Unraveling linguistic use to find norm: the new role of communicators and their influence on language

Abstract

The role of journalists as sources of information and influence on language use has undergone a radical transformation in the digital communication environment. To study this reality, we created a framework called the Massive Social Model (MMS), which is useful for examining communication currently and explaining how journalists and other communicators intervene in the dissemination of language and what other factors influence them. The model was implemented with the selection of sixteen expressions, born or driven by the use of the Internet and social networks, which were tracked in El País, El Mundo, and 20 Minutos. Some voices clashed between the original language and the adaptation to Spanish (calque, substitution, or translation) to recognize the preference of journalists, as well as the reasons for that choice. The analysis of the corpus allowed us to conclude which elements of the MMS intervene in the inclusion of certain words in journalistic language.