Vitalidad etnolingüística, medios de comunicación e identidad étnica. Un estudio con grupos indígenas de Chiapas (Mexico) [Ethnolinguistic vitality, mass media, and ethnic identity: A study with indigenous groups in the Chiapas (Mexico)]

Authors

  • Maria Àngels Viladot Universidad Oberta de Catalunya Author
  • Howard Giles University of California, Santa Barbara Author
  • Jessica Gasiorek University of California, Santa Barbara Author
  • Moises Esteban Guitart Universidad de Girona Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v6i3.471

Keywords:

Ethnic identity, Intergroup relations, Mass media, Uses and gratifications theory, Ethnolinguistic vitality

Abstract

This study is the first exploration of television use and program selection by indigenous groups in Chiapas (Mexico); more specifically, how members of these groups select specific media messages for reasons of ethnicity, and how this is related to social mobility strategies is examined. Data from 173 indigenous students of the Intercultural University of Chiapas indicated that watching television and selecting programs on the basis of their ethnicity is an important viewing activity for 77 members of this sample. These results encourage more programmatic future research on these issues in Chiapas and are discussed in terms of the representation of ethnic groups there on TV. Este estudio es la primera exploración del uso de la televisión y la selección de programas por parte de grupos indígenas en Chiapas. Más específicamente, se examina cómo los miembros de estos grupos seleccionan mensajes específicos de los medios por razones de etnicidad, y cómo esto tiene que ver con las estrategias de movilidad social. Los datos de 146 indígenas estudiantes de la Universidad Intercultural de Chiapas indicaron que ver televisión y seleccionar programas sobre la base de su origen étnico es una importante actividad de visualización para 77 miembros de esta muestra. Estos resultados se discuten en términos de la representación de los grupos étnicos que aparecen en la televisión y motivan a la realización de futuras investigaciones sobre estos temas en Chiapas

Author Biographies

  • Maria Àngels Viladot, Universidad Oberta de Catalunya
    Maria-Àngels Viladot is Professor of Multilingualism, and Intergroup Communication at the Open University of Catalonia, Spain. Her research interests focus mainly on the dynamics of intergroup communication, particularly as these relate to gender relations, and language attitudes. She has published papers in International Journal of the Sociology of Language; Multilingua: Journal of Cross- Cultural and Interlanguage Communication; Communication Studies, among other journals. She has published several books on ethnolinguistic vitality, intercultural communication and gender. In 2014 Peter Lang (USA) will publish Gender at work: a social psychologycal perspective, written in collaboration with Melanie Steffens (University of Jena, Germany). This will also be published in German by Springer.
  • Howard Giles, University of California, Santa Barbara
    Howard Giles is Professor of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. His research interests focus mainly on the dynamics of intergroup communication, particularly as these relate to intergenerational relations, encounters between police and community, and language attitudes. He has published widely and was the Editor of The handbook of intergroup communication (Routledge, 2012) and is a Founding Editor of the Journal of Language and Social Psychology as well as the Journal of Asian Pacific Communication.
  • Jessica Gasiorek, University of California, Santa Barbara
    Jessica Gasiorek is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is interested in social cognition and intergroup communication. Her research and publications focus on how people explain, evaluate and respond to poorly adjusted or problematic communication, and what consequences this has.
  • Moises Esteban Guitart, Universidad de Girona
    Moisès Esteban-Guitart is assistant professor at the department of Psychology, University of Girona, Spain. His research addresses the connections among culture, identity and education, especially in relation to the construction of identity in multicultural settings. He has published articles in Mind, Culture, & Psychology; Narrative Inquiry; Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, among other journals; and chapters in the Encyclopedia of critical psychology (Springer, 2013) and in the International handbook of research on children's literacy, learning and culture (John Wiley & Sons, 2013).

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Additional Files

Published

2013-08-03

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 3 (2012)

Section

Articles

License

© Equinox Publishing Ltd.

For information regarding our Open Access policy, click here.

How to Cite

Viladot, M. Àngels, Giles, H., Gasiorek, J., & Esteban Guitart, M. (2013). Vitalidad etnolingüística, medios de comunicación e identidad étnica. Un estudio con grupos indígenas de Chiapas (Mexico) [Ethnolinguistic vitality, mass media, and ethnic identity: A study with indigenous groups in the Chiapas (Mexico)]. Sociolinguistic Studies, 6(3), 471-490. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v6i3.471