Text-messages (SMS): language attitudes and ideological representations in the Greek press

This study aims to explore the language attitudes towards text-messages (SMS), as they appear in the Greek press. The analysis of the data (31 articles, published in Greek newspapers from 2001 to 2003) follows the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis. In line with this framework, the analysis focuses on language choices that construct and sustain ideological representations and beliefs regarding language and communication in text-messaging. Furthermore, this study particularly examines specific journalistic practices, such as the practice of recycling news in different publications and contexts. It is argued that the meta-discourse on language use in new technologies, as documented in the specific publications, reproduces local language ideologies, which had been prevalent in the past, as well as ideological representations that abound in similar publications of foreign, primarily English, press. In other words, the study of the specific newspaper articles reveals how local and global ideologies interplay in the construction of the 'SMS language' myth.