With Bill Labov serving as the external examiner for his PhD dissertation, Bell modeled his research in a similar manner that Labov had done by looking at the similarities and differences of different radio stations through varying social class audiences.
Bell alluded in his dissertation that he applied VSLX methods to the study of newspaper language: "And I remember writing you know from New Zealand such a distant star in the Linguistic universe.
"[1] Bell's dissertation took three radio stations in New Zealand, each one coming from the same studio, in order to tackle certain linguistic variables: consonant cluster simplification; the voicing of intervocalic t; negative contraction, auxiliary contraction, and specific determiner deletion.
Encompassing various areas of sociolinguistics, the journal sought to promote contributions that present thorough research in linguistic and social-scientific endeavors.
Bell also stresses his concerns on how audiences can influence media language styles and reconfigure the news that comes along with it.
Co-edited with Peter Garrett, Bell covers the approaches that are most prominent within media discourse: Co-edited with Ray Harlow and Donna Starks, Bell looks at New Zealand English, a more recent variety of English that younger New Zealanders have started to claim as part of their identities.
Bell, Harlow, and Starks distinguish the use of New Zealand English through the "use of Maori words such as kia ora (hello) and grammatical features such as 'at the weekend'.
"[7] Serving as a comprehensive oversight to the field, Bell takes a gives an overview of the main terms and concepts of Sociolinguistics.