Style as a unifying perspective for the sociolinguistics of talking media

Abstract Through a retrospective discussion of Chapters 2–11, this chapter elaborates on the idea offered in the Introduction (Chapter 1) that style can serve as a unifying perspective for sociolinguistics, and for sociolinguistic approaches to talking media in particular. Style offers a coherent theoretical and empirical framework for analyzing social meaning making in any context of social interaction, but it has particular relevance and distinctive nuances in the analysis of talking media. This is because technologically mediated talk, while being highly differentiated in itself, is quintessentially a styling and stylizing medium, richly active in many aspects of style. It is able to deploy particular contextualization devices that are not generally available in face-to-face interaction. Correspondingly, as the historical process of mediatization progresses, the production and uptake of technologically mediated talk proceed against changing background assumptions about the meanings of sociolinguistic diversity, while also continuously contributing to diverse processes of sociolinguistic change.