Mass Media Contributes to Vocabulary Building, Influences Language Use and Delivers Conventional Wisdom

The mass media has become a big part of our society and its counterparts. In a time span of 50 years this medium has influenced society to an extent where it has created wonders. This immaculate tool can control almost every action we perform, from speaking to the actions that every human being performs in society. The mass media has brought upon a new era of idea's and changes in the world we live in. As we analysis media in depth we will find many aspects of media which overlap and some of the smallest factors and aspects of media, which create the biggest impact on society.

The way in which we speak changes drastically depending on the situation, environment we are in and who we are speaking to. The use of slang in today’s society is increasingly becoming more and more common. However, this new, modern way of speaking also comes with negative connotations. For this reason, people have had to learn to adapt their speech to their situation. I will be discussing the reasons behind the use of slang, why some people disapprove of it and I will analyse how people change the way in which they speak depending on their situation.

Mass media has experienced many major developments over the past hundred years. As the manner in which media is communicated to the world evolves a definite shift to American culture has occurred in the process. Mass media has undergone numerous changes in the way it is distributed to the general public, going from newspapers, to radio, to television, and now to the World Wide Web. American culture is so ingrained in technology, that distributing mass media in this format seems like a natural step in the evolutionary process of distribution.

Currently, the student population at Morgan State University age ranges from 18-24. It was important to look at age and the culture of society to show the high usage of slang/jargon on campus. It was noticeable the differences of slang in the North and South in regards to how they say certain words. A student from Philadelphia was asked how she would know someone is from her state without he/she mentioning by the person’s use of “jawn” or “drawlin.” The term “jawn” is universally used to talked about someone or something; “Did you see the new Jordans that came out… them jawns nice”. The word “drawlin” is used to describe someone who is doing too much. In New York, they use “wildin’” to describe someone who is doing too much. Moreover, slang in the North is more similar based on their context and

Clearly if “Internetese” is used outside of its realm (the internet), its intended message will suffer greatly, due to the common misconception that anyone speaking Internetese is ignorant. Nevertheless, very few things could be further from the truth. Brockenbrough acknowledges that IMing does have a home. It belongs in the internet via chat rooms, games, e-mails, and texting, to name a few. IMing is an extremely efficient way to communicate information as fast as possible. A prime illustration is texting. When texting first arrived, it was on platforms and devices with limited amounts of buttons to press. With the English language comprising of twenty-six letters and an additional number of symbols, each button on a texting device must have multiple purposes and letters assigned. Without having multiple functions bound to multiple buttons, not every goal desired can be completed by a user. Because of this, abbreviations, shorthand, and acronyms were introduced and slowly gained acceptance throughout the general public. This allowed devices with limited functionality (relative to that of a standard desktop computer) to communicate information at almost the same rate as someone with a normal keyboard. The communication was clear and effective, since the audiences receiving the messages or communications know of the devices and are receptive to seeing content delivered in Internetese. In any event,

A day does not pass me by that I do not come across American language such as, “Babe, bro and dude”. Where does youth get this language from these days? America, thanks to the influence of American media common English words are now laden with an Americanised meaning or application.

Constant abbreviated, cut-off sentences in media culture, have alerted educators as they start to notice these habits entering the classroom. For instance, Chad Dion Lassiter, a professor of race relations at the University of Pennsylvania, noted that essays have been so deeply rooted in technological culture that, “After the first few sentences, college admissions professionals toss them to the side” (US News). Casual use of internet slang and abbreviations such as”totally” and“u” are all part the negative effects technology has had on writing and overall language. Although some argue that literacy changes over time and that these abbreviations have been around for centuries, it’s still important to refine basic writing skills, mostly in our

American culture influences the informality of language that Australians employ in everyday life to some degree, especially for the younger generations. Australians watch a large number of American movies and TV shows, arguably even more than Australian-based entertainment. This has led to the adoption of informal American colloquialisms such as ‘bro’, ‘whatever’ and ‘chill out’ by many Australians. In addition, Bruce Moore remarks, ‘Contemporary teenspeak comes from the world of teenage popular culture, and this culture is largely American’. Teenagers are more open to change and actively follow new popular trends in vocabulary. Most of these latest developments in language have originated in America, as it contains 60% of the Anglosphere population. Therefore, it is no surprise

Slang is changing with the times, and every generation has its on lexicon of slang. From the 1920's, the word applesauce meant awesome and now like a boss means awesome. These are just two examples of how slang is changing as time goes on. For more examples of 1920's slang visit the website http://local.aaca.org/bntc/slang/slang.htm ,and for examples of modern slang visit the website http://www.coolamericanenglish.com/american-english-slang.php. If you do decide to go to these websites, you will see how much the English language has changed in 95 years. Why does slang change? It changes because the current generation wants to be differ from the previous one. Every generation has some really annoying slang words. The 2000's generation has

From selfie to unfriended, social media is clearly having an impact on our language. As a teenager, growing up in the age of technology, I have experienced how fast social media has impacted society and how they influence what I write.

The ten people I chose to include in this study are composed of eighteen to twenty year old women of multiple ethnicities who are either from Los Angeles or attend the University of California, Los Angeles. This is so that the results are not varied due to demographics other than ethnicity and so that the colloquialisms will not vary by region; they will be specific to one area. This use of colloquialisms across the people characterizes them as a linguistic group specific to Los Angeles making them a community of practice of people who are members of Los Angeles, share the slang used in the Los Angeles area, and are a part of the same network in regards to undergraduate college students.

One popular trend that American adults notice is the use and variety of teenage slang. The teenage slang trend had existed for a while, but with every new generation, words are being added on the list. Often time on the news adults try to help parents decode the teen’s language to understand what their children are saying in text, the internet, and even in person. Teenage slag is a unique language that we teens use to relate to each other. The slag is an important cultural value, because social media had caused it to expand to not only the United States, but also teens all over the world are using the slang to put more emphasis into what they are saying. The slang that we use helps the younger generation to bond and relate to each other in text as well as in person. Teenage slang adds to the American cultural values because it shows that as Americans we can be private and informal.

As a result of social media’s effect on the evolution of language, Americans’ vocabulary has enlarged to incorporate new words and develop different connotations. In the world of texting, one will rarely send a message without exercising the use of an acronym. LOL (laugh out loud), ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing), and TTYL (talk to you later) are just three of many text-based acronyms that have emerged throughout people’s messages. New ones are constantly being put into effect as certain phrases become more popular. In fact, the use of these acronyms and abbreviations is so widespread across America that many of the more famous ones appear in the online edition of the Merriam-Webster dictionary. These include BTW (by the way), BRB (be right back), and of course, the ever popular LOL. As language evolves even further to include more text-based abbreviations, more and more of these

Linguist David Crystal stated “Their inventions thus display an almost unique combination of the neotenous enjoyment of language-play”(Language and the Internet 2006) shows that DAvid Crystal is of the view that the slang words are very useful for English as they are extend the vocabulary greatly.

In todays world, media has become necessity to us almost as mush as food and clothing. We are constantly exposed to media throughout TV shows, news, advertisement, the music industry and film industry. The mass media in our days not only has the purpose of information exchange and entertainment, but also according to media communication theorist McLuhan, it shapes the publics opinion , behavior and beliefes. (krytyka.org,2011) Media has a vital role in building up and teaching us about our society, because we tend to sort our knowledge about the world by symplyfing already received information . The media is a reflection of society and reflects the norms and morals a culture tends to follow. We learn what is expected form our gender