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Jean Aitchison explains that the role of the Rupert Murdoch Professor of Language and Communication is twofold: researching into key aspects of language, especially of the media, and educating future gatekeepers or `lock-keepers', those who will filter and transform incoming floods ofinformation.Lock-keeper education involves promoting clear communication, computer skills, and knowledge of language, in the sense of knowing how it works. Media language is inventive and creative - but it can only push language along in the direction in which it is already going. Use of individual wordsmatters less than the context in which they are used, and metaphors can be all-powerful. These points are made with illustrations from some changing lexical items: Mini-, wimp, and joyriding.
This lecture investigates the evolving role of language and communication within the media landscape and the pedagogical responsibilities of academic gatekeepers. Jean Aitchison, serving as the Rupert Murdoch Professor of Language and Communication, outlines a framework for understanding how language functions in public discourse. She argues that media language acts as a catalyst for linguistic change, though it remains constrained by existing structural trajectories and the power of contextual metaphor.
What You Will Find
Experts recognize this lecture as a foundational statement on the intersection of media studies and linguistics during the early 1990s. Readers frequently note the clarity of the prose and the effectiveness of the author's chosen examples in illustrating complex linguistic shifts.
Page Count:
38
Publication Date:
1994-11-10
Publisher:
Oxford Univ Pr
ISBN-10:
0199522642
ISBN-13:
9780199522644
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