Tuesday, 13 October 2015

Tuesday, 6 October 2015

Form, Purpose, Audience

The Guardian


Form - Newspaper.
Purpose - To tell stories and to inform people about what happening in today's society.
Audience - The general public.

NASA News Magazine


Form - Magazine/News article.
Purpose - To inform people who are interested in astronomy what NASA have recently discovered and general news about the organisation as a whole.
Audience - Astronomers/people interested in astronomy.

Made in Bristol


Form - TV Channel Website.
Purpose - to inform people about what is on the channel and when/what events are coming up around Bristol.
Audience - people who want to find out what is going on in Bristol in general, people who are interested in seeing the work from around the Bristol area.


Steven Pinker - What our language habits reveal

https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_language_and_thought


  • language change:
    • descriptive attitudes - you can't discriminate against words, all language is vital
    • prescriptive attitudes - only one way, standard English is the only thing that should be used
    • descriptivism/prescriptivism
  • language is a window onto human nature:
    • language emerges from human minds interacting with one another
    • visible in unstoppable language changes
      • slang&jargon, historical change, dialect divergence, language formation
  • communication model:
    • sender - message - receiver
  • euphemistic language to talk about topics that are hard to discuss
  • social, historical and cultural context

Ted Talks

https://www.ted.com/talks