Category: Language

Should We Spend Money, Resource, Effort On Saving Language?

Now in this modern society, the world is gradually opening up and very variously countries and regions are gradually becoming together. Because of this, language has gradually become convergent. There are almost seven thousand languages around the world, but in every tow weeks, there is one language becomes perish. According to the tendency of the worldwide fashion, people nowadays are more likely to speak English or their official languages in their country or region what makes the vanishing of the languages. And that situation is also accelerating the loss of our language culture. A large number of experts are forcing to spend more money to prevent our vanishing languages. And I also strongly agree that we need to spend more efforts to protect our vanishing languages that have been passed down by many generations.

In the past two decades, linguists around the world have collected the data about vanishing languages. They have found that not only one language is spoken by no more than one hundred people, and nobody of them want to pass it to next generation as it is useless. Not only that, according to a survey on 1999, which shows 97 percent of the world’s languages are spoken by just no more than 4 percent of the humans. There is an example from my home country. Although China is not in the hotspot region of endangered languages. A professor called Dr. Huang who from the institute of minority languages of Chinese Academy said, there are 129 types of languages in China, and more than half of them are no vitality. And at least thirty languages are endangered, such as Tata in Xinjiang, and Yugu which I have a deeply understanding in my senior high school because of my history teacher who has half of Yugu lineage. She said more and more people are longing to move to the modern city instead of the backward countryside. In order to adapt the new environment, they must use new language, as the time goes by, she hardly remember the original language she used in her childhood. That is why people always said, the power of language is not the number but the inheritance. And that is why there are 10 million Manchus in China, but only one hundred people can speak their original language. Then, with the death of the old generation, this language will totally disappear.

It is truth that we have to put much more money if we plan the save money. But it is not wasting money, wasting money means spend money to do something do not make sense. Saving languages is meaningful in my view, cause I am come from canton, I learned Cantonese and Mandarin when I was young. I know that, there are somethings that can not be translated between two languages, same as other languages. Every language has its unique thing that other language can not translate just like the Chinese ancient poems. the best relics from our ancestors. As a result, learning a new language is like a culture interation.

To sum up, I think it is necessary for us to pay more money, resource, and effort to vanishing languages. All the languages which can exist have their meaning, it present a type of thinking from our ancestors. If different languages are becoming same, it means culture are becoming single. All of us will be trapped into a single culture. What old generations did will become a shine in long history. We can not compare money and human civilization. Human civilization combining all of our intelligent and it means we existed in this world.

The Twitter Spasm Classification Using R Language

Executive Summary

The cutting edge technology in the modern setting has led to a rise on several social media platforms which are geared into making the daily life of human being more than comfortable. In this case, Twitter is one of the major social media platforms which are used by billions of users in the entire world. On the other hand, the rise of the social media platform has triggered the onset of malicious individuals who spend most of the time trying to disturb innocent social media users. These malicious activities range from spamming, hacking and phishing. Through this, the team of malicious people tends to send emails and messages which have no significance to users. Others use these opportunities to address the phishing texts; in case one clicks the message, the link directs to a malicious platform leading to the siphoning of individual private data. Notably, the spammer may tend to use viruses and worms which are geared to infect the user’s devices; therefore, to make it easy for the hackers to attack and manipulate the personal data and information stored in the machine. Social media users have suffered a lot from these set up leading to attack on the individuals’ bank accounts losing millions of dollars to these malicious scammers. This research report involves the use of sentimental analysis to distinguish any form of suspicious activity on Twitter. The experiment consists of the process of demonstrating one machine methodology which is easily applied in the filtering of the Twitter message to control and prevent Twitter spamming.

Introduction

In this research context, the idea of sentiment analyses through the use of the linguistic and the textual assessment is deeply applied. The notion of sentiment analyses involve the use of the natural language process to analyze the word use, the combination of words and the word order to classify, analyze, and even classify the neutral polarity, positive and negative nature of the message data (Santos et al., 2014). Through the use of sentiment analysis, Twitter spasm can be easily analyzed since all the data gathered through the use of sentiment analysis are in a way believed to give detailed information on something and even provide direct access on the previous existence of the data at the same time providing the public opinion and feeling on the data. The research also involves the use of Twitter trending and spasms, through the pieces of monitoring and even analyzing the social reaction on the local topics trending. The main aim of the study is the act of analyzing the Twitter spasms, opinions, and the emotions which are expressed by the citizen through the use of R-studio in machine learning algorithms.

Evaluation matrix

Research methodology

The use of sentiment analysis process tend to constitute of the four known significant steps; these steps include the use of data acquisition, classification of the data, data pre-processing and data analysis.

The Data Acquisition Process

This method/process involves the use of the R package which is used with the R studio to extract the tweets from Twitter and even subsequently used to create charts at the same time classifying the data in the form of emotions, spasm, and polarity. The method involves the process of installing the R packages which include the “twitter R,” “ply” and ROAuth (Bindu, 2018). Notably, the method involved the use of Twitter () functions which are mainly used in the R library to obtain Twitter tweets on the topic selected. Through the technique, hashtags and the use of the single tags and the double quotes were the main considered parameters used and accepted for the search Twitter functions (Coberly et al., 2014). Through this, the use of the Twitter API and searching for the tweets which are related to the keywords for the search were the primary samples for the research topic. For example, the search API includes the use of spasm words such as the temp = the search Twitter (“hashtag marijuana” spamming message). The search engine tends to involve and allow the queries to get the information against the used indices and search on the popular tweets incorporated. The search features used in this case were more effective and thus hard to be found on the mobiles or even in any web client, this becomes one of the most efficient methods and thus making it easy to detect on the searching Twitter spasms.

Data classification

Through the use of R language, the R studio version provides two primary functions which were used to analyze and even to classify the Twitter messages into polarity spasm and also to support the spammer and not spammer functions. These also incorporate other features to test on the polarity (positive, negative and neutral) and the involved emotions from the public. In the case of emotions, the emotions incorporate the (joy, fear, anger, and surprise). Notably, analysis was then conducted on both of the involved tweets and the not retweeted as well as the use of retweets. Through this, after the process of involving and compiling on the two polarity functions, it becomes more than easy to check on the spasm message and even to understand on the negative, neutral and the positive retweets from the Twitter messages. On the other hand, the process involves checking on the R inability to function and even understanding the used Twitter dialects and even the limitation of the R studio to understand the dictionary words used. Notably the process of classifying the used tweets into either spasm or emotions was also another challenge since most of the tweets are in a way different and thus affected by the topical issues leading to a result of the unknown replies for the spasm and other associated tweets (Davies & Ghahramani, 2011). In this case, these are some of the chief essentials components which are used on the sentiment analysis research as it is conducted on the spasm message detection. Through this, it makes it hard and infective in describing the data which was collected from the Twitter messages.

Data analysis

In the process of data analysis, the use of the R studio software was much essential and useful. The software was used offline to analyze the data during the data preprocessing, post-processing and classification process. Conversely, to process all the information and the data gathered from the Twitter API, the use of the R type of file or dataset was used and then formatted to form a file extension in the form of arff also known as the (attribute file format). The file was then generated to form/develop an extension which later generated a file in form of the CSV file. The process also involved the use of a comma in order to separate the values used and also to separate the values. The arff file was used in this case to separate and incorporate the ASCII files. The ASCII file tends to describe on the list of the spasm messages and also in instant sharing of the data set attributes. Notably, the use of R studio was more significant in this process since it helped in making the sentiment analysis successive and also helped in separation of the comma values file and even in creating of the graphs and the tables.

Results and Finding

In this section it outlines the classification of Twitter tweets, which are associated with spamming and not spamming. These tweets are then downloaded and classified in four topical issues kind of dimensions. Through this, it portrays on how the sentimental analysis is used on the tweets and how it can be used to check and filter on the spamming process. The method is also used in checking on the public perceptions on the topical issues as select from the spamming tweets messages. Through this, the dominant approach used is to start by checking on the lexicon of the negative and the positive word and phrases. In this case, the use of polarity is incorporated in order to check if the word seems to spam or even to evoke something negative or even something positive to the public. For example, the use of beautiful portrays a positive polarity while the use of horrid will portray a negative one. Notably, the use of ‘we sell some product’ will present the spamming message.

Literature Reviews on Sentimental Analysis

From the former pieces of literature reviews conducted on the sentimental analysis, it is clear that this type of initiative is much beneficial. Through the use of the sentimental analysis approach, many of the company have gathered the information and also participated in activities which are useful to the company entities and even in the organization’s motive of gathering of interests. Notably, the R language has been of much help in organization and stakeholders who use the Twitters. Through this, the organization is able to prevent any form of Twitter spasms and also prevent and protect the company from data breaches as a result of post violation from the twitters’ privacy policy. The study also reviewed that the use of R language is the best and significant in handling of the Twitter tweets and also checking on the issues which are discussed on Twitter to the public.

Notably, another research depicts that the sentimental analysis method through the use of R language is much essential in the marketing of the company. Through this, companies are able to campaign and even to understand the customer’s perceptions and thus help in improving the firm’s service delivery to the customers. Conversely, through the analysis, companies can check on the sentiments which are derived to the citizen’s tweets and thus used to check on the company’s action of stock forecasting.

Technical Demonstration Chapter

Through the Twitter API and the use of sentimental analysis, it is much simpler to get on the Twitter spasm. In this case, the API tends to convert the pictures, and the simple codes used and thus save the codes in 5 minutes. Through this, it becomes more than easy to get on the Twitter spasm post and the Twitter API to capture the Twitter spasm codes using the R studio software (Souza & Vieira, 2012). The process involves the action/activity of getting the Twitter API access to run and set up the Twitter accounts and also to allow one to use and track the spasm message on Twitter.

How the R Algorithm Operates

Through the use of R language, Twitter is able to verify and classify various demographics which are expressed by people as they give their different opinion on Twitter. In this case, it involves the check on the several typical issues as classified on the methodology part. Through this, the process consists of the use of tweets and the retweets from different people which were then classified through the use of machine learning algorithm. For example by checking on Barrack Obama tweet during the Jamaican visit, it happened to represent a fourth bar form the quartet used on R studio. In this case, the tweet seems to have received around 2583 retweets which are positive and thus 658 negative retweets from the R language analysis.

Performance evaluation chapter

From the above revelation, it is clear that most of the tweets which were posted from people and especially the public; they received a kind of mixed reaction and emotions. On the other hand, the R studio found it hard to detect on the combined response which was varying from anger and joy. From the image presented below, it is clear that R studio happened to encounter a kind of mixed response and difficulties when trying to classify on the emotional reactions. In this case, the majority of the tweets were from the people who presented a kind of mixed feedback to the emotions.

Notably, the image portrays that R studio finds it hard to deal with majority of the tweets which were dealing with the legalization of the marijuana and discrimination of the same drug. Through this, these messages were not classified as either spasm, but they were classified as unknown reactions. Furthermore, there are so many factors which could have led to R studio classifying the information through the use of sarcasm and thus this is main reason which contributed to the difficulty on the R and also finds it hard in determining the emotions portrayed on the tweets. These tweets were either negative or positive as depicted on the topical issues selected during the process.

Conclusion

Overall, the use of R language and the sentiment analysis in triggering and checking on the Twitter spasm is one of the methods used in the current generation. Through the above explanation it is more than clear that the results received were more than correct. However, the results also portrayed a kind of inability which was contributed as a result of the R studio finding it hard to understand on the dialect used in some tweets and also due to the use of sarcasm in some of the spasm message tweeted. In conclusion, R language is more than vital when analyzing the Twitter spasm as long as there is correct dialect on Twitter tweets.

Bibliography

1. Santos, I., Miñambres-Marcos, I., Laorden, C., Galán-García, P., Santamaría-Ibirika, A. and Bringas, P.G., 2014. Twitter content-based spam filtering. In International Joint Conference SOCO’13-CISIS’13-ICEUTE’13 (pp. 449-458). Springer, Cham.
2. Coberly, J.S., Fink, C.R., Elbert, Y., Yoon, I.K., Velasco, J.M., Tomayao, A.D., Roque Jr, V., Tayag, E., Macasocol, D.R. and Lewis, S.H., 2014. Tweeting fever: Can twitter be used to monitor the incidence of dengue-like illness in the Philippines?. Johns Hopkins APL Tech Dig, 32(4), pp.714-25.
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4. Davies, A., and Ghahramani, Z., 2011. Language-independent Bayesian sentiment mining of Twitter. In The 5th SNA-KDD Workshop’11 (SNA-KDD’11).
5. Souza, M., and Vieira, R., 2012, April. Sentiment analysis on twitter data for Portuguese language. In International Conference on Computational Processing of the Portuguese Language (pp. 241-247). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
6. Bindu, P.V., Mishra, R. and Thilagam, P.S., 2018. Discovering spammer communities on Twitter. Journal of Intelligent Information Systems, 51(3), pp.503-527.
7. Cui, A., Zhang, M., Liu, Y., Ma, S., and Zhang, K., 2012, October. Discover breaking events with popular hashtags in twitter. In Proceedings of the 21st ACM international conference on Information and knowledge management (pp. 1794-1798). ACM.

Language Of The New Social Media

The advent of social media meant that individuals could easily connect, communicate, and also share their opinions with a broader audience. Different online platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and so on have unique features, with each having its limitation to how a user can communicate with others. The limitations and free use of the platforms have led to the development of online slang. The variations in traditional language have not been limited to the English language alone. Still, a similar trend can be noted in all the other languages that have an online presence. However, after critical analysis, as will be shown throughout this paper, the language on social media bears most, if not all, the attributes of any other traditional language. An essential quality of any language is communication. The sole purpose of any language is to pass a message from one person to the other. Failure to do this, a language may not meet the thresh hold of being termed as one.

According to Danesi (2017), social media communication can either be informational and or conversational. In informational communication, users do not direct their message to anyone in particular. The target audience for such a form of communication is usually more extensive, and the user may use this to notify others of critical incidents. Such notifications include informing others of an event (Just like in news reporting), or the user may be just airing their opinion or thoughts to other users. This form of language usually takes a unidirectional model where the communicator may not expect nor receive a response from anyone.

The other form mode of computer-mediated communication is conversational communication. In this mode of communication, an individual shares information to interact with other social media users. It is from this interaction that grammar for a particular language can be observed and hence, the growth of speech communities (Danesi, 2017). Speech communities comprise of users sharing the knowledge of the use and interpretation of speech. The speech communities can further be described in terms of speech networks. There are two groups of speech networks, which include weak and dense speech networks. Dense speech networks are characterized by frequent interactions such as in various active chat forums such as WhatsApp groups. Weak speech networks lack daily interactions and are less likely to be linked by a particular bond (Danesi, 2017).

Conversational interactions on social media platforms among dense speech networks are the basis of the arguments in this paper. It is from those interactions that we can observe the patterns assumed by the language of the involved individuals. One key characteristic of this communication is the grammaticalization of English words and phrases. According to (Jager and Rosenbach, 2008), grammaticalization refers to a semantic process in which the grammatical elements of a language evolve out of lexical features. It is from this process that grammar changes or splits to create a new one (Hopper and Traugott, 2003). The language used in communicating on social media platforms is characterized by the use of nonstandard variations of the English Language that can be attributed to grammaticalization.

One of the vital indications of grammaticalization in online communications is the phonological reduction. In phonological reduction, an expression loses some of its phonetic characteristics (Schachtenhaufen, 2013). Online conversations are full of this form of reduced phrases. The explanation for this rampant phonetic erosion is because most social media platforms limit the number of characters one can type or send at a given time. Another reason is that unlike spoken language, typing is tiresome, and a single sentence that would have taken a fraction of a second to pronounce may take a while to type. This primarily relies on the typing speed of a user. Also, to save on time and ensure a conversation flows flawlessly without keeping the other party waiting for too long, phonological reduction comes in handy. The commonly affected phrases and words are as below:

Because- The word’s new form coz has now been widely accepted as a substitute for the original. Some of the examples in use of the word are; I couldn’t make it to practice today coz mom was sick. The meaning of the sentence remains the same in as much as the word because changes

I am going to- This has been the most affected phrase in matters phonological reduction. It has assumed various variations depending on use. It can take the form of imma, I gotta and, I gonna. Examples in sentences include, I gotta finish this task, imma do that and, I gonna see about it. These are shortened forms of I am going to finish this task, I am going to do that and, I am going to see about it respectively.

Another form of grammaticalization exhibited by the language on new social media is auxiliary verbs assuming a contracted form (Veliz, 2007). Examples, in this case, are in the use of will, would, and could. The three assume uses as in the examples below;

I’ll be home on time, I’d want to see what happens next and I’d use some help here.

Negated forms of auxiliaries are also contracted in the same manner. I would not assumes wouldn’t, and the rest follow the same convention. Other contractions such as I’dn’t’ve have taken root in social media language. In this case, I would not have is reduced to one single word I’dn’t’ve. In this contraction, the negation of auxiliaries is further shortened from, for example, wouldn’t to …dn’t.

While still in an effort to reduce the word count, the abbreviation of the English language is taking root in both informal and formal uses. Some of the most commonly used official abbreviations that have, with time, become accepted are FYA and FYI. The two are, for your approval and for your information, respectively. Informal abbreviations, such as but not limited to, lol, wyd, wbu and, wth have gained widespread use. They represent the shortened forms of laughing out loud, what are you doing? what about you? and, what the hell, respectively. There has also been the development of new words to express one’s feelings, such include tsk and nkt. The two are used to express annoyance and irritation. We can attribute these developments to the fact that unlike in face to face communication, social media communication lacks the use of non-verbal cues (Manuel et al., 2010).

The use of images and other visual symbols like emoticons and emojis characterize language on social media. Emojis and emoticons are used to represent emotions and other non-verbal cues but in written communication. Lately, there has been a new form of language that uses gifs and images (memes) to communicate. Some meme users incorporate ideas borrowed from English grammar to communicate via memes. One classic example is the use of doge/doggo and LOLcat on images of dogs and cats, respectively. In as much as the two are wrong grammatically, they are correct according to the slang they are attributed to. However, a user of the same needs to understand their proper forms so that they can relate to them in their new forms (Manuel et al., 2010).

Although there are significant differences between online language and the standardized English language, the two serve their primary goal, which is communicating. The two are continually evolving and taking new forms. However, online language changes faster as it is unregulated and non-standardized. Most of the attributes mentioned in this paper do not only apply to the English language alone but other languages as well. They all share characteristics when it comes to how they are used in social media.

Language, Media And Society

Making Meaning: Words and Images

‘Language—more specifically human language—refers to the grammar, structure and other rules and norms that allow humans to make utterances and sounds in a way that others can understand’. (Nordquist, 2019). The origin of language and its evolutions is highly speculative and has been debated vigorously amongst some of the greatest minds- many of which, have attempted to source its first emergence and develop upon that- i.e. The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, who defined the modern discipline of linguistics using his Theory of Structuralism. The language was not the creation of one person or one period but it is an institution, on which hundreds of generations and countless individuals have contributed and developed. Language is very characteristic of human beings that establish their superiority of communication above all other species, as identified by Darwin in his ‘TU-TU Theory of Language’ when he wrote, ‘The distinction of language in man is very great from all animals”, he wrote (Barrett ed. 1987, p. 542-3). Language is a constituent element of civilization.

Therefore, the importance of language for man and society cannot be minimized. Language impacts the daily lives of members of any race, creed, and region of the world. Language helps express our feelings, desires, and queries to the world around us. Words, gestures, and tone are utilized in the union to portray a broad spectrum of emotion. The importance of language and communication is often overlooked. Language extends its power through mass areas of social media platforms, news media, entertainment programs and even the music we listen to- it can be social, educational and cultural. It has allowed humans to feel apart of a community and extends to them a place that they can belong to. The ways in which the media use language are interesting linguistically in their own right; these include how different dialects and languages are used in advertising, how tabloid newspapers use language in a projection of their assumed readers’ speech, or how radio personalities use language—and only language–to construct their images and their relationships to an unseen, unknown audience. Fourth, the media are important social institutions.

They are crucial presenters of culture, politics, and social life, shaping as well as reflecting how these are formed and expressed. Media ‘discourse’ is important both for what it reveals about society and for what it contributes to the character of society. Although language provides us with all these media and connective freedoms, it would be arrogant to believe that is doesn’t pose a threat when abused. The power of a word is often minimized. The effects of language abuse or hate speech threaten to turn a word to a feeling and a feeling into action. For example, a journalist for The Guardian newspaper, Gary Younge, highlights the rippling undertone of hate speech even within politics through his comment ‘Donald Trump shows hate speech is now out and proud in the mainstream’ as the leader of ‘The Free World’, shocked the globe with his ‘ani-Muslim rhetoric’ branding them “Muslim cheats”. The Guardian later responded further, “Once discrimination on this scale enters the political market, it debases the currency of democracy and leaves everything weaker and everyone more divided. He wouldn’t be the first political figure to make the transition from ridiculous to dangerous.’ (Younge, 2015)fx

Ideology: Power of words and images

John B. Thompson said, “Ideology is meaning in the service of power”(John B. Thompson, 1990). An ideology is a set of normative beliefs and values that a person or other entity has for non-epistemic reasons. These rely on basic assumptions about reality that may or may not have any factual basis (Wikipedia, 2018). Ideology has been ever-present throughout history. It has been seen to have changed the world for the greater good i.e. Nelson Mandela and his fight for equal rights for all men – and for the worst, i.e. Hitler and the Nazi regime. Regardless, to fully understand the power of ideologies we need o understand its origins- Karl Marx. Marx explains ideology in his book ‘ The German Ideology’ as a ‘production of ideas, of conceptions, of consciousness,’ all that ‘men say, imagine, conceive,’ (Marx, 1846). “Ideology functions as the superstructure of a civilization: the conventions and culture that make up the dominant ideas of a society. The ‘ruling ideas’ of a given epoch are, however, those of the ruling class: ‘The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships, the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas; hence of the relationships which make the one class the ruling one, therefore, the ideas of their dominance’ (Marx, 1846). ideology (for example, literature) can have a semi-autonomous existence; that is, that such cultural products can exert an influence that is at odds with the dominant mode of production. Ideology strives to establish, sustain, legitimize and rationalize unequal power relations- It challenges us to think about them. Ideology holds a mythical principle- it doesn’t indoctrinate people into what they are expected to believe in but on the other hand, it remolds the truth into a more desirable form that people willingly choose to believe in. For example, it has become a mas belief that immigrants ‘steal’ British jobs and ‘rob’ the country of its benefits budget- this is false. The Guardian newspaper has reported that ‘the HMRC figures also show that those who arrived in Britain in the last four years paid £2.54bn more in income tax and national insurance. The Office of Budget Responsibility has estimated that their labor contribution is helping to grow the economy.’(Travis, 2016). The LSE’s Jonathan Wadsworth said: “The bottom line, which may surprise many people, is that EU immigration has not harmed the pay, jobs or public services enjoyed by Britons’. (Travis, 2016). Regardless of the continuous studies and facts reported to the British public false ideologies, politically and socially motivated, still hold favor to the public as it gives them an explanation of rationale to their hardship.

Political Economy and ownership

Language and images represent the world, while simultaneously impacting that world, molding and manipulating our understanding of it, how we experience it and how we act in it. Western society is dominated by a medicated democracy. The involvement of media representations not only in popular knowledge about politics but in the conduct of politics becomes a factor of primary systemic significance. The media has an enormous effect on societal influence over political systems. For example, totalitarian regimes such as the KPD Communist party in Russia often used their political power over popular newspapers to sway citizen votes to maintain popular support for the government. This is a prime example of how our media platforms portray bias influence on the masses.

Capitalism is an economic and political system that is driven towards the pursuit of wealth. Marxists argue that the economic system of Britain, i.e. capitalism, is characterized by great inequalities in wealth and income which have been brought about by the exploitation of the labor-power of the working classes. Thus, the media is a product of a dictating capitalist system that taunts society- driving it to use its ownership and influence to proliferate its chosen message. Britain has one of the most concentrated media environments in the world. For example, statistics have shown that just ‘three companies dominate 83% of national newspaper circulation; five companies account for 80% of national newspaper news brands reach; five companies command 80% of local newspaper titles…’ (Freedman, 2015). The dangers of media ownership put public opinion at risk as they have the opportunity to censor, manipulate and mold false media and portray it as truth to society. The Guardian comments that “This kind of concentration creates conditions in which wealthy individuals and organizations can amass huge political and economic power and distort the media landscape to suit their interests and personal views.’ (Sweaney, 2015).

Thus, to avoid this the UK has called for media reform like in 1901 when Australia added regulations an restrictions to broadcasting laws i.e. the Broadcast and Television Act 1942 which held broadcasters and the media responsible for providing ‘adequate and comprehensive’ (Devereux, 2007) programmes to protect the public from biases’ manipulated by media ownership. It grows clear that mass corporations have fallen victim to the drive of capitalist pursuits, such as financial gain. For example, ‘Facebook has ‘quietly’ rescinded a policy banning false claims in advertising, creating a specific exemption that leaves political adverts unconstrained regarding how they could mislead or deceive, as a potential general election looms in the UK.’ As stated by The Guardian Newspaper (Hern, 2019)

The Correlation Of Language And The Media

Abstract

In this report I would like to emphasize the contribution of language and the media to the sense of living in this world. I will discuss about the influence of language in the world of media. Media suffuse our sense of living in a world: a social world, an imaginative world, the world of global politics and confrontation. The contribution of media to the individual’s mindset and thought processing is inevitable. The right use of language and media can divert the masses in anyway. This report would bring a conclusion considering the drawbacks of media and the usage of language by discussing the media ethics. In this digital world of communication , media allows us to propagate the thoughts to greater no. of people much faster.To be more specific in view of language , the regional slangs helps the information to reach out to even the illiterate people and monolingualists.

Introduction

In this report we try to bring concepts of language and media together to understand the impact of one on another. Only then we will be able to understand the great changes in the communication and media culture in the recent decades.The media can be segregated into three types broadly : Print Media , Broadcast(Radio and Television) ,Digital Media. The language forms the basis whatever the medium of communication is . The evolution of media is crucially supported by the language . The media to brings up the cultural changes in the usage of language. Contemporary digital media is underdetermined. A decade ago there was a study of audience and few other key elements of media research were in place. The technological innovations has transformed the scale on which we act as social beings. Because the digital media goes through emphasizing the key message ,repeatance and many more additional tricks to make it more attractive. Like anyother business media is also a hot business because we live in a society were information is seen as wealth and this digital world has stolen has most of our information.

Methodology

The methodology used for this report is circulation of google form to various people of different age group , different occupation. Also by rising questions to few journalism students and their responses are recorded and compared with that of others . The idea of getting responses from journalism and mass communication students of Madras Christian College , Chennai is to get indepth knowledge about the media’s impact on the language, culture and society.

Main Report

The important role language plays within the mass communication is much readily agreed on but much less readily acted upon. In the realm of culture, the mass media are for most of people the main channel of cultural representation and expression, primary source of images of social identity. Everyday social life is strongly influenced by the media use and ifused by it contents through the way leisure time is spent,lifestyles are influenced, conversation is given its topics. In the last decade the media have grown the economic value, hence more the manipulation of people’s mind.

Wave upon wave of newly saturating media has flowed over the inhabitants of this world

• the move from limited no. of terrestrial TV channels to hundreds of cable or satellite Channels;
• increasingly fast and continuos access to the internet and world and wide web;
• media access from mobile
• radio and press’s move online through digitalization
• social networking sites such as facebook and twitter has changed the way of thought processing

How social media is affecting language

Starting from emoticons to short form the social media has massively trimmed down the usage of words to express emotions. Earlier the language we use to communicate was similar to thatof formal communication. But nowadays that’s not the case the normal communication differs on a huge scale from that of formal communication, the sole reason for this change is social media.

The reason for this is media sites such as twitter limits the user to 140 characters per tweet, this would naturally makes the user to use acronyms to communicate in a more effective manner.

Bane of language in Mass Communication

In a diverse country like India, people use different languages to communicate. Most of the citizens are monolinguists . Thus Mass communication in a specific language becomes very difficult. Its always difficult to give same information in different languages, it often leads to conflicts.

Impact of social media

From the recent history of the issue of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, its clearly visible that how one can be influenced through the social media. Information is Wealth , through our past searches , likes and dislikes in social media is naturally a reflection of real life.

Even a persons election vote can be manipulated by constant use of media.

Following are the mental effects caused by social media.

• Social media is addictive.Studies show that 63% of Americans log on to Facebook daily, and 40% log on multiple times each day. People use the site for myriad reasons; however, it usually serves, on some level, the same basic purposes: distraction and boredom relief. Likesand comments are positive reinforcement for posting information, making it difficult for a person to stop. Researchers have found this so common that they created a scale to measure this addiction:
• Social media makes us compare our lives with others.Posts on social media many times present an idealized version of whats happening, what something looks like, or how things are going. This can lead users to constantly compare themselves to others and think less of their own lives. If things are going particularly well for people in your newsfeed and youre having a rough day, of course this will likely negatively affect your mood. In fact, in 2012 a team of researchers in the UK surveyed users, 53% of whom said social media had changed their behavior; 51% said it was negative behavior because of decline in confidence they felt due to unfair comparisons to others.
• Social media makes us restless.Out of the same sample as the above example, two-thirds admitted to having difficultly relaxing when unable to use their social media accounts
• Social media gives rise to cyberbullying.Cyberbullying is an enormous concern, especially for adolescents. An organization that aims for internet safety, called Enough is Enough, conducted a survey that found 95% of teenagers who use social media have witnessed cyberbullying, and 33% have been victims themselves.
• Social media glamorizes drug and alcohol use.A study that explored the relationship between teenagers, social media, and drug use found that 70% of teenagers ages 12 to 17 use social media, and that those who interact with it on a daily basis are five times more likely to use tobacco, three times more likely to use alcohol, and twice as likely to use marijuana. In addition, 40% admitted they had been exposed to pictures of people under the influence via social media, suggesting correlation between the two factors. Although a correlation is all it is, it makes sense that social media would amp up the amount of peer pressure to which teenagers are exposed
• Social media can make us unhappy.A study from the University of Michigan collected data about Facebook users and how it correlated with their moods. Simply put, they found that the more avid users were overall more unhappy than those who used the site less. Over more time, avid users also reported lower satisfaction in their lives overall.
• Social media can lead to fear of missing out, aka FOMO.Fear of missing out is a phenomenon that occurs when you feel pressure to be doing what everyone else is doing, attend every event, and share every life experience. It can evoke anxiety and cause social media users to question why everyone is having fun without them. Surveys have even found that people feel insecure after using Pinterest because they feel that they arent crafty or creative enough. Facebook and Twitter can make people feel like they arent successful or smart enough
• Social media often leads to multitasking.How many tabs do you have open right now? How are you even concentrating on one thing? The thing is, youre probably not – especially if one of those tabs is a social media site. Research has shown that our brains dont have the capacity to fully focus our attention on two things at once, and instead multitasking causes our brain to quickly switch from one task to another. This hinders information processing and productivity. Closing out your Twitter feed can seriously help you get some work done

Conclusion

Public confidence in the mass media continues to erode as more journalists and media outlets involve in unethical conducts.Comprehension of law is the only step. In the digital world everyone are a source of information. Every media person should have a source of media ethics . There shpuld not be shortage of ethical guidelines . Teenagers should be given proper ethical guidelines inorder to safeguard themselves from vulnarablity

Refrences

1. http://degreed.com/blog/stanford-prison-experiment
2. iVillage http://www.ivillage.ca/health/womens-health/10-good-and-bad-ways-social-media-affects-your-mental-health
3. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/275361.php

Language, Image and Media

Introduction

In this paper I intend to conduct a semiotic analysis of a series of adverts for men’s anti-wrinkle cream produced by Nivea. Semiotics is concerned with the study of ‘communication as the generation of meaning.’ (Fiske, 2011) The adverts, as shown below, are entitled ‘Because life makes wrinkles,’ and each one depicts the furrowed brow of a middle-aged male. Each of the images portrays a different aspect of conventional life, including a child, a house and a car, which for most tends to be part of the natural progression of life, (in-keeping with societal norms) or what might be stereotypically considered the most stressful aspects of life. The images imply that with each step along the way, as the man ages, the wrinkles become increasingly worse. This is where the product placement is important as it is suggested that the Nivea cream (the product being sold) is able to combat the effects of ageing.

In this piece of work, I will analyse the sequence of images in order to deduce the message that they intend to convey, applying different linguistic tools to each. I have not considered all three images when applying theory as they portray similar messages. In order to conduct my analysis, I will be focusing on the different aspects of sign theory, looking closely at Ferdinand de Saussure, and Roland Barthes, also incorporating a variety of other scholars and sources. I will also touch on intertextuality and metonymy (synecdoche).

Sign Theory

The term sign is used to refer to something that stands for something other than itself. Linguists argue that signs have no intrinsic meaning and only become signs when meaning is invested into them. [image: ]Leading linguist Ferdinand de Saussure proposed a model which suggested that a sign is a dyadic model consisting of two interrelated units; the signifier and the signified. (Chandler, 2002) (See model) Signifier equates to something physical, such as a sound or letter and signified connotes the mental concept or image to which the signifier is referring. He referred to the relationship between the two as ‘signification’ (as indicated by the arrows in the image.) (Sebeok, 1994) Saussure also insinuated that the relationship between signifier and signified and thus the linguistic sign is arbitrary, implying that the meaning given to the sign is a social construct made up of human experiences and societal context; the relationship between the ‘signified’ and ‘signifier’ is simply one of convention. (Saussure, 1983)

The application of this equation (using figure 1 as an example) according to Daniel Chandler would be as follows: signifier+signified= sign

• Signifier= A middle aged man with lines on his forehead and a young girl hanging from them.
• Signified= Mental concept connotes that the stress of children can give you wrinkles.

In addition to this Saussure emphasised that ‘meaning arises from the differences between signifiers; these differences are of two kinds: syntagmatic (concerning positioning) and paradigmatic (concerning substitution).’ (Saussure, 1983) Syntagms and paradigms provide a structural context within which signs make sense. (Chandler, 2002) In this way a syntagmatic relationship is created through the sequence of images as each figure depicts signs of progressive ageing. The signs operate together to create meaning. From figure 1 through to figure 3 the hair becomes greyer and the wrinkles become deeper. The ‘plane of sytagm’ (Chandler, 2002) suggests that the combination of each of these factors equates to the final image/ concept, which is that of ageing. Saussure stressed that ‘the whole depends on the parts, and the parts depend on the whole’. (Chandler, 2002) In each of the images the addressee has chosen these particular factors associated with old age to portray the ageing process. Similarly, it could be said that there is a syntagmatic relationship between the child, house and car as each is used to allude to the ‘bigger picture’ of life.

Order of Signification

Roland Barthes built on the Sausserean model to explain that a sign operates at two levels of signification: denotation and connotation. He explicates these in terms of ‘order of signification’. (Barthes, 1972 ) Barthes suggested that there is a dual message within any singular sign: the aesthetic aspect, or the literal meaning (denotation) and also the hidden ideological meaning that reinforces the historical significance of that sign in relation to the dominant socio-political and economic structure-(connotation) (Moriarty, 1991).

The first order of signification in the anti-ageing cream adverts denotes the forehead of a male with a furrowed brow. The first (Figure 1) shows a male with dark hair frowning and a young girl pictured below the wrinkles on his forehead. The second (Figure 2) denotes a male with slightly greying hair with deeper wrinkles than the first, above which sits a house that appears to be under-construction. The final picture (Figure 3) denotes a male with almost fully grey hair and a car which looks to be driving across his forehead. From figure 1 through to figure 3 we can also see that the hair turns grey and the wrinkles deepen. This is the literal interpretation of the advertisements, but advertising generally requires a shift from the field of denotation to connotation as this alludes to a different perception from the target audience.

The second order of signification, considering the three advertisements as a sequence, connotes the gradual ageing of the man. This is portrayed through the greying of the hair from figure 1 through to figure 3. Furthermore, the lines/ wrinkles in the forehead deepen, which is another feature attributed to ageing. The line reads ‘Because life makes wrinkles’, the slogan is portrayed in each of the images as they show a child, a house and a car, all of which are generally assessed as being the main stresses of life. The connotation suggests that these aspects of life cause stress which in turn causes ageing, this is important as the selling point of the product is its ability to combat ageing. The second order is essential as it encourages the audience to construct meaning and ‘read between the lines’ of the advert.

Barthesian myth

In accordance with the aforementioned ‘order of signification’, Roland Barthes suggested that myths exist as an extension of the second order. (connotation) He suggested that they are the ‘dominant ideologies of our time.’ (Chandler, 2002) Lakoff and Johnson, who published extensive work on conceptual metaphors in their book, Metaphors We Live By, suggest that myths can be compared to metaphors in the way that they ‘help us to make sense of our experiences within a culture’ (Lakoff, 1980) Myths make dominant cultural and historical values, attitudes and beliefs seem entirely natural, normal, common-sense. The Barthesian myth present in this anti-wrinkle cream advert is the notion that the process of ageing is something negative and to be avoided or postponed. Over time, society has idealised the prospect of remaining youthful in appearance and has constructed the idea that ageing is something that needs to be avoided, I would add that the media has been a driving force in reinforcing this ideology. The advert uses this ‘myth,’ instilled into the target audience by society, as a selling point for the anti-wrinkle cream. It does so by displaying the progressive effects of ageing, picturing grey hair and wrinkles with the knowledge that they have negative connotations for most, and that this will impact the addressees, in turn encouraging them to buy their product. I would suggest that marketing strategies in recent times are able to incorporate the notion of Barthes’ ‘mythologies’ in order to create a selling point for products as society has created unattainable beauty ideals or ‘myths’ that nowadays seem ‘entirely normal or natural’.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality, as explained by a number of renowned linguists, alludes to the interconnection between texts that influence the audience’s interpretation. Bakhtin theorised the idea that each text proposes a continual dialogue with other texts. (Matheson, 2005) He explained that ‘no text is original and is always half someone else’s. It becomes one’s own only when the speaker populates it with his own intentions.’ (Bakhtin, 1981) Intertextuality is an important tool in this advertising sequence. The ads alone each make similar points and it is possible to understand one without the other, but when they are brought together as a sequence the target audience is able to see the message and the intention of the addresser more clearly. Danesi explains that intertextuality is present when a ‘text alludes to another text,’ (Danesi, 1994) and when considering the three images it becomes apparent to the addressee that each picture builds on the one before it subsequently creating a bigger picture, which shows progressive ageing. This is an example of intra-generic intertextuality, as explained by Cook (Cook, 2001) as it makes reference to other examples in the same genre. In this advertising sequence the effect of this is to create a stronger selling point for the product as it pledges to stop or slow-down the gradual ageing depicted in the three images.

Metonymy (synecdoche)

Metonymy has been explained as the ‘use of one entity or thing to indicate, or to stand for another.’ (Lakoff, 1980) Elaborating on this idea Kövecses elucidates that, ‘the main function of a metonymic expression is to activate one cognitive category by referring to another category within the same domain.’ (Kövecses, 2002) The term ‘synecdoche’ exists within the field of metonymy and this is when a part refers to a whole and vice versa. I have considered this metonymic expression in my analysis of the above advertising sequence (figures 1-3) and I would suggest that each of the images could be interpreted as a synecdochic expression. Considering figure 3 as an example along with the slogan, ‘because life makes wrinkles’ the addresser utilises the image of a car crash to evoke the idea of life and in this way the car is the ‘part of the whole’ to which the term synecdoche refers. The car is representative of life and thus is the thing causing the wrinkles. The utilisation is similar for each of the figures, with the child, the house and the car as they all equate to a part of ‘life’ making each of them a part of the whole. The same could be said when considering the slogan without each of the images but in reverse. If synecdoche can also be considered as a whole referring to parts ‘Life’ is used to refer to each of these individual aspects.

Conclusion

Through my analysis of this advertising sequence by Nivea, I would suggest that in accordance with theory proposed by Saussure, developed by Barthes, context and mental concepts are imperative to the sense making of the message projected by the addressee. It is necessary for the receiving audience to construct meaning when looking at each of the images, as if they were to consider only the denotative aspect of the sign (the literal meaning) it would defeat the whole object of the advert. The 2nd order of signification enables the audience to construct meaning by applying contextual knowledge. In this way it is possible to deduce that the advert insinuates that ‘because life gives wrinkles’ has been portrayed through the imagery used. The child, house and car (life) all cause stress, which in turn causes wrinkles. In addition to this, the Barthesian myth which suggests that we should seek to obtain a ‘forever youthful look’ works to create a selling point of the product (the anti-wrinkle cream will stop/ slow-down this ageing process). I would also say that intra-generic intertextuality works to create a sequence that displays the effects of ageing which, together with the other linguistic tools that I have identified work together to create desire for the product. Although the adverts are very simple, I would suggest that it is relatable for the audience. I would also reiterate that it relies heavily on the notion that society collectively has a negative view on ageing. All of the tools aforesaid work in junction to create a strong selling point for the product being sold.

References

1. Allen, G. (2000). Intertextuality. Routledge.
2. Bakhtin. (1981).
3. Barthes, R. (1972 ). Mythologies. Les Lettres Nouvelles.
4. Chandler, D. (2002). Semiotics: The Basics. London: Psychology Press.
5. Cook, G. (2001). The Discourse of Advertising.
6. Danesi, M. (1994). Messages and Meanings: An Introduction to Semiotics. Canadian Scholar’s Press.
7. Fiske, J. I. (2011). Introduction to communication studies. Taylor and Francis .
8. Kövecses, Z. (n.d.). Metaphor: A Practical Introduction.
9. Lakoff, G. &. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. University of Chicago Press.
10. Matheson, D. (n.d.). Media Discourses.
11. Moriarty, M. (1991). Roland Barthes. Stanford University Press.
12. Saussure, F. D. (1983). Course in General Linguistics. Duckworth.
13. Sebeok, T. A. (1994). Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics.
14. Taylor, S. Y. (2001). Discourse Theory and Practise.