doctoral candidate in rhetoric and scientific and technical communication
language bias
School is kicking my butt. I know I should expect this at the senior level but really…it’s kicking my butt.
Tonight I have to do a presentation on one of the chapters in our linguistics book: media bias in language.
Have you ever thought about how the media actually directs us on proper language use? Do you have an accent? Have you noticed how the majority of U.S. correspondents on national broadcasts have a “midwestern U.S.” accent. It is an accent. Make no mistake. And yes, you have an accent, too. Trust me…it just might not be what others in this country call an accent because it is so similar to media correspondents.
How did the media become the language instructors and police of the U.S. language (oh, and this isn’t only occurring in the U.S., it occurs all over the world but my course is specific to language in the U.S.)? Why do we let them tell us what the “standard” is and how to use language?
Has your dialect ever been ridiculed on national TV? Have you ever considered accent reduction (trying to eliminate your accent from your manner of speech to “fit in”)?
I’m troubled by this subversive bias. In the 1930s, NBC actually codified the “standard” for U.S. English and broadcasters nationwide bought into it…and that is now considered “standard American English.”
Have you noticed any language bias in your media?
I have an American broadcast standard accent, more or less…even though I grew up in a tiny north Louisiana town, and might have picked up either my parents’ Texas accent or my schoolmates’ Southern accent. Now when I go to other parts of the country and tell people where I’m from, they invariably say, “You don’t sound like it.”