Language+&+Media



==Language and media are like "Beauty and the Beast". They complement each other and have immense power in shaping public opinions. Believe it or not, you may have be the one influenced by them... ==                <span style="color: #7e0021; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive;"> <span style="color: #ff950e; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive;"> <span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive;"> <span style="color: #355e00; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive;"> <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;"> <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive; font-size: 20pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;">**1) F** <span style="color: #e6e64c; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive; font-size: 20pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;">**u** <span style="color: #00b8ff; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive; font-size: 20pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;">**n** <span style="color: #7e0021; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive; font-size: 20pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;">**c** <span style="color: #ff9966; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive; font-size: 20pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;">**t** <span style="color: #804c19; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive; font-size: 20pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;">**i** <span style="color: #47b8b8; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive; font-size: 20pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;">**o** <span style="color: #b3b3b3; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive; font-size: 20pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;">**n** <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive; font-size: 20pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;">**s** <span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive; font-size: 20pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="color: #993366; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive; font-size: 20pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;">**i** <span style="color: #0084d1; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive; font-size: 20pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;">**n** <span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive; font-size: 20pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="color: #7da647; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive; font-size: 20pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;">**m** <span style="color: #7e0021; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive; font-size: 20pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;">**e** <span style="color: #ff950e; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive; font-size: 20pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;">**d** <span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive; font-size: 20pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;">**i** <span style="color: #355e00; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive; font-size: 20pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;">**a.**

<span style="color: #ff8080; font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive;"><span style="color: #ff007c; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">​Every day you are affected by the mass media in some way – when you study a textbook for school, when you turn on the radio in your car, when you go for shopping and when you hang out with your friends and family or when you watching television with your family. <span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive;"> <span style="color: #ff007c; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Only the most naiive among us would say we are not affected by those messages spread by the media. Hence, media play an important agent in our daily life. So what is media's function??


 * <span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS,cursive; font-size: 140%;">Reporting to society the threats changes, and dangers to the well – being of the greater community. This function has been popularly labeled as the ** 'watchdog role' **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;"> <span style="color: #ff007c; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Media is humankind's platform for abstraction but its lessons are outside of, not within, its dreams and nightmares. The function of media is found not in its production but in its application; the message is not the medium, but how the medium is used.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Interpretation of current events in the social environment; evaluating and analyzing the impact of some events
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Providing the public with meaningful news and information
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Media helps to develop new products
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Communicating to future generations the social heritage which characterize that particular culture

The other 8 media's function is :

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Informer
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Surveillance (a watcher function)

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Service the economic system
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Hold society together (act as sort of a cultural glue)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Entertain
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Act as a community forum (media equivalent of town hall meeting or group discussion)

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Set the agenda
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Service the political system

<span style="color: #548dd4; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%; text-align: left;">The magic world of media plays a big role in our society. But magic will not work without a brilliant spell, which is in this context means language. The use of language can give a mass impact on public opinions. Language is what it needs to decide whether a television show is allowed for public or censored; to judge news or movies whether or not convey positive; and to produce an advertisement of products that able to increase or decrease their sales. Now, you can roll your eyes and be surprised but those are not enough. There is different language use in media resources to be revealed under this section. Here are the 3 major descriptive of language use based on my observation; Life experiences and emotion are showed in our language use. Therefore, there is no objective point of view on one's behalf. A rhetoric scholar, James A. Berlin once said that language "is never innocent". By this he meant that language reflects our ideologies and world views. Generally, authors and all readers do not share the same dialects, ideologies or background knowledge. Therefore, their perspective and understanding of a news stories will be different from each other. For instance, a few years ago, a free local newspaper in England, Evening Standard, covered a snippet of late news. The headline reads "Sticky Buns kill 31 in China" which was quite exaggerated and not neutral because it turned out that the news is actually about a poisoning food. Reading the headline, readers might have expected something like sticky buns had gone on a rampage in a bakery, but in vain.
 * <span style="color: #17365d; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 20pt;">2) ****<span style="color: #17365d; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 20pt;">Language Use in Various Media Resources **
 * 1. **** Language use is not neutral and fair. **

The metaphor advertising techniques compares two objects or persons and creates an illusion that the characteristics of both are fairly standardized. Metaphor can be presented in words or pictures. By using metaphor, consumers are allowed to have their own imagination on the particular products. It helps to make advertisements more interesting and more effective. You may have encountered a metaphor like, "my lover is like a red rose", in a poem. You might see metaphor as well in some advertisements.
 * 2. **** Language use is often in metaphor. **



Media have power to decide government, lose wars; open borders, raise taxes and others by creatively play with language. Though there is controversy over the claim that advertising is manipulative, the contention is without substance. Persuasion and manipulation are not the same thing. According to Terence A. Shimp (1997), the author of book titled Advertising, promotion, and supplemental aspects of integrated marketing communications, "Persuasion is a legitimate form of human interaction that all individuals and institutions in society perform". The general election of 1992 in United Kingdom has proved that media has its own role and power in influencing people's mind and decision. One of The Sun journalists proudly describes the newspaper role at that time, during The Sun's 40th birthday anniversary as below:
 * 3. **** Language use is purposely to persuade and influence people. **



// THE General Election of 1992 was one of the most dramatic of the 20th Century - with the result too close to call on polling day. // // Neil Kinnock's Labour Party had led opinion polls for three years and were favourites to topple the Tory Government, led by John Major. Britain was in the grip of recession. But The Sun was convinced a Labour Government would be disastrous. Our front page on Election Day, April 9, 1992, featured Kinnock's head inside a light bulb. Inside the paper, we featured an obese model that, we claimed, was typical of what Page 3 girls would look like under Labour. Editor Kelvin Mackenzie’s savage mockery is said to have convinced many readers to vote Tory, but political pundits argue to this day whether we really swung the election Major's way. // // We, and others, were convinced we did, and next day ran the headline it’s The Sun Wot Won It. What is certain is that Labour considered The Sun's support crucial from that day on. // Source: <span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt;">[]

We can see that it is already common to see advertisements or news headlines that break the rules of language. You might found some words that sound weird or different from the one you use in regular basis. Some can be classified as not the Standard English but to some extend, there are certain words that are not even in English! Through media, there is a great possibility for language to evolve and change creatively. The importance in advertising or publishing news is that the communicative need is fulfilled rather than being cautious about the language use. I would like to take a blogger's story for an example. This blogger just intended to kill his time so he watched a full episode of Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals. The blogger was telling about Rachealism- a words or catchphrases either invented or frequently used by Rachel Ray. Surprisingly, one of the most Rachaelism- EVOO (an acronym for Extra Virgin Olive Oil) had actually become a real word in early 2007, when it was included in the Oxford American College Dictionary. Now, that is one good example of language use in media - an invented word can actually be real!
 * 4. Language use is not necessarily in Standard English nor grammatical. **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">** 3) ** __<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">** Analysing Advertisement and News Stories ** __

<span style="color: #006600; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 129.6%;">This advertisement is created by a website by the name of Telnet. The term ‘airshake’ is being used. There is no such word as ‘airshake’ in standard English but it is still be used by Telnet in order to attract the public to the advertisement. Literally, ‘air’ indicates the invisible gaseous substance surrounding the earth which is a mixture of mainly oxygen and nitrogen whereas ‘shake’ means move forcefully or quickly up and down or to and fro. It can be conclude that the figurativemeaning behind this term is greeting without touching each other’shand. It is one of the precautions against the Mexican flu or Swine flu.The company also delivers one important message from this advertisement- greeting is vital because it is a sign of respect.

[[image:3362626340_f6597d6c72.jpg width="488" height="301" align="left"]]
<span style="color: #333399; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 132%;">This advertisement emphasize on the company of 'Nike' that want to expose its product and they use this as the way on advertising their product. In this picture, we can see a African young boy peeing at an old building and starred by his dog. This advertisement want to show that we can do whatever we want as long as we have courage and by using their product,it give we strength and the courage that we need.

This shampoo's advertisement can be classified as a pictorial metaphor. There's not much words used instead, the focus of the comparison is showed through the funny pictures of a lion's hair before and after using Sedal's shampoo. Rather than using normal women model, the strategy adopted by this company give something different and interesting that can attract people. >>>



<span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 132%;">Here is another interesting shampoo advertisement. It is presented in comic strips. From the first sight, readers can notice that the main target of this product is children. The comic uses various bright colours and simple, friendly language such as "bubbles", "fruity fresh" and "shiny". As a matter of fact, the characters that promoted the shampoo, Mario and the princess are also familiar and well-known by children. >>>

<span style="color: #99cc00; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 138%; text-align: left;">The term ‘alive’ is metaphorically given by Sony to describe the colours. ‘Alive’ means living or not dead and we usually use it for living things as human beings, animals, etc. In order to attract viewers to the product, the company uses the term ‘alive’ so that viewers are able to feel ‘alive’; while they are watching the scenes in movies or any programmes they can feel as the scenes are happening in reality. The background effect acts as a component to attract the viewers to buy the product. The colours are ‘moving’ as they are ‘alive’.

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">This coca-cola advertisement attract people by emphasized on the word //'shop refreshed'//. After a whole day of shopping, working, playing and etc people were thirsty and in this advertisements its convey the meaning when people are tired they 'shop' coca-cola. In the other hands people buy coca-cola to quench for their thirst. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 156%;">

__<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">PKR Sec-Gen Riled over Buyover of Talam's Debt __ <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">RM391mil debt has stirred an hornet’s nest in PKR. A furious party The Selangor Government’s controversial buyover of Talam Corp Bhd’s secretary-general Datuk Salehuddin Hashim has despatched a strongly-worded e-mail to all PKR MPs and assemblymen in the state questioning why Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim has kept them in the dark over the move.
 * __The Star online__** <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">
 * Wednesday November 18, 2009**

<span style="color: #333399; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">In this headline, there is no such word as ‘sec-gen’ in our dictionary. The writer has mistakenly used it in this title without referring to our dictionary. We use British English, and there is no word as ‘sec-gen’. It is true that language always change, but we must aware of it as we can not change it based on our own opinion. The word buyover shall be put in separate word, not as one word. The word 'Mentri' also spelled wrongly as it shall be 'Menteri' instead.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;"> 4) __ Interpreting Ambiguous Sentences and Headlines __

<span style="color: #333399; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">There are two types of ambiguity, __lexical__ and __structural__

**__a) Lexical __**

<span style="color: #333399; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">~ Lexical ambiguity is by far the more common. Lexical ambiguity is ambiguity based on a single word. In many cases, a single word in a language corresponds to more than one thought, for example, the adjective //light// (not dark vs. not heavy); the noun //bank// (financial institution vs. the edge of a river); and the verb //run// (to move fast vs. to direct or manage). Words may also have more than one meaning through their unrelated use in more than one category of speech, for example, //can// (a container of food – noun vs. to be able to – verb

**~For example: **

**~Lexical ambiguity can also lead to humorous sentences.**
 * <span style="color: #ff6600; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Ø ** The comedian Dick Gregory tells of walking up to a lunch counter in Mississippi during the days of racial segregation. The waitress said to him, “We don’t serve colored people.” “That’s fine,” he replied, “I don’t eat colored people. I’d like a piece of chicken.” (Quoted by Stephen Pinker, **// The Language Instinct //**, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1994) ** ||

**~For example, the following collected from newspapers by Stephen Pinker. **

Ø ** Two cars were reported stolen by the Groveton police yesterday. ** Ø ** The judge sentenced the killer to die in the electric chair for the second time. ** Ø ** The summary of information contains totals of the number of students broken down by sex, marital status and age. ** Ø ** No one was injured in the blast, which was attributed to a buildup of gas by one town official. ** Ø ** One witness told the commissioners that she had seen sexual intercourse taking place between two parked cars in front of her house ** ||
 * Ø ** Yoko Ono will talk about her husband John Lennon who was killed in an interview with Barbara Walters. **

** ~Inattentive use of ambiguous words can lead to humorous, or even awkward situations, as shown by these newspaper headlines. **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">~For example:

Ø Child’s Stool Great for Use in Garden Ø Stud Tires Out Ø Stiff Opposition Expected to Casketless Funeral Plan Ø Drunk Gets Nine Months in Violin Case || <span style="color: #ff6600; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">
 * <span style="color: #ff6600; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Ø Iraqi Head Seeks Arms

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">__b) Syntactic (also known as structural or sentence) __

<span style="color: #333399; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">~Structural ambiguity occurs when a phrase or sentence has more than one underlying structure

**~For example: **


 * <span style="color: #ff6600; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Ø The chicken is ready to eat', which could be used to describe either a hungry chicken or a broiled chicken ||


 * <span style="color: #ff6600; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Ø In the movie Animal Crackers Groucho Marx says “I once shot an elephant in my pyjamas. How he got into my pyjamas I’ll never know.” (Quoted by Stephen Pinker) ||

[|http://online.sfsu.edu/~kbach/ambguity.html]**
 * <span style="color: #ff6600; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Ø Drazen Pehar provides the following example: //I am prepared to give the sum of one million dollars to you and your husband.// This can be understood as //I am prepared to give the sum of (1 million $) (to you) and (your husband)// – making a total of two million dollars; or as //I am prepared to give the sum of (1 million $) to (you and your husband)// – making a total of only one million dollars. ||
 * []

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<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 175%;">5)How can media help language teachers in classroom language teaching? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> The uses of media as movies, internet, advertisements or commercials in classroom language teaching are mushrooming as educators realize the effectiveness of using these materials in the teaching process. Students nowadays tend to get easily bored if the teachers use the ‘usual’ materials to teach (using text book, reference book, etc). Educators or teachers rarely have as much experience with different forms of media as do the students since youngsters are being exposed more to the media. This dichotomy can be seen as an opportunity for a more flexible teaching model, in which both the teachers and students are contributing knowledge and at the same time learning new things. Media education can provide students with the ability to express themselves through different forms of media. As a result, the teaching-learning process will definitely becomes more fun and interesting. Media do benefits language teachers in classroom language teaching as they search for ways to effectively teach language by using media in the classroom while at the same time experience with media increases. Media really can help language teachers in classroom language teaching because it stimulates students’ interest in learning language hence make the teaching process for the teachers become easier and more conducive.

6) Teaching activities that incorporate media Using media in teaching can certainly help the teachers to produce an interesting activity for the pupils thus enhancing the learning process. Here is an activity suggested to teachers to be used in classroom. Activity: Setting up a student magazine Overview: In this group work, pupil will need to search for interesting articles and advertisements from media (newspaper, magazine, brochure etc.) and compile them to produce a magazine of their own. In addition, by referring to the sample of media, they have to contribute their own pieces. Objective:  I) To help pupils familiarise with the use of parts of speech in writing through the process of identifying and using them in writing. II) To make students aware of the use of parts of speech in media. Key organizational points:

1- Set a strict time structure for this production so that there is not too long a gap between pupils producing their articles and seeing the final result. 2- Standardized the size of paper used to make the magazine. It is recommended if the students use double-sided A4 paper that finished than a larger version which is never finished. 3- Remember that each different type of article will involve a lot of language use. Teacher should encourage pupils to practise using all parts of speech such as nouns, adjectives, prepositions, adverbs etc. appropriately in the articles contributed for the newspaper. 4- Divide the students to a group of four or five. A group of more than five usually becomes unmanageable and tends to leave some pupils with little to do. Insist that everyone must have a part. 5- Ask the pupils to decide a name for the newspaper. Example; No Name Gazette 6- For every section, pupils need to provide one sample from the real newspaper and identify the use of language, focus only to parts of speech. Then, put the article that they create themselves. It does not need to be too long. Highlight the parts of speech in the articles. 7- Marks will be given based on language (correct identification of parts of speech and language use in the articles), and creativity (both on the sample articles they chose and their own pieces). Magazine’s content:

1- News stories. It is better if pupils can find and create an article that sounds strange, unique or funny. For example: sample article- “Sticky Buns kill 31 in China” Their own article- “Martian visit headmaster”

2- Horoscopes. For this part, pupils can divide the 12 horoscope into two groups. Any six from the twelve horoscopes will be derived from newspaper or magazine and the other six should be created by their own.

3- Comics. As instructed for the other section, pupils provide one comic from authentic material and one that they have to create themselves. Four-panel comic would just be necessary.

4- Advertisements (the same way as above).