Original title: Multilingualism, Linguistic Justice and the EU Communication Deficit on Social Media
The article looks at nearly 400,000 posts from EU institutions and leaders on Twitter/X. It checks which languages they use and compares that with the language skills of EU residents. Most accounts mainly use English, but the European Parliament has separate accounts for different languages. The result is a gap: English posts are readily accessible to only a minority of residents.
Imagine a school sending important notices to families. If most notices arrive in one language, many families may struggle to understand them. In this paper, the notices are EU posts, and the families are EU residents: English-heavy communication can leave many people with less access, while separate language accounts help reach more readers.
When EU institutions communicate mainly in English, many residents may find their messages harder to access. That can affect who can take part in public discussion and how legitimate those institutions seem.
The abstract describes language use on Twitter/X and its relationship to residents’ language competences. It does not establish how residents actually respond to the posts, whether language choices cause lower participation or trust, or whether the findings apply to other communication channels.
Ask anything about this paper. Answers come from its abstract, and say so when the abstract doesn't cover your question.
Multilingualism, Linguistic Justice and the EU Communication Deficit on Social Media — Michele Gazzola, Fernando Mendez, Carlos Méndez et al. — World Englishes — doi:10.1111/weng.70066
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.