are those which have no need for words, and ask no more than
complicitous silence” (Bourdieu 1987: 188, emphasis added).
In what follows, the focus is on the media as a powerful institution that
plays a major role in the stability and perpetuation of the nation-state, and
the way language serves as both a tool and a target in that process.
Consider, for example, the phrase “voice of authority.”
In the 1990s, ABC News produced a print advertisement featuring a
head-shot of Peter Jennings, then senior editor and chief anchor of the
news desk. Beneath the image of the photogenic Jennings was a single line
of text: “The Voice of Authority.” Regardless of Jennings’ skill and the
quality of his reporting, it requires a jump of faith to accept him – or any
one person – as the ultimate voice of authority in the interpretation and
reporting of current events.^3
A study of the various media outlets provides many examples of how
representatives see themselves and want to be seen. Sometimes the claims
are very boldly stated, as in the following during a (2005) National Public
Radio broadcast:
NPR is considered by many to be the standard bearer for Standard
American English. Listeners from around the country and around the
world say that they find NPR English is the clearest and most
comprehensible broadcast English available. They can hear that crisp
American English on NPR member stations, on their Web sites, on
line at npr.org or on the listeners’ shortwave receivers.
(Dvorkin 2005)As is often the case when authority is claimed in public forums, the
identity and credentials of the cited expert are left conveniently in the
shadows. The passive construction “considered by many” is a classic
dodge in the tradition of “mistakes were made” (Broder 2007).
Such claims are not the largest part of the media’s participation in the
language subordination process, which requires that the non-compliant be
dealt with summarily. The newscasters and reporters seem to have two
primary methods for drawing attention to non-conformers: mocking or