Debate: Are the media to blame

This might be construed as being off-topic but in "The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye", the sequel to "The Mote In God's Eye" about first interstellar contact, Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle suugest the media is responsible fo making even (literally) outlandish gestures acceptable and popular:

"...picked up the habit from the aliens...We were on holoscans a lot when we were fighting the Outies and I've been on since Sparta made me governor...The whole planet, eh?" (Harper Collins,pub.1993, p.34)

> Some of the speakers in Wednesday's 'word4word'
> programme were convinced that the media have a big
> responsibility for changes to today's English
> language, because we pick up expressions and
> pronunciations from their example. Other speakers
> were equally convinced that the media follow existing
> trends and tendencies that English speakers are
> already using anyway. So do the media influence the
> way we speak - has any reader of this forum found
> evidence on either side?

i agree and iam convinced that media influences our speaking ,expressions ...etc
especially for those who r learning english as a second language .

It must work both ways. A language acquires words from anywhere it can, most of which will start to be used in the unofficial parallel languages or dialects which are what most of us speak. I would say that the media will simply reflect this and as a result certain words and expressions will become very widespread- understood by all. They may not invent them, (although there's no reason why they shouldn't do that as well, and they certainly do from time to time), but the modern media must be largely responsible for the adoption of most if not all of the new words and expressions we commonly use.
Standard English was to an extent fixed 3 or 400 years ago, by increased literacy and education, and with no mass media like we have today, there would have been less opportunity for the new to find its way into the standard language. There would have been plenty of variations on the norm, but they would have tended to be more localised, and that is still reflected in regional speech today. However the situation now means that any new expression can be spread within hours and understood by anyone with a TV or a computer. This must seem to happen at almost frightening speed to many people, but worry not- most of the new words have a short life and quickly start to sound quaint and dated before being discarded. Others will stick around and some even achieve the ultimate accolade of inclusion in the OED!
As I've said again and again- languages are like that- only a plonker wouldn't give us ultimate respect for saying that in'it!!

Nick P

I'm sure it's a bit of both.