Sociolinguistic ISSN: 1750-8649 (print) Studies ISSN: 1750-8657 (online) Affiliation Maria Àngels Viladot: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain email: maviladot@uoc.edu Howard Giles: Universidad de California en Santa Barbara, USA email: howiegiles@cox.net Jessica Gasiorek: Universidad de California en Santa Barbara, USA email: jessica.gasiorek@gmail.com Moisés Esteban-Guitart: Universitat de Girona, Catalunya, Spain email: moises.esteban@udg.edu SOLS VOL 6.3 2012 471–490 © 2013, EQUINOX PUBLISHING doi : 10.1558/sols.v6i3.471 Article Vitalidad etnolingüística, medios de comunicación e identidad étnica. Un estudio con grupos indígenas de Chiapas (México) [Ethnolinguistic vitality, mass media, and ethnic identity. A study with indigenous groups in the Chiapas (Mexico)] Maria Àngels Viladot, Howard Giles, Jessica Gasiorek and Moisés Esteban-Guitart Abstract This study is the first exploration of television use and program selection by indigenous groups in Chiapas (Mexico); more specifically, how members of these groups select specific media messages for reasons of ethnicity, and how this is related to social mobility strategies is examined. Data from 173 indigenous students of the Intercultural University of Chiapas indicated that watching television and selecting programs on the basis of their ethnicity is an important viewing activity for 77 members of this sample. These results encourage more programmatic future research on these issues in Chiapas and are discussed in terms of the representation of ethnic groups there on TV. KEYWORDS: ETHNIC IDENTITY, INTERGROUP RELATIONS, MASS MEDIA, USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY, ETHNOLINGUISTIC VITALITY