Summary myth 3

The Media are Ruining English

A lot of people are concerned for the health of English and that is not new. In every decade, language “defenders” pop up like sentries before old castles. Parents, teachers and the press have all been blamed for the problem. In recent years the media – television, newspapers, radio – have been widely criticized as linguistic criminals. Two interwoven misunderstandings underlie complaints about media language.

 Dirty fingernails fallacy: journalists use language sloppily

In this fallacy they say that journalists do not pay sufficient attention to language details, but on closer inspection this is not true. People use new words and slowly the whole world uses them. The media are linguistic mirrors. They use the current language usage and extend it, they don’t invent these forms, only use them.

 Garbage heap fallacy: journalism is junk writing

This is also not true. The journalists only write the things in a shorter and informative way and that isn’t wrong. The writer George Orwell even had rules and the journalists still use these rules.