Mr Gate
and collectivists ...’
MTV Music Television; worldwide popular music
video broadcasting service created by Robert
Pittman in the US in 1981, to take advantage of
initially free programming provided by popular
video. Transmitted via satellite and cable
television, MTV is fi nanced by advertising and
sponsorship.
Multi-actuality Th e meaning of communication
signs – language – is not fi xed but subject to
diff ering interpretations according to context.
The term originated with Valentin Volosinov
in Marxism and the Philosophy of Language
(Seminar Press, 1973; fi rst published in Russian,
1929–30), who argued that the prevailing mean-
ing of a word or expression, such as democracy
or freedom, works towards the suppression of
multi-actuality, except in terms of ‘social crises
or revolutionary changes’. In other words, the
dominant hierarchy will strive to impose its
own meaning – one meaning as opposed to
many. Signs, therefore, Volosinov believes, may
become the ‘arena for the class struggle’ as the
dominant group of interpreters of meaning
strive to eradicate alternative meanings. See
hegemony; ideology; metaphor.
Multicultural London English (MLE) A new
dialect of English being studied by researchers at
Lancaster University and Queen Mary College,
University of London. MLE is spoken by young
people in inner city areas of London, particularly
those from ethnic minority backgrounds. It is
strongly infl uenced by British Black English but
contains a mixture of other linguistic infl uences
from West Asia and Africa. See http://www.lancs.
ac.uk/fss/projects/linguistics/innovators/.
Multiplane Walt Disney (1901–66) used this
word to explain an innovation in the process
of animation, illustrated in Fantasia (1940).
Instead of building up a drawing by laying ‘cells’
one directly on top of another, an illusion of
depth was achieved by a space being left between
the celluloid images of foreground, background
and principal fi gures.
Multiple image A number of images printed
beside each other on the same film frame,
often showing different camera angles of the
same action, or separate actions. Abel Gance
(1889–1981) used this device to stunning eff ect in
his masterpiece of 1926, Napoleon.
Multiplier eff ect Where culture as a commod-
ity – usually in the form of films and TV
programmes – exported to other countries,
opens up markets for other goods. See media
imperialism.
Murdoch eff ect Arising from the dominance ofwas a pyrrhic victory and soon the industry was
off ering music and other downloads to subscrib-
ers. See downloading.
Mr Gate American media analyst David Manning
White in 1950 investigated the process of
gatekeeping by studying the editing selec-
tions by a copy-editor, ‘Mr Gate’, from the
(then) three major American news agencies
on a 30,000-circulation daily newspaper in the
US midwest. ‘Mr Gate’ in one week used 1,297
column inches – about one-tenth of the 11,910
column inches supplied. ‘Mr Gate’ confessed to
a few prejudices which might well cause him
to put items on the spike (reject them), and to
a preference: ‘I go for human interest stories
in a big way’; but White also perceived how
important the pressure of time was on the selec-
tion process. Th e nearer the next edition of the
newspaper came, the stronger in news value a
story had to be not to be rejected. See white’s
gatekeeper model, 1950.
M-time, P-time Edward Hall in Th e Dance of
Life: Other Dimensions of Time (Doubleday,
1983) contends that cultures tend to adopt
either a monochronic (M-time) or polychronic
(P-time) perspective to managing time. The
M-time perspective focuses on the clock: time
is measured into units; time should be used
productively; punctuality and meeting deadlines
are viewed as important; time is represented as
having a linear pattern; and the focus is on doing
one thing at a time.
In contrast the P-time perspective focuses on
people and events, not the clock: time is fl uid
and fl exible; activities have an evolving times-
cale; deadlines and appointments are not rigidly
adhered to; several activities may be undertaken
at the same time; and tasks and conversations
are likely to be interrupted. Th ere is a tendency
for individualistic cultures to be driven by
M-time and for collectivistic cultures to embrace
the P-time perspective (see communication:
intercultural communication).
Such diff erences can be the cause of misun-
derstanding and friction in intercultural
encounters. Stella Ting-Toomey in Communi-
cation Across Cultures (Guilford Press, 1999)
discusses the problems that differences in
time rhythms can cause; to take one example
from confl ict-management situations: ‘M-time
people want to establish a clear timetable to
achieve specifi c confl ict goals and objectives;
P-time people want to spend more time build-
ing up trust and commitment between the
confl ict parties. Diff erent M-time and P-time
rhythms ... can further polarize individualists