The Voices project of the British Broadcasting Corporation, a recent high-profile media investigation, gathered contemporary English dialect samples from all over the UK and invited contributions from the public to a dedicated website. This book explores both issues of ideology and representation behind the media project and uses to which the emerging data can be put in the study of language variation and change.

1. Voices: a unique BBC adventure Simon Elmes 2. Voices: a case study in the evolution of a linguistic climate at the BBC David Crystal 3. Constructions of expertise and authority on a language-themed discussion forum: linguists, linguistics and the public Bethan L. Davies 4. Diverse Voices, Public Broadcasts: sociolinguistic representations in mainstream programming Alexandra Jaffe 5. Afrikaans is bobaas: Linguistic citizenship on the BBC Voices website Tommaso M. Milani and Mooniq Shaikjee 6. Language Ideology and Conversationalized Interactivity in Voices Will Turner 7. Mapping the Word: Local Vocabulary and its Themes Susie Dent 8. Voices in Wales: a new national survey Rob Penhallurick 9. Voices of the UK: The British Library description of the BBC Voices Recordings collection Jonathan Robinson, Jon Herring, and Holly Gilbert 10. Focus on voices in North-east England Ann Thompson 11. Blurred Boundaries: the dialect word from the BBC Clive Upton 12. Voices dialectometry at the University of Sheffield John Holliday 13. Voices dialectometry at the University of Groningen Martijn Wieling