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MEDIA AS LANGUAGE USE
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ranging from channel of communication (such as post-carriages and canals), through
letters or messages, to a human sense of mutual awareness, whether achieved by ‘language’ or simply by tacit, shared understanding.
Finally, it is interesting to consider whether – and if so how far – keywords for
language, communication and media function differently in different languages.
Compare words for ‘language’, ‘communication’ and ‘media’ that you may be familiar with in other languages. Do these equivalent words have the same range of senses
as ‘language’, ‘communication’ and ‘media’ in English? Make up some phrases or sentences to show up any relevant differences you find.
REGISTER AND STYLE
This unit outlines the huge variety of kinds of language found in media discourse. It
illustrates the concept of ‘dialect’ as language used by a given speaker (e.g. differences
between speakers from different regions, classes or ethnic backgrounds) and also the
concept of ‘register’, as language style appropriate to a given social setting. We describe
such language variety in media to show how patterning of linguistic register contributes to media genres (discussed separately in unit 4). Media genre, in turn, is what
makes different broadcasting formats almost instantly recognisable. We
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introduce the ideas of ‘dialect’ and ‘register’, drawn from linguistics, as ways of
identifying style differences between language users and different kinds of use in
different settings,
look at accents and, in particular, at use of Received Pronunciation in broadcasting, noting the contribution a particular accent can make to overall style, and
illustrate differences between speech and writing, as ‘modes’ of language use
and consider convergence and interaction between speech and writing in recent
media technologies.
Language variety
The terms register and style are often used interchangeably. Each describes patterning
in speech and writing, and shifts we make in order to ensure that the form of language
we adopt for a particular context is appropriate. In other words, we match how something is communicated to what is being communicated and to whom. An obvious
example is degree of formality: that is, consideration of whether our discourse needs
to be formal or informal for its function or purpose in a given situation. Consider the
two following openings to utterances:
1 Yo . . . Listen up, dudes!
2 Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking . . .
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KEY CONCEPTS IN LANGUAGE AND MEDIA
Just as we would not expect a lecturer in linguistics to begin a class with Yo . . . Listen
up, dudes! (unless the utterance is meant to illustrate a point about register, style or
social dialects) we would neither expect one of a group of teenagers to begin speaking
to the others by announcing, Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking . . .. In both scenarios, choice of language jars with the context and the particular language users. The
effect could be confusing, even comical. The incongruity reminds me of when, at the
end of a seminar on Standard English and appropriate language use, I raised a laugh
by asking students Know wot I mean? instead of the more fitting Does everyone understand this point? Fortunately, the students did get the point.
Register, as a language variety, may also be confused with the notion of genre.
When we think of different types of media discourse, such as those found in tabloid
newspapers, adverts, television soaps, or gossip magazines, we are thinking about different genres or text types. Each type is identifiable because of specific features commonly associated with both its form and function. In each of the above cases, language
choice will differ at a lexical and/or grammatical level. For discourse in the written
medium, there will also be typographical variation. With the spoken soundtracks of
soaps and television adverts, choice will also reflect regional and social dialects phonologically (something discussed below in the section ‘Accents in broadcasting’). No
single word is an island: language in use differs, and its texture – that is, the qualities
or characteristics of the language that make up the text type – reveals it to be of a
given type because of its social use.
We have said that register and style are often considered as if they are the same.
But there are differences between these two aspects of style. When we are faced with
variation according to different situations and functions, the linguistic term is register.
Register is a technical term used to describe a variety of language which is distinctive
for a specific context. Register is created by a combination of choices a speaker makes
in each area of language production: vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, layout and
other features of text design. Together, the result of such choices is a particular style,
which is conventionally associated with some specific range of uses (formal, technical,
legal, intimate, etc.). So register creates or contributes to style.
Consider an example. A personal blog is written in a different register from a legal
contract. It uses different vocabulary, punctuation, layout on the page, etc. To see that
this is the case, look at columns 1 and 2 in Table A2.1. Which column represents the
typical register of a blog? And which is the typical register of a legal contract?
Table A2.1 Register in blogs and legal contracts
Level of variation
1
2
vocabulary
henceforth
you’re
punctuation
:
!
layout
numbered pages
two words on a line
typeface
Times Roman
Comic sans
spelling style
Standard English
text messaging style
REGISTER AND STYLE
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Clearly, column 1 relates to the legal contract. Use of exclamation marks (as in column
2) would undermine the seriousness of a legal contract’s function. On the other hand,
two-word phrases as a whole line would appear inconsistent with the formal syntax
and sentence length normally associated with legal contracts.
What makes style ‘appropriate’?
We have established that register consists of ‘style choices appropriate to a situation’. But
what makes a style appropriate? In mass media discourse (such as magazines, television
or radio), there is no immediate audience. So there is no given ‘situation’, other than
the very general one of someone reading the magazine, watching TV, or listening to the
radio. What happens then, as regards the communicator’s choice of appropriate style?
Media create their own styles of address: specialised registers that may be public, formal
and ceremonial; or they may be personal, as if talking with a friend. Or they may switch
between the two, or mix the two. In later units (B3, C4) we look at how media discourse
creates ‘imaginary relationships’ with addressees, and how such styles gradually become
conventionalised as not just what you recognise but also as ‘what you expect’.
Before we engage with such topics, however, we look at accent as an aspect of register in the media. We then go on to analyse stylistic differences between speech and
writing, paying attention to overlap and convergence between the two mediums.
Accents in broadcasting
What is an accent and what is a dialect? The two terms describe differences or variation in the way different people speak. An accent describes variation at the phonological or sound level. So for example, in England, someone from the southern counties
is likely to pronounce bath as /ba:θ/. The a is so long that northerners may protest that
there is no r in bath! A northerner, on the other hand, would be likely to pronounce
the word /bæθ/. By contrast with accent a dialect, on the other hand, describes variations not only at the phonological level, but also at the level of lexis (vocabulary) and
syntax (grammar). Dialects are the broad range of regional as well as geographical
varieties. With English as an increasingly global language, the term dialect is widely
used to refer to the many different Englishes around the world.
Received Pronunciation (RP)
Received Pronunciation (or RP, as it is sometimes known) is the accent most identified with the BBC (sometimes it is also known as the Queen’s English, or Public School
English). In the 19th century ‘standard pronunciation’ of English was largely associated with the army, public schools, universities, and civil service. But the term ‘RP’
itself seems to have been coined by the phonetician Daniel Jones as late as the 1920s.
Jones described RP as ‘most usually heard in everyday speech in the families of southern English persons whose menfolk have been educated at the great public boarding
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KEY CONCEPTS IN LANGUAGE AND MEDIA
schools’. Unlike other accents, RP is not associated with a region or country. It is an
accent of socio-economic status, most notably membership of a traditional upper class.
RP became much more influential as a style of speaking when Lord Reith (the
first head of the BBC) adopted it in the early 1920s as his preferred broadcasting
standard, hence the term BBC English. Reith was not directly concerned with class in
his choice. He believed that Standard English, spoken with an RP accent, would be the
most widely understood variety of English, both in the UK and overseas. He was also
conscious that choice of a regional accent as a preferred model in broadcasting might
alienate many listeners. Reith’s policy of using RP, especially for news, prevailed at the
BBC over approximately four decades, and probably reinforced the sometimes negative perception of regional varieties of English. The notion of standard pronunciation
of US English, which has an otherwise very different history, is similarly related to
broadcasting by the term ‘network standard’ (McCrum et al., 1986).
More recently, there has been a shift in Britain towards regional accents among
television and radio presenters. With less than 2 per cent of the British population
speaking with an RP accent, this ‘standard’ has been increasingly widely recognised as
no longer reflecting – in fact it never did – the voice of the majority of the audience.
The accent could even be thought potentially alienating, in the way that it had been
feared regional accents would be. A push towards more regional and friendly accents,
however, has also attracted criticism for eroding standards in the media, since certain
accents are sometimes viewed as being less acceptable than others. (We discuss the
issue of included and excluded accents in more detail in unit B8.)
Activity
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Reflect on your own preference as regards accent choice in broadcast media.
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Are there certain accents that you prefer to hear on television or the radio?
Do you think that some accents sound more authoritative than others,
particularly for news reporting?
List the following (generalised) accents in each column, in order of preference: American, RP, Indian (English), Estuary, Liverpudlian, Irish.
Your ‘most strongly preferred’ accent to hear in the given context should
go in row 1. Put each accent in each list.
Now compare your two lists. If there are differences between the two
lists, why do you think that is? Do such differences, where they exist,
help explain why you put the different accents in the order you chose?
In general broadcasting
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2
3
4
5
6
For news in particular
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Stylistic differences between speech and writing
Speech and writing are contrast in channel of communication. But the differences
between them are not always clear cut. Jenkins (2003) examines differences between
speech and writing as part of her account of international variation in English. In her
description, she draws on the work of Baron (2000: 21–2) who usefully summarises
three different approaches to speech/writing differences: an Opposition View, a Continuum View, and a Cross-over View.
Each of these three views is now outlined.
Opposition View of speech and writing
In this approach to the differences between speech and writing, the two mediums are
considered to have clear, contrasting characteristics (Table A2.2).
Table A2.2 Opposition View of speech and writing
Writing is
Speech is
1
objective
interpersonal
2
a monologue
a dialogue
3
durable
ephemeral
4
scannable
only linearly accessible
5
planned
spontaneous
6
highly structured
loosely structured
7
syntactically complex
syntactically simple
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concerned with past and future
concerned with the present
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formal
informal
10
expository
narrative
11
argument-oriented
event-oriented
12
decontextualised
contextualised
13
abstract
concrete
Continuum View of speech and writing
The ‘continuum’ approach, as the name suggests, looks at speech and writing in variable contexts of use. It locates examples at points on a continuum (Table A2.3).
Table A2.3 Continuum View of speech and writing
Traditional writing
Word-processors
Script of a play
Face-to-face speech
Telephones
Videophones
Radio discussion
Teleconferencing
Phone conversation
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KEY CONCEPTS IN LANGUAGE AND MEDIA
Cross-Over View of speech and writing
The ‘cross-over’ view takes into account the fact that, while a linguistic message may
have been designed to be spoken or to be written, it may be experienced in a medium
other than the one in which it originated. This is what happens with ‘talking books’,
for example, in which a written version is read aloud on audio cassette. Almost the
opposite happens with spoken lectures, which can be posted in written form on
course websites. In both cases, the result is texts with a strikingly striking hybrid character. This inevitably complicates how we locate forms of communication around the
middle of the continuum: play scripts, sermons, and other texts developed in an interaction between one medium and the other, or planned in one medium but delivered
in the other.
Are differences between the three accounts of contrasts between speech and writing significant? The cross-over view of speech and writing works particularly well for
the informal vernacular style found in emails. Jenkins (2003: 121–4) suggests that
emails show a distinct kind of e-style that is neither simply writing nor speech. Following Baron again on this point, Jenkins concludes that such e-style is largely ‘speech
by other means’. She also emphasises that, as with speech and writing, there will always
be differences of email style, depending on who is doing the emailing, to whom, and
on the age, sex and first language of the emailer.
Blogging styles, such as the example we present in unit C2, also take on characteristics of speech despite their circulation in written form. Like speech (and contrary
to what the Opposition View of speech and writing suggests) blogging can also be:
interpersonal,
a dialogue,
loosely structured,
concerned with the present,
informal,
narrative,
event-oriented,
contextualised, and
concrete.
Convergence between mediums
In media discourse, spoken and written styles are varied unexpectedly, and sometimes
combined together. For this reason, media discourse plays an important part in social
style change. Every day we can find new examples in newspaper headlines, advertising
language and in our email inboxes.
These are some examples of media discourse in which writing reflects or simulates speech:
blogs, MSN and other instant messaging
contemporary screen-writing
email discourse
REGISTER AND STYLE
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These are some examples of media discourse in which speech reflects or simulates
writing:
TV speeches read from scripts
use of script cards, transparent lecterns and autocue as ways of assisting fluency
on TV
audio books (of novels and poetry, etc.)
scripted phone interaction (call centres, etc.)
Semiotic register
As we will see further in our discussion of typeface in unit B2, as well as throughout
thread 7, register contrast is not only achieved linguistically. It can be created in other
ways as well. In audio-visual and multimodal texts, design elements other than language play an increasingly important role in signalling such contrast. Design elements
that contribute to register include font (e.g. Gothic vs. Courier); photo tinting (e.g.
sepia to indicate a historical or retro effect); and overall layout (to indicate accessibility or expectation of relative technicality – compare tabloid and broadsheet newspaper
layout). Design elements work together. They also work in conjunction with features
of accompanying language to create an overall discourse style. Design elements are a
sort of border zone between linguistic contrastivity, considered narrowly, and more
general visual imagery. When stylistic effects of different kinds function together, they
build up not only a sense of overall, general style but – if linked to a clear idea of purpose, anticipated effect or reader expectation – also of genre (see unit A4).
MEDIATED COMMUNICATION
In this unit we move slightly away from the surface texture, or fabric, of language used
in media discourse that we considered in unit A2. There, we were concerned with
choices made between alternative words and grammatical forms that constitute register. Now we look at how whatever kind of language is chosen becomes a concrete
media utterance. Such media ‘utterances’ are communicative acts, or events. They
depend on some specific situational relationship between participants in a given setting. With media texts, the relationship between participants is ‘mediated’ by media
technology that extends or transforms the properties and expectations of verbal communication, especially those associated with conversation. We
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describe different kinds of ‘communicative event’,
show how they relate, in different ways, to the ‘canonical speech situation’ traditionally described in linguistics, and
explore what is sometimes called the departure from ‘co-presence’, or ‘spatiotemporal distanciation’, of media discourse: the fact that media language is often
A3