Jamaican Creole and Social Media: Acceptance in a postcolonial era?
2019 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (One Year)), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
As indicated by scholars dedicated to the Caribbean postcolonial realm, at the level of Celia Britton, in the postcolonial era, language continues to be a battleground for former colonial societies. As Britton argues, the colonial language has emphasized otherness within these societies and has become an avenue of social promotion for an elite group of the colonized. Within these societies, the colonial language is still the formal language and is given high prestige while the language of the decolonized people continues to be frowned upon. Jamaican Creole falls within the category of languages that suffers from low prestige. Nevertheless, there seems to be a current pushback from the people who, through interactive computer-mediated technologies, have obtained a voice of their own and are no longer confined by traditional forms of media. In this context, this paper presents both a qualitative and quantitative study of the perspective of the modern-day Jamaican citizen regarding Jamaican Creole. The findings of this research show that Jamaicans are moving towards the acceptance of its Creole while wielding social media as an avenue through which this social change is occurring.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Malmö universitet/Kultur och samhälle , 2019. , p. 58
Keywords [en]
Jamaica, Creole, social media, languages, postcolonialism, cultural hybridity, creolization, Jamaican Creole.
National Category
Social Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-21278Local ID: 30093OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-21278DiVA, id: diva2:1481184
Educational program
KS K3 Communication for development
Supervisors
Examiners
2020-10-272020-10-27Bibliographically approved