An interesting observation

The other day i was at the train station in Richmond on the way to uni, when i noticed something quite interesting. Right next to the Sandringham platforms are a long line of large advertising billboards. Generally i glance at them, but they never hold my interest for anymore than a couple of seconds.

However, recently they’ve put up a new billboard thats advertising Converse shoes (see below). It is very striking visually, and it had me standing and staring at it for a good couple of minutes. I was trying to identify who the people were, i was thinking about how they could have put the graphic together… i was really quite impressed by it. What impressed me more however was that pretty much everybody else on the platform were also staring at it.

Being designers, we are always looking at billboards and advertising and dissecting them for their communication and so on, but there were so many ordinary, non designer people staring at this billboard. I’ve never seen anything like it to be honest, at least not for a commercial billboard.

Just goes to show how a good design can really make people pay attention to a brand or message.

The way forward.

I finished reading Unspeak yesterday (finally). It was a really interesting book, and has made me aware of a lot of new things. The book explored many examples of language misuse across a diverse range of areas, like environment, war, freedom, community, religion and many others. At some points i was disgusted at the actions taken to water down language and manipulate people.

Shows like the Chasers War On Everything and The Daily Show work to expose language of this nature, but it is done in a satirical way. While this method isn’t necessarily wrong, and it is quite funny at times, i think it needs to be taken more seriously as well. If its only exposed in a humorous way, are people more likely to just accept it and not really speak up about it?

It was interesting to read in the Epilogue of Unspeak that the author’s hope in writing the book was essentially to raise the awareness, which is common with our group’s goal. Steven Poole writes:

“As BBC World presenter Kirsty Lang explains: ‘It’s much easier to take the language that’s given to you, and the government knows that full well. So if you keep saying “coalition forces”, “coalition forces”, people will use it. I think people do need to be more careful. They do take phrases willy-nilly from the government without thinking, without seriously analysing what they say.’ The citizen’s plan of action is simple. When the media do this, talk back: write and tell them. Possibly the growth of Unspeak cannot be reversed. But that doesn’t mean we have to go on swallowing it.”

People need to be aware of the language that they are being bombarded with. Once they understand it, they have the choice of whether to do something about it.

So Nadia and myself have just got our team blog up ‘here’. Its lacking content at the moment, but by the end of the weekend we’ll start filling it up with our discussions and ideas for the project. At this stage, we are writing a new literature review, formulating some new research methods which include survey and interview techniques, and we’re also working on the direction of the new poster. We feel like we are on the verge of a really fun and interesting project, we just need to uncover it with some further thought and research!

Thats all for now.

Alex.

A depressing truth.

I’ve almost finished reading Unspeak (yes i’m a slow reader). It has really opened my eyes about what governments can get away with. Its quite sickening really. For example, the word ‘Global Warming’ was decided upon to describe the state of the earth heating up, mainly due to pollution. However, the term ‘Global Warming’  could be interpreted to imply that there were parties responsible for the act of ‘warming’ the globe, and most people would assume that the parties responsible to be oil companies. The oil companies wanted none of this, so they essentially pressured the government to change the wording to ‘Climate Change’. This term was less frightening, and didn’t point the finger at anybody.

I find it disgusting that governments will use over the top language in instances like the Iraq War, to try and convince the public that their cause is just. They use terms like ‘Weapons of Mass Destructions’, ‘Terror’ and ‘Freedom’, which are all highly emotive words, to whip up support to their cause. It seems with environmental issues, like global warming, the government is doing the opposite. Instead of using frightening language, they use dumbed down language. They replace Global Warming with Climate Change. Is making it less threatening really going to help get people to take action? If it doesn’t sound like an immediate threat, why would people want to do anything about it? I guess essentially it all comes down to who’s really pulling the strings.

Today i watched Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, as i was interested to see what type of language he used and whether any evidence of this ‘Unspeak’ came up. And sure enough, it is covered. Towards the end of the film, he talks about how its pretty much unanimous across all environmental scientists that global warming is happening. The only doubt and controversy over it just being a theory is brought up by the media, who are influenced by higher powers.

All this is making me very interested in how people perceive language, how they respond to it, and to what extent they believe it.

A new direction.

I haven’t updated my blog in a while as i’ve been quite busy with other work, but here is a run down of what i’ve been up to and some thoughts on things.

Last Tuesday, our initial poster group presented our literature review for the Methods class. We presented language as a topic very broadly, which was good, and bad upon reflection. Good because it revealed lots of start points for further research, but bad because it sort of left us a little behind other groups who had already picked a somewhat refined area within their topics.

I have joined up with Nadia Hisheh to form our group for the major project of the semester. We formed with a shared interest in a few of the areas that our group looked into. We are yet to come up with a title, or a well defined phrase to describe exactly what it is we are doing, but we are getting there.

Essentially our topic extends from some of the reading i was doing by the author Steven Poole, who i have mentioned in other posts. We are interested in the way people perceive truth. What is true to someone? How does one come to accept a truth? What makes someone a credible source for truth? We can see some interesting social experiments that could come out of this pathway, we just really need to flesh out a refined direction and work out the best method to research.

Our team blog will be up shortly, so keep a look out for it!

Literature review draft

Here is the draft for my part of our groups literature review:

English is a widely spoken language in the world with more than 370 million people speaking it as their native language as of 2005 (Vista Wide World Languages and Cultures, 2008). But trends are showing that this figure is steadily declining (see fig 1.), with languages like Hindu and Spanish making up ground. In the journal “The Future of Language”, Graddol (2004, p. 1329-1331) suggests that ‘any look into the future must entertain the idea that soon the entire world will speak English’, but as a secondary language rather than a native one. Many see the future of language as a multi-lingual one, leaving monolingual English speakers at a disadvantage. Countries right across Europe are showing very high levels of English fluency (see fig 2.), where as figures for native English speaking countries learning a second language are quite low.

Despite this trend towards a multilingual society, wealths of information like the internet are somewhat discriminatory to people who are not fluent in English. As of November 2006, 29.7% of internet users were English (see fig 3.), with Chinese coming in second by a fair margin. It is interesting how a tool that is supposed to create a network, or community, actually does more to segregate people than it does connect them. An extreme example of this segregation is discussed by Flammia & Saunders (2007, p. 1899-1903), where ‘language played a major role in creating a digital divide between Ethiopia and the rest of the connected world.’ Ethiopia’s infrastructure minister labelled his country as “one of the ‘least connected’ countries in the world”, which he sees as being responsible for effectively closing “the door to economic opportunity” (Heavens, 2004).

Its incredible how English speakers take something like the internet for granted; where as other countries are being somewhat discriminated against because their native tongue is not catered for. On a global scale, language barriers are very hard to overcome, but on a local community scale it is definitely easier for solutions to be realised. The diversity of cultures in Australia means there are always going to be language difficulties at times, and certainly avenues to look into for further research. Areas like multilingual signage, cultural alienation, immigrant and indigenous literacy are a few of the gaps that could be explored.

Understanding language and interpreting language are two different things. The ways in which someone learns a language does not differ too much from person to person, but how someone interprets language and words can come down to a number of contributing factors and is usually manipulated by the person speaking them. “Words and phrases have the power to excite our spirits, to free our minds, and to help us envision innovative ideas.” (Millward, 2007) Leaders, and people in power, do at times use their language for the positive points raised in Millward’s journal. But while Millward mainly speaks about positive uses of language, using examples from people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln, Steven Poole, author of the book ‘Unspeak’, talks about the misuse of language by those in power to manipulate people.

“What do the phrases ‘pro-life,’ ‘intelligent design,’ and ‘the war on terror’ have in common? Each of them is a name for something that smuggles in a highly charged political opinion.” (Poole, 2006) Poole argues that the use of language of this nature is essentially propaganda, but most of the people hearing it fail to realise and hence buy into it. “’Climate change’ is less threatening than ‘global warming’: we say ‘ethnic cleansing’ when we mean ‘mass murder’” (Poole, 2006) By using fluffy, less provocative language, politicians can say and mean something without ever really saying it at all. While Poole is very biased towards the negative use of this type of language, it isn’t hard to realise just how much it goes on in the media.

Making people aware of this language is Poole’s objective through writing ‘Unspeak’. He also runs a web blog, of the same name, where he has a running commentary and analysis of political and world news. There is definitely the opportunity to push this awareness further. Poole looks at the issue in a very negative light, but there could be ways to raise awareness positively. It would be interesting to see who buys into this type of language. In the case of ‘climate change’, are people actively participating in sustainable practice after hearing it described in ‘unspeak’ terms, or would they rather know the real truth? Will truth lead to understanding, and will understanding lead to action?

Reference:

Language as Power on the Internet
Madelyn Flammia, Carol Saunders, 2007, ‘Language as Power on the Internet’, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, vol. 58, no. 12, p. 1899-1903.

Leaders Understand the Power of Words
Robert E. Millward, 2007, ‘Leaders Understand the Power of Words’, Journal of Leadership Studies, vol. 1, no. 3, p. 81-83.

The Future of Language
David Graddol, 2004, ‘The Future of Language’, Science, vol. 303, no. 5662, 27 February, p. 1329-1331.

Unspeak
Steven Poole, 2006, ‘Unspeak: how words become weapons, how weapons become a message, and how that message becomes reality’, Time Warner Book Group UK, London.

Vista Wide
Vista Wide World Languages and Cultures 2008, Vista Wide, viewed 9th March 2008, http://www.vistawide.com/languages/top_30_languages.htm

 

 

Two sides to every story

Of course, just about every argument has a rebuttal of some sort. I have been reading through the book Unspeak by Steven Poole. Steven argues the negative uses of words and phrases used by people in power and the media. However, others like to argue the positive uses of persuasive language. I read a journal entry, called “Leaders Understand the Power of Words” by Robert E. Millward, who talks about how leaders understand the power of language. Key figures in history like Martin Luther King Jr and Abraham Lincoln used powerful, emotive and passionate language in their speeches to move audiences. He argues that it is not the words alone, however, that make people rally behind them, but it is also action. You can say things, but if you don’t follow it up with action then you lose your credibility.

It occured to me after reading this journal that i had never actually heard the Martin Luther King speech in its entirety, so i looked it up on youtube. It really shows just how powerful and moving a carefully constructed speech can be. And while i agree with Steven Poole’s opinion that language can be a nasty, evil, manipulating thing, i believe that it basically comes down to the person using the language. Peoples agendas are ultimately the deciding factor as to whether language is good or evil.

Unspeak

Through my reading, i have discovered the author Steven Poole. He’s a fairly young author and what he’s been writing about has caught my interest. He runs a web blog called “unspeak“. Unspeak is how he describes language that is used to essentially cover up, or put a positive spin on a negative thing. For example, pro-choice is the name of pro-abortionists. They use the name pro-choice because it has less negative connotations than the name pro-abortionists. This kind of language is commonly used by politicians and people in power. Poole has written a book, also called “Unspeak”, which i am currently reading.

I find this kind of stuff really interesting, and entertaining as the tone the blog, and book, is written in is somewhat humorous. As i read more of the book, i will post some interesting excerpts.

Alex.

Some food for thought.

Here are some interesting chunks of information from some of the reading i’ve been doing:

Language as Power on the Internet
“It was the World Wide Web with its user-friendly graphical interface that sparked the explosive growth of the Internet. Because of the economic supremacy of the United States and the Internet’s historical roots, the dominance of English was reinforced when the Internet began to be used for commerce.”

“English is the mother tongue of many nations, and is rapidly coming to be spoken by more people as a second tongue than as a first (Weiss, 2005). Only 16% of European Union members claim English as their mother tongue, but an additional 31% claim it as a second language (Spurdon & Carr, 2004).”

“Despite the large base of English speakers, even more people in the world speak Chinese than any other language (see Table 1), and the Internet usage of Chinese speakers is growing rapidly. Further, Chinese is becoming increasingly popular as a second language in countries around the globe
(Graddol, 2006). Yet, when more Chinese speakers start using the Internet, English may still remain the language of the Internet…”

“At times language is used as a tool of both oppression and social mobility, or at least it is perceived as such by individuals who do not speak the language. The use of English is playing a key role in structuring inequality in developing economies (Graddol, 2006).”

Madelyn Flammia, Carol Saunders, 2007, ‘Language as Power on the Internet’, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, vol. 58, no. 12, p. 1899-1903.

Leaders Understand the Power of Words

“…effective speeches rely on powerful words, powerful ideas, content, and passion.”

“His “I have a dream” speech will live forever in history and today is translated into more than 15 languages that can be heard and viewed by people throughout the world thanks to computer technology. Dr. King’s speeches are powerful because he spoke passionately about his beliefs and then followed up with commitment.”

Robert E. Millward, 2007, ‘Leaders Understand the Power of Words’, Journal of Leadership Studies, vol. 1, no. 3, p. 81-83.

I’m still finding it hard to really link the research i’m doing to a solid concept or direction that i can take it… Oh well, just need to read more.

Alex.

Side by side

This is my response to the “spot the difference” brief. The idea is simple, but it communicates my point.

The first panel depicts me ‘now’. I am naive and carefree. I am aware of sustainable issues in the world, but do not fully understand them, or believe that i can help or be a part of the ultimate solution. This is not to say that i do not take part in sustainable practices, eg: saving water, recycling paper, etc., i just don’t take it as seriously as i probably should. My eyes are closed.

The second panel depicts me ‘in the not to distant future’. I have finished school and am a working designer. I am sustainable. I am helping to be part of the solution. I take these issues more seriously. I am much more knowledgeable. My eyes are open.

Hopefully that is somewhat self explanatory. The colours have purpose, obviously. Looking deeper into the concept, i could say that the vector drawings are slightly rough, this could be somewhat symbolic of me not being perfect before, and after, change.

My readings so far…

Language.

Interesting subject indeed. Within our group, we tried to indentify ‘clusters’ of interest within our mind maps. Some of the big words that were coming up were things like: Culture, Literacy, Education, Communication, Society. These are all very broad topics, but we figured its better to start broad, and through our readings, narrow in and identify the areas of interest in terms of issues we can hopefully help solve. From the mind map, i tried to think about some questions, that could help me with a starting point for research. These were:

1. Effects of technology, eg: mobile phones and the internet (myspace etc.) on youth literacy rates. Are these devices affecting kids in terms of language skills? So often i see kids spelling words so stupidly on myspace, using ridiculous abbreviations and “leet speak” type language.

2. Is the language used to describe and communicate the environmental issues in the world (eg global warming) accessible to the common public? Do they understand it? A lack of understanding could lead to a lack of participation in sustainable practices. This point sort of delves into classes, and educations levels of people in the community. While more educated people may be fine with all the scientific talk on the news, is it as accessible to the masses as it maybe could be?

These questions were kind of specific in terms of social issues, but i used them as a basic starting point when i started researching the journal databases on the library website. So far i have read 2 journals. The first was a journal titled: Language as Power on the Internet which is a journal that talks about how English is the dominant language of the internet, and how a system that is supposed to be connecting the world together is actually dividing cultures that do not speak the dominant language. It was quite an interesting read, as it brought up areas of discussion that i had never really thought about before. Being part of the dominant English speaking internet population, its pretty easy to forget about the minorities that are missing out.

A second journal i read was one of the listed suggested readings on our Research Methods brief. This document was titled: Design Research and the New Learning (sorry i lost the link) by Richard Buchanan. I figured i’d make an attempt to read a few of the suggested readings. Honestly, it was a pretty big waste of time… its 23 pages, and really the only good parts are towards the end where he talks about different methods of research, and describes a case study.

I have a lot more reading to do, obviously, and i plan to get really stuck into that over the next few days and over the weekend.

Wow, what a long rant.

That’ll do for now,

Alex.