Ways of Reading Third Edition - Martin Montgomery, Alan Durant, Nigel Fabb, Tom Furniss, Sara Mills 2007

6.7 Dialect and accent in media
Unit 6 Language and place
Section 2 Language variation

Film and television have largely inherited, and helped maintain, the legacy of associating character stereotypes with particular accents or dialects. The simple fact of mass exposure in media, however, can alter the standing of entire dialects and accents. Soundtracks of Hollywood films in the 1930s, for instance, were sometimes thought incomprehensible in Britain - a fact hardly believable now. US radio announcers imitated British accents until around 1930, before the conventions were established of what has come to be called the Network Standard variety of American English. It was only later, most obviously in popular music and popular culture, that the trend of transatlantic influence was reversed.

In Britain, exposure to regional, class and ethnic dialects and accents on radio and television has increased massively over the last two decades, a social change that has already had a significant effect on accent connotations and stereotypes. Over time, such increased exposure will almost certainly contribute to language change. It remains unclear, however, how current media adoption of a wide range of varieties of English will affect future systems of accent and dialect significance. Rather than abolishing the kinds of hierarchy among varieties illustrated above, changing media use of accents and dialects may only alter the underlying system of relative prestige and connotation. New and different meanings may be conferred within a system of contrasts that has only been locally adjusted to match changing patterns and conflicts in social identity and aspiration.