Corporate-demographic homogenization of speech — the media accent that vacuums out regional difference, and errors…
echoes
From: The Usage Wars — Bryan A. Garner + DFW, The Connection (WBUR, host Judy Swallow, March 30, 2001)
- Early text:
[scene] Wallace's diagnosis that modes of linguistic
dissemination have changed — one announcer's slip now reaches a million
or two million ears and drives street-level change faster than street
change ever moved [28:04–29:06]; and his sharper complaint that the
bland national media accent (audible from near El Paso to Presque Isle,
Maine) is the product of demographic and economic studies showing
dialect alienates listeners — language change driven by corporate and
economic imperatives disturbs him more than change driven by dialect or
education [29:22–30:57]
- IJ echo: E Unibus Pluram's economics-of-attention argument carried
into IJ's broadcast-and-entertainment culture; the flattened,
market-tested national voice is the same
adversary EUP names in the television essay
- Weight: shared-preoccupation