DRAFT of paper, forthcoming (2005) In Alim, S., J.R. Rickford and A. Ball, Race-ing Language and Language-ing Race. Palo Alto: Stanford Univ. Pr. 1 Gangs on YouTube: Localism, Spanish/English Variation and Music Fandom i Norma Mendoza-Denton UCLA 1. Introduction Recent work in sociolinguistic variation has examined the role of both the mass media (Coupland 2009, Stuart-Smith 2005) and of the hip-hop/rap genre on language in various locales (Alim 2006 for the Northern California Bay Area; Morgan 2009 for Los Angeles; Blake and Shousterman 2010 for St. Louis; Taylor 2011 for Austin, Texas). Recently, attention has increasingly focused on the role of new media such as YouTube (see Schieffelin and Jones 2009). YouTube users post videos in what serves as a call; subsequently, this call brings responses either in video format, or as text commentary on the original posting. This call-response format provides a unique combination of data that allows for the simultaneous investigation of language, metalanguage, and their relationships to space and place. Although new media have traditionally been thought of as de-localized, I draw on prior discussions of localism and politics of territory in the constitution of subaltern California dialects, analyzing how stylistic variation and dimensions of proficiency in Spanish acquire a symbolic, localistic dimension for new media users. I argue that hemispheric localism is a projection onto the hemispheric political- stage of processes that began locally in the history of groups of Latinos in California, and that this meaning system becomes projected as a wider political analysis. Young people