Open AccessMedia Language Planning During a Pandemic – the Influence of Covid-19 on Language Recommendations to Swedish Media in Finland
Author(s) -
Jenny Stenberg-Sirén,
AUTHOR_ID
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal on ethnopolitics and minority issues in europe
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1617-5247
DOI - 10.53779/sfjk2096
Subject(s) - terminology , language industry , political science , language planning , pandemic , covid-19 , linguistics , public relations , sociology , comprehension approach , language education , medicine , pedagogy , philosophy , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
A global crisis, like the Covid-19 pandemic, can change not only societies but also languages by a great input of new terminology. For speakers of a minority language, media is in a key position to provide them with these new words in their own language. In the case of Finland-Swedish, the Swedish media in Finland is helped by professional language advisers in this language planning task. This study analyses the media language management in Finland-Swedish media, through a content analysis of language recommendations published between February 2020 and April 2021, as well as interviews with media language advisers. The analysis shows that about a quarter of the language recommendations published during these 15 months are coronavirus-related. The topics in the recommendations follow the development of the outbreak in Finland, showing how closely the language advisers work with the news organizations. Contrary to normal situations, the Finland-Swedish media language advisers could not fully rely on the language recommendations from Sweden, due to their different Covid-19 strategies. Instead, the norm authorities were experts in ministries and official institutions, illustrating how language planning is done collectively. The Finland-Swedish journalists rely heavily on the media language recommendations, showing a certain linguistic insecurity, which according to Muhr (2012) is typical for speakers of non-dominant varieties of a pluricentric language.