Media's Effect on Language

Media has a great effect on persuading people into buying their products. Labels, bright colors, and beautiful people in your advertisements are all there to distract you from the actual product and only focus on the ad. You may think that you are not affected by such cliché words and phrases such as, better than blank, but in reality you are. Whether you are conscious of it or not you will think to yourself wow this is better than brand x or wow this tastes horrible I like brand x better. Also the media plays a large role in how the nation or culture perceives a word. In the reading for Wednesday the meaning of the word macho was debated. The author of the essay thought that macho was used as a derogatory term in the United States, but in Latin American countries it was seen positively. However, in reality most Americans think of the song “Macho, macho man…..” which is usually played during a manly commercial for food, beer, or a sporting event. What the author said about most people seeing it negatively, for example a womanizer who only stands around drinking beer and demeaning his wife or women in general, is not true. Another example of a word being influenced by the media is, hot. The word hot literally means to be very warm and uncomfortable. Because of pop culture and outlets such as MTV and VH1 it has come to mean a very attractive person. It can also be used to describe something as cool or hip. For example, that’s a hot car, does not mean that the car is literally warm it means that it is a “badass” car or a cool car. The media skews meanings of words without even realizing it, but I believe that it helps a language grow. Simply because the word has multiple meanings which can be both confusing and helpful at times does not mean the language is dying, it’s changing.