Media text so far..

Media Text: DRAFT. (Men’s mag)

Women. Got to love them. I have so much respect for women. What can’t a woman do? Carrying a baby for nine months, whack it out. Tend to the screaming thing 27/4, while the man is at work. Tidying and keeping the house clean and not to forget the bloody mood swings they get every month. Don’t think I could if I tried. But there is something that the ‘degree in multi-tasking’ women cannot do. They cannot communicate in the same way as us men. Getting stressed at this article already? Please don’t let me explain…

1.       Women beating round the bush approach:

She’s telling you a story about what happened to Betty at work. (I know boring!) But you listen; being the good husband you are, trying not to zone out while she explains this. But she talks about how she felt in this situation. Why is she upset that Betty got sacked? You still got your job love! The feelings with the story telling, is just one of the factors that separates the female language with ours.

2.       The Male Information only approach:

My technique with explaining a story is this: You come home from work, being that good husband that you are you see, I tell her about my day at work ( before she nags me to tell her anyway!) I tell her about Dave being sacked for not completing enough sales. Did I explain how I felt no!

See the difference? Right, were getting somewhere…

                                            

3.       The I’m nervous approach:

This is what upsets me when women claim that they speak in the same way as men. The principle is that the language use is very different. The I’m nervous approach will be very familiar to most men.  The I’m nervous approach works simply like this where a woman will use gaps in her sentences e.g.:

Woman: ‘I was walking the dog and uh I saw uh what his name again?’

Man:  ‘I was walking the dog and I saw that guy... Thomas’

 “What every parent should know...”

We all know that being or becoming a parent is hard. Whether it is your 1^st or your 4^th child.

 You get up in the early hours of the morning; you feed, bathe and pamper your little one. Then it comes to the stage of teaching your little mite how to speak. You ask yourself all these questions. Will they be able to speak clearly, or will they pronounce words really badly, like what was said in the Ogden Nash poem, it must be milk? Here are a few tips into helping your baby into speaking clearly- what every parent should know:

       Repeat words regularly.  (Your child will eventually be able to identify these repeated words)

      Their language will develop by what you say (They copy you- mind your language!)

         Be consistent. ( Tell the same story every night, they start to understand and copy you)

        Use simple instructions, will help them know who is in charge. ( E.G. ‘push the bus’ )

         Point to a body parts.  (This will help them to understand the body function).

       Be firm (when your child isn’t communicating properly, keep repeating the correct term- EG: ‘Please’ ‘Please’ – this should help your child to identify what is the correct language to use.

 

A question frequently used by parent; ‘When do I know if my child is finally speaking’

When parents say they notice their baby’s first words they claim they are beginning to talk. They are incorrect according to child language expert Andrew Wilkinson as he says that words by themselves do not make up language. He illustrates that a baby may cry ‘momma’ but adds that this can be used for a number of reasons; for example: The child may be in distress or may want attention and that is why they call out single words to demonstrate a number of things that they may have wanted.

 

Children copy what you do, so mind your language…

 

Media Text ...

For a Women’s magazine:

‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus’

Women are said to come from another planet. But is there a complete difference of language between men and women? Or has the male over powerful participation in a conversation changed the concept of women’s language as well as their place within society. It is said that men will try and come across higher and women just want support from society? Is that true or is it just a stereotypical view? As women we go through a lot of changes, with our bodies, emotions etc. So is it really fair to be judgementally viewed on our speech?

 

For a Men’s magazine:

‘Women are definitely from another planet- it’s all in the language.’

Women. Sometimes you love them, sometimes you hate them. The most difficult species to understand, women. They say that were all the same in the society, but is that really true after all this is a man’s world. Women’s language is very awkward. Us men we will tell a story and tell the information side of it, after all who cares about how I feel? But women, they will beat around the bush and talk about how they felt, as if that is going to make the story entertaining, Then they complain that were interrupting them because when they’re explaining a story all we hear is ‘umm’ and ‘ahh’  I’m sorry but us men, our attention span isn’t very long, we just can keep up.

 

Guardian readers:

‘Is there a difference between Male and Female language, or are we still stuck in the stereotypical history?’

Language and Gender theories aren’t new. It is something that has been researched over many years. There are a lot of concepts saying that women are emotional and men are a lot more hard faced. Now does that mean that men don’t cry? Those men do not show emotion? It is very controversial as there are many opinions to this situation.  Women would argue that men too are emotional or that women are not any more emotional than men to higher their status in society. But a lot of men in society will argue that they do not cry to try and remain high in society.

 

lang and power analysis

Investigation notes.

 

What I found interesting about the language used was:

• Most of the candidates have brief or approximately 2 second pauses, this could shows that the candidates, being the losing team are nervous, so the seconds can represent them thinking about what they can say to keep their place within the competition. For example :

‘I lost money (2) but the reason I lost money’ – The candidate here is trying to justify his point but uses the 2 second pause to think carefully about what to say, to keep his place in the competition.

• Alan sugar uses a lot of repetition within his speech to maintain authority. For Example:

‘ coulda’ – I think Alan uses this this device to reinforce the problem and help the candidate to understand that they didn’t achieve, which is why he goes on to say: ‘But you didn’t’

• Alan sugar has the all power as the candidates always approach him as: ‘Sir Alan’ rather than just Alan.
• The female uses a Face saving strategy, in order to help her stay in the competition, For Example: ‘Sir Alan may I say one more thing please’- she asks in a polite way in order to be liked and kept in the show, whereas if she spoken to him rudely she most likely wouldn’t have been able to speak and say what she wanted to say, which resulted in her staying in the competition.
•   Alan uses a lot of Dramatic pauses, to show power. By doing this he keeps the candidates on edge not getting too comfortable because they don’t know which one of them is going to go. For example: ‘get out that door (3)’ ‘(4) if you insist’
• At first Lord Sugar says ‘could of’ which is interrupted by the male, so Alan repeats his statement with more emphasis on the word, he again is interrupted. He then adds, other words ‘coulda(.) shoulda (.) woulda’ All with emphasis, to show to the candidates that he is the one with the power and from that moment, none of the candidates talk interrupt Lord Sugar.
• Even though Alan holds all the power in the Boardroom, after he tells the female candidate to leave the room, he is very complimentary towards male 1. ‘) Simon (.) if I ask you to build me a wall (.) you’d build me a wall (.) I’m pretty sure of it (.) if I asked you to dig me a trench (.) I think your dig me a trench (.)’- This shows a contrast of language, from how Alan was speaking throughout the whole of the conversation (especially towards the female) to how he spoke to Simon at the end. 

 

Theories that could be used:

Language and power theories: Face saving strategies etc.

Language and Gender (to some extent)

 

Other data to collect:

You could compare this data with how Alan Sugar talks differently depending on the sex of the Boardroom; For Example: All male Boardrooms/ All female Boardrooms.

Could also compare how in an all-female Boardroom and an all-male Boardroom interact with each other and to Alan Sugar.

Possible data Investigation title:

‘The differences how the powerful participant interacts depending on the sex of the Boardroom’

‘How does the powerful participant enforce power in the Boardroom?’

Other investigation collection:

-          Go to an actual Boardroom and record yourself the conversation.

-          TV

-          Radio