Notes
1 Here the terms “mass media” and “public media” are used
interchangeably to mean communication formats designed to reach a
large audience, for example, as in a nation-wide broadcast of a
presidential speech. Traditionally “mass media” is understood to
include nationwide radio, large circulation newspapers and magazines,
and television. “News media,” by contrast, refers to the
communication of information about current events, at least in part,
and encompasses broadcast, print, and internet sources.
2 The issue of bilingualism and discrimination in the workplace linked
to bilingualism is relevant here, but for the moment the discussion is
restricted to native speakers of English.
3 Other broadcasters have been described as voices of authority, as well.
For example, the phrase was heard in connection with Walter Cronkite
especially at the time of his death in 2009.
4 The broadcast news data cited here originates from the Television
News Archives at Vanderbilt University. The archive has tape of ABC,
NBC and CBS national news broadcasts for every day since the mid-
1960s; all of these are indexed. The archive also includes MacNeil-
Lehrer and CNN Headline News reports since those services began, but
those broadcasts are not indexed. All of the reports I was able to find
were from the big three networks, which have been supplemented with
other reports from my own daily viewing notes. The sources, in order
of presentation: CBS Evening News, 1984; San Jose Mercury News,
October 18, 1984; The Providence Journal Bulletin, April 1994; NBC
Evening News, April 1993.
5 Language as a social tool is a human trait and not specific to any
country. The process whereby authority in matters of language is
seized has been widely institutionalized. In France, L’Académie
française publishes an official French dictionary and is probably the
best known institution of its kind. However, many countries and
nation-states have institutions to promote what is believed to be the
“right” or “proper” variety of language. Hindi, Korean, Foroese,
Danish, Wolof are just a few examples.
6 Hermann and Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent: The Political
Economy of the Mass Media was first published in 1988 with a second
edition dated 2002. This collection of case studies provides a