who described the di!erent industrial and cultural factors that in$uence which communities get broadcasts in their language and which do not. But Narbaiza et al. relate these discussions in a rather cursory way and, while their summary identi#es the major factors manag- Table 1: Media and languages examined in parts 2 and 3 Medium Internet Television Radio Film Language Welsh Cunli!e et al. (chap. 4); Johnson (chap. 6); Cunli!e and ap Dyfrig (chap. 8) Luxembourgish Wagner (chap. 5) Kashubian Dołowy-Rybińska (chap. 7) Catalan Cordonet and Forniès (chap. 13) Irish O’Connell (chap. 12) Lysaght (chap. 16) O’Connell (chap. 12); Gaelic (Sco)ish) Chalmers et al. (chap. 14) Basque Pavón and Zubero- goitia (chap. 15) Māori Lysaght (chap. 16) multiple Mac Uidhilin (chap. 9); Lacour et al. (chap. 10) Narbaiza et al. (chap. 17) Law (chap. 11) 630 Reseña Jones, E.H.G., and Uribe-Jongbloed, E. (Eds.). (2013). - Kyle Conway ers consider, it seems they might have a lot more to say about the relation- ships between languages and the construction of “national” audiences. "e interplay between the theory chapters and the case studies sug- gests another way the book’s analysis might expand the range of questions scholars ask about MLM. Various chapters hint at (but do not explore in much depth) the links between language, community, and geography. "ese questions are central to those media scholars who ask more broadly about globalization. As Jan Nederveen Pieterse (2009) writes, “What globaliza- tion means in structural terms [...] is the increase in the available modes of organization: transnational, international, macroregional, national, microre- gional, municipal, local” (pp. 72–73, emphasis in original). Mapping where minority language speakers are located, how they move, and how they use MLM could provide insight into how people experience these modes of or- ganization. "at insight, in turn, could provide answers to questions about language use and people’s sense of community, especially as it expands to include virtual communities on the internet. "e idea that it might be possible to expand this research, however, does not detract from the quality of Social Media and Minority Languages as it stands. It is a solid contribution to the literature on MLM, and it will be of interest not only to MLM scholars but also to communication schol- ars, linguists, sociologists, and others interested in language, media, and community. References Nederveen Pieterse, J. (2009). Globalization and Culture: Global Mélange (2nd ed.). New York: Rowman and Li)le#eld.