Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: thedoc on 19/09/2013 10:25:49

Title: Can TV programmes affect how we speak?
Post by: thedoc on 19/09/2013 10:25:49

Glaswegian youngsters are picking up speech characteristics from Eastenders, researchers have found.
Read a transcript of the interview by clicking here (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/interviews/interview/1000401/)

or [chapter podcast=1000502 track=13.09.17/Naked_Scientists_Show_13.09.17_1001325.mp3](https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenakedscientists.com%2FHTML%2Ftypo3conf%2Fext%2Fnaksci_podcast%2Fgnome-settings-sound.gif&hash=f2b0d108dc173aeaa367f8db2e2171bd) Listen to it now[/chapter] or [download as MP3] (http://nakeddiscovery.com/downloads/split_individual/13.09.17/Naked_Scientists_Show_13.09.17_1001325.mp3)

Title: Re: Can TV programmes affect how we speak?
Post by: alancalverd on 20/09/2013 13:56:53

Why the surprise? 95% of all television broadcasts are funded on the assumption that people's behaviour is affected by what they see and hear. Advertisers got there 80 years ago, and don't like wasting their money on things that don't work. 

I gues the only surprise is that Glaswegians don't have their own words for slag, gaff, geezer, nark, rubadub, etc. Wossgoinon? 

Title: Re: Can TV programmes affect how we speak?
Post by: carrie7654 on 21/11/2013 14:41:52

When people move to different regions for extended periods of time they tend to pick up some of the speech characteristics that are used in that region. Sort of like a subliminal brainwashing. I would think that anyone that watched alot of television that came from a particular region, and especially children who tend to be more imperssionable than adults, would pick up some amount of those speech patterns / characteristics.

Title: Re: Can TV programmes affect how we speak?
Post by: cheryl j on 21/11/2013 16:10:55

It's kind of surprising it hasn't had a bigger effect than it has, and that everyone in the US doesn't sound like they are from St. Louis, Missouri or Columbus, Ohio. On the other hand, maybe they can if they want to. Another current thread is discussing how babies can learn more than one language. Maybe people can learn more than one accent. Send them to a job interview and they might sound like a TV newscaster, but at home with the family and friends, sound quite different. It makes sense, though, from an evolutionary point of view that people do adapt a little and blend in if they have to change groups. It didn't take my sister long to start sounding like a Texan when she moved there.