Introduction

The South African television industry has undergone tremendous political, social, cultural, and technological changes since its inception in 1975. One of the critical factors that has characterized this industry is language. Language has been used as a weapon to exclude, include, empower, and disempower social groups in this industry. This chapter aims to trace the role of language as a sociopolitical tool in popular culture. The chapter situates popular culture within the discourses of sociolinguistics to demonstrate that popular culture is a product of and produces language politics.