The Sociolinguistics of South African Television

Language Ideologies in Selected Case Studies

Abstract

With The Sociolinguistics of South African Television: Language Ideologies in Selected Case Studies, Dr Kealeboga Aiseng presents critical perspectives on the sociolinguistics of South African television in the post-Apartheid era. He first places broadcasting, specifically television in a historical timeline of colonial and apartheid policies which in the main privileged English and Afrikaans, while marginalizing indigenous languages. Such demonstrates that the then government understood that one of the ways to maintain hegemony is through imposing a language or languages to the day to day political, communication and social diet of a nation. But as the book finds, not all languages are equal.