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#9529 10/30/00 07:21 PM
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I gather today marks the 75th anniversary of TV pictures being transmitted.

To what extent, and in what ways, do you think exposure to TV has altered perception and use of language? Does this vary from country to country?


#9530 10/30/00 07:57 PM
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To what extent, and in what ways, do you think exposure to TV has altered perception and use of language?

I have always felt that my lack of a local or Southern accent (vocabulary) is attributed to television exposure. When I heard most newspersons and actors speaking in a very clean, unaccented American way, I realized that this was the more proper way to speak. I realized that "Yall reckon we oughta" rather than "Do you think we should" for example, was going to mark me with a stigma when I came into contact with non-Tennesseeans. I would have never known the difference if not for Media showing me the less coloured way of speaking.


#9531 10/30/00 08:19 PM
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Someone (lost in the mist of things once read) once likened TV power to communicate and share information to Gutenberg's invention of the printing press–only they felt the analogy would only hold true if nothing but comic books had been printed for the first 500 years.

it's nice to hear Xara that TV offered you a "mid atlantic" accent to emulate, but region words and accents make the world interesting. It's still true that the Cumberland's have a gaps, but in NH, Dicksville has a notch. (NY/NJ have a gaps too, notch's only start north of NY.)

TV tends to homogenize. One of the joys of AWAD is that there are so many views, so many words, so many ways of saying the same word– schedule has two reasonably standard pronunciations, but there are many words that act as marker for regions. how do you pronounce ROOF?

I hate Mc Donalds too. Standardization is for insects. Human are diverse! ( Heinlien, more or less))


#9532 10/30/00 08:38 PM
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Helen,

You bring up some interesting points. I find myself valuing other accents in people, but not Southern ones. I think when I was very young I thought all the people around me were stupid. (I still think some of those people are, but I realize now it isn't because of their geographic location) That is why I decided to homogenize my speach. It was a way for me to disassociate myself from them.

I usually find other accents quite charming, and can understand why one might feel that way toward Southerners. I certainly wouldn't like to see the wonderful variants of speech lost to media.

Your comic book reference reminds me of something I once heard. Most American television is written to a 6th grade intelegence level. I suppose that might be why I almost never watch television other than the discovery channel or other similar channels.


#9533 10/31/00 02:34 AM
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Well, here I am, representative of John Q. Public. I like television. I take it for exactly what it is – entertainment and information. I know a lot of it is pap but I do enjoy what I watch. I learn things when I watch documentaries or the Learning channel and I laugh at some sit-coms – some really good sit-coms can bring tears of laughter to my eyes. And please don’t say, “you could be reading a good book, or studying something”. I do that too. I read all the time. I can have two or three books running at a time, plus National Geo and the daily Gazette. Bettering yourself and entertaining yourself are not mutually exclusive.

It really riles me when people look down on this medium. In everything, you have to filter out the unnecessary (or the bad) and stick with what works for you.

During our ice storm two years ago we were quite happy to have the television giving us an update as to how each region was doing, who needed help, and where we could do our part to help. Some people were completely isolated and their relatives had to rely on the television to tell them that help had been dispatched to the region and that their relatives were going to be all right.

When the first men landed on the moon, I saw it on television. When my country remained intact after our last vote on separation in Québec, I saw that on television too, and I cried tears of joy.

Don’t put something down just because some of it is bad. You might miss out on all the good parts.



#9534 10/31/00 08:40 AM
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The complete quote which Helen paraphrases is from "Time Enough for Love":

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.



#9535 10/31/00 03:22 PM
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You might miss out on all the good parts

Yes, indeed. I neither implied nor meant a criticism of the medium. My interest is in language.

The points already made are good, I think, and express a creative tension in the world. On the one hand, exposure to the RP of a given medium or society may tend to have a flattening, universalising effect. But on the other it can also cause reflection, in those able to reflect, with benefit to differenciation as well as widened sympathy and understanding.

By the way, my kids use dagnabbit and also consarndit on a regular yet also tongue in cheek basis. They got it from Grandpa in The Simpsons, so I particularly enjoyed learning that this was quoting, in typically knowing style, from the much earlier programme The Hillbillies! This is another aspect of the re-cycling (ARGH!!!!) of language that the medium seems to facilitate.


#9536 11/01/00 12:40 AM
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. I find myself valuing other accents in people, but not Southern ones. I think when I was very young I thought all the people around me were stupid.

xara, I've thinking about these two posts of yours for a
while. I think possibly part of your prejudice is due, in fact, to the thread topic: television. Again and again, the character who has been designated as the stupid one will be portrayed as having a Southern accent, even when no one else in the show does. This rankles me. I have something of a Southern accent myself. I am not especially proud of it, but certainly not ashamed of it, either. I hope that if we ever meet, you will not think I am stupid.

I happen to love Tennessee accents. They remind me
of wonderful times among people who thought I was precious, and who loved me no matter what.


#9537 11/01/00 02:06 AM
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I've thinking about these two posts of yours for a while.

I've been thinking about those posts ever since I posted them too. I know they came off sounding fairly prejudice. That was not at all what I intended to do, but it's what I did none the less. That bothers me quite a bit.

I think I do a fair job of eliminating prejudice from my views except for "my own people." Again, this is not to say that I think Southerners are stupid. I agree that television may have had something to do with this problem.

Unfortunately, though, I really believe that the people *SOME OF THE PEOPLE* in my home town were not stupid, but ignorant. When we were in kindergarten, my mom helped out the teacher with some field trips. We went to the next town over to go to a mall because lots of the kids had never been 10 miles from home. That's just how isolated the place was. (I don't think it's that bad anymore) When I happened not to think as the people of the town had done for the past 50 years, I got a lot of bullying. That's where my prejudices came from, and I don't think that way anymore. It's just a childhood predilection that I can't quite get rid of.

I've certainly had to deal with plenty of Southern sounding individuals in school and at work. I certainly don't think they are unintelligent because of their speech. I even affect that accent (in certain cases) when the people I am talking with have it, because it makes them feel more comfortable, and it doesn't make any difference to me anymore. I apologize for the rant. I just felt I needed to defend myself. I seem to have come off as some sort of self-hating mongre in these past few posts. I don't know if I've done any better with this one but I hope so.


#9538 11/01/00 08:51 AM
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some sort of self-hating mongre in these past few posts

During periods of self-questioning, every self-respecting being realizes that there are moments of self-hating in one's life


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