Initially intrigued by how her friends frequently reference video games for fun, Sierra sets out to write a book about how and why individuals reference media in their everyday talk. Drawing from five naturally occurring conversations among ten Millennial friends, the author adopts an interactional sociolinguistic perspective to unravel the forms and functions of media intertextuality in managing epistemic knowledge, establishing relationships, and constructing individual and group identities in interaction.
This book is organized around two interrelated themes except for an introduction (chapter 1) and a conclusion (chapter 6). In the first half of the book (chapters 2 and 3), Sierra discusses how media references are phonetically signaled in conversations and how participants mutually engage with those references, for example, via the use of ‘yeah’ to demonstrate their explicit recognition of the reference. Chapter 2 focuses on five types of contextualization cues, namely word stress with specific intonation contours, pitch shifts, smile voice and laughter, stylized accents, and singing, all of which are made to ‘act as metaphorical oars in the stream of talk that interlocutors can use in order to participate in playful intertextual conversation’ (59). Chapter 3 delves into how listeners demonstrate their mutual engagement with media references as evidenced in their listening behaviors, including minimal responses, repetition, laughter, and participation in ‘play frames’ (81). Additionally discussed in these two chapters is how individual and group identities are constructed through using or engaging with media references.
In the second half of the book (chapters 4 and 5), Sierra investigates the interactional functions of such intertextual media references. Chapter 4 details how interlocutors enact epistemic frame shifts to resolve ‘interactional dilemma’ (93) through humorous reference to internet memes, which further invoke various gender, racial, and cultural stereotypes embedded within such memes. Furthermore, the author points out that interlocutors construct and reinforce different individual and group identities by ‘simultaneously shifting frames as they readjust epistemics’ (94) in conversation. Chapter 5 looks at the functions of overlapping and embedded video game frames in everyday talk, with focuses on how interlocutors ‘rekey serious talk about real-life issues to humorous play frames that construct such events as part of a lived video game experience’ (149) and how they shift the epistemic access required to participate in the conversation, contributing to the construction of their identities as members of a specific ‘epistemic ecology’ (124).
One thing of particular interest discussed in the book is the observer's paradox and the role of the author, given that the author is one of the participants in the conversations recorded. A case in point is that two of the participants’ behaviors became more performative upon realizing that they were being recorded.
Sierra's work is essential not only in that it effectively illustrates how media references become an integral part of people's lives but also because it raises readers’ awareness of representations and stereotypes in the media, as evidenced in the participants’ self-reflection on their use of racist references during playback interviews. In this sense, this book contributes to ‘dismantling white supremacy, linguistic dominance, and discrimination’ (160) at the individual level and invites academia to heed the ideological implications of media references.
