Conference Presentation: Voicing ‘Sexy Text’
Lauren Squires presented her paper, Voicing ‘Sexy Text’: TV News Representations of the Detroit Text Messaging Scandal at the Language in the (New) Media conference in Seattle, Sept. 2-5.
Abstract:
The print media have tended to represent computer‐mediated communication, including text messaging, in a negative light and as a youth‐based practice (cf. Thurlow 2003, 2006; Crystal 2008). Yet as CMC’s use continues to expand, so does its media representation. This paper addresses the representation of text messaging as practiced by adults, through a case study of TV news coverage of text messages. In 2008, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick resigned after thousands of text messages implicated him in a range of offenses, including an affair with his Chief of Staff. Messages sent by the Mayor and other city employees became the centerpiece of local public and political discourse about the events, variously named “text‐gate,” “text messaging scandal,” and “sexy text scandal.” The scandal thus compelled local media to talk about particular adults’ text messaging practices and to represent the language used therein. This case affords an exploration of how text messaging is represented in non‐youth contexts, and moreover of how TV broadcasts use multiple modalities as representational resources when “translating” texts for a TV audience. The data comprise over 100 instances of text messages that are read aloud by TV news anchors in scandal coverage, from three Detroit stations. In analyzing how the fundamentally visual language of the text messages is represented through both visual and oral modalities, several representational variables at different levels of language and discourse structure will be discussed, including:
1) replication (the messages’ reproduction on‐screen and aloud);
2) intonation (the messages’ intonational marking);
3) organization (the messages’ sequential presentation);
4) framing (the messages’ introductions).
Preliminary analysis shows that in general, the act of texting is represented as ordinarily conversational, involving rapid back‐and‐forth exchange between two participants. However, the language used within texting is represented through a “read speech” style, and broadcasters gloss stereotypical “CMC” lexical items (e.g., lol) into standard language or omit them altogether. Hence, while the broadcasters’ presentation treats the fact of these messages’ transmission through text as generally unremarkable, novel features or uses of the medium tend to be either metalinguistically highlighted or erased.