I was reading a news magazine a few weeks ago and noticed that the use of formerly forbidden four letter words were included in two of the articles. These words were not included in quotations uttered by others, but used by the authors as part of their communication style. I had noticed that the use of less "bad" words had begun to make their way into articles and on non-cable television shows, but the "big and bad" four letter words I had only seen in print on the few occassions when I read Rolling Stone (once because Whitney Houston was on the cover and she was/is an alltime fave). What does it mean that curse words are now okay to be included in news magazines? Will we start to see these words in our daily newspapers? Will news anchors begin to pepper their banter with such words? Is it just because I am way on the other side of a certain age that I am bothered by this?
In thinking about why it bothered me to see this language used so carelessly (my opinion), I decided it was not that a child could have picked up the magazine and seen these curse words. Afterall, it would be the rare child who would be reading a news magazine. No, it was that it seemed insenstive to me as the reader. The authors were not my friends. We did not have a relationship that said it was okay to use that kind of language in my presence. Could not the writers have thought of a more intelligent way to express their thoughts.
As a person who communicates for a living, I am concered that writing in a news magazine would devolve to this level. While I understand that we live in a much more familiar society, I believe it is still necessary to demonstrate respect for others and when I read those articles, I felt a little disrespected. Is it just me or have others noticed previously taboo words making their way into public discourse?
3 comments:
I read a lot of online "techie" blogs. Many of the writers of these blogs are well-respected authorities on technical areas, and speak as keynotes in their area of expertise. And, I've noticed that many of them are shameless about not only using language, but also about name-calling when things aren't the way they think they ought to be. If anyone wants to see how prevalent it is in the tech world, check out the tech-news aggregator www.techmeme.com. Unfortunately, as established media continues to compete with the non-traditional forms, we may see more and more of the same.
Thanks, Jason (I think). It is pretty disappointing that writers (and editors) are comfortable with these words being used in what is considered mainstream media. Seems like a devolution of thought and expression and just kinda lazy.
George Carlin's "Seven words you can't say on TV" are no more. The most shocking (to me) was Mark Greene's use of one of them, as he died on ER. But frankly, on TV I don't mind. It's how some people talk, and the "next to cussing" script writing feels disingenuous to me.
Journalism is a completely different animal. Writers and editors can take the time to choose their words carefully, so cursing seems the easy (read lazy) way out. One of my favorite language curmudgeons is John McIntyre of the Baltimore Sun. He blogs at "You Don't Say" (http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/mcintyre/blog/) and always has something interesting to say about language.
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