Friday, January 03, 2003
“Some of the most interesting micro-studies take issue with the assumptions of the cultural imperialists. One such study by Elihu Katz and Tamar Liebes was about the impact of Dallas on immigrants from Morocco, Russia and elsewhere in Israel. They organised fifty focus groups with people from different national backgrounds. Even at the basic level of a discussion of what had happened in each episode, they found divergent understandings. One of the Arabic groups ëmisread’ the programme in a way which made it more compatible with their own cultural ethos. When Sue Ellen ran away with her baby to her former lover and his father, the Arab group argued that she had actually gone to live with her own father. This detail, the researchers argued, shows that ëtexts’ do not cross cultural boundaries intact. Indeed, they claimed that Dallas reinforced the audience’s own cultural values. Many viewers found comfort in their distance from the troubles at Southfork ranch.” (Source Link)
This is the personal weblog of Grant Barrett, editor of the Double-Tongued Dictionary, a collection of words from the fringes of English. More about this site...
Recent Entries
- What is this shit?
- The American Dialect Society seeks 2008 word-of-the-year nominations
- Where would we be without “ass”?
- Organizing Our Marvellous Neighbours
- What a bitchin’ word!
- Don’t forget about the dialect: dauncy/donsie, faunch, and jockey box
- Wilf? Yuffer? Get real!
- Lexicographer Laurence Urdang Dies at 81
- A thesaurus can be harmful
- Can bad language punditry be stopped? Can false attributions for classic quotes be fixed?
- There’s one in every country
- Scottish Language Dictionaries fundraiser
- SouthWest Writers
- Disfluencies: What do they mean by “I mean”?
- A hearty endorsement of shout quotes: scare quotes used for emphasis
Recent Catchwords
- antihomonuptial adj. (11/30)
- cellblock n. (11/30)
- cut and shut n. (11/30)
- photoporation n. (11/30)
- dry powder n. (11/30)
- phytocapping n. (11/30)
- toe pick n. (11/30)
- smokepole n. (11/30)
- heavy furniture n. (11/29)
- gulch n. (11/24)
- hyper-edit n. (11/24)
- doga n. (11/24)
- hot body n. (11/24)
- wovit n. (11/24)
- boyat n. (11/23)
- KLM n. (11/23)
- governist n. (11/23)
- wirehouse n. (11/23)
- mockolate n. (11/23)
- detailer n. (11/23)
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