Language. LOL.
Language, whether we like it or not, changes all the time. The word ‘newspaper’ is no exception, which is why we are starting to use a new term these days. Here, Rufus Olins, CEO, Newsworks, explains the shift to ‘newsbrands’…
Stephen Fry often gets it right. ‘Language. Language, language,’ he says. ‘In the end it all comes down to language.’
I was reminded of Fry’s blog on the use of English by the debate around the word ‘newsbrands’ – a way of describing what modern newspapers have become. Some people hate the expression. It seems strange, uncomfortable. Ugly even.
New things often do. How many of us talked of ‘twerking’ or ‘selfies’ a few years ago? They are now part of the Oxford English Dictionary together with ‘omnishambles’, coined by Armando Iannucci for The Thick of It‘s foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker. We all know what it means.
Language changes all the time. And as change accelerates our vocabulary must keep pace. New technologies and a shrinking world are introducing a whole new generation of expressions. Words may start life as alien abbreviations or twitter talk and before long they enter the middle-aged mainstream. LOL.
Invariably, they are resisted in some quarters. Ray Snoddy, a fellow Newsline columnist, acknowledged this recently: “When the concept of ‘newsbrands’ was unveiled to a waiting world by an equally strange organisation called Newsworks, more than a few eyebrows were raised…that was last year and now you can actually hear newspaper executives talking about newsbrands without any trace of self-consciousness or the adding of any metaphorical quotation marks. The reason that what appears to be at first an ugly neologism is starting to bite is that it is a useful and productive concept.”
We are not expecting anyone to walk into a newsagent to ask for a newsbrand any time soon – but the term has begun its journey and become common parlance in media circles.”
We are not expecting anyone to walk into a newsagent to ask for a newsbrand any time soon. Or for Jeremy Paxman to delight in the term on Newsnight. But it has begun its journey and become common parlance in media circles where people talk also about ‘ROI’, ‘demand side platforms’, something called ‘content’ and even ‘content marketing’.
Fry makes the point that we use different words on different occasions. “You slip into a suit for an interview and dress your language up too. You can wear what you like linguistically or sartorially when you’re at home with friends, but most people accept the need to smarten up under some circumstances – it’s only considerate. But that is an issue of fitness, of suitability; it has nothing to do with correctness. There is no right language or wrong language any more than there are right or wrong clothes. Context, convention and circumstance are all.”
The same can be said of grammar. Pedants beware.
Every specialist group has its own particular set of words and acronyms, most of which seem peculiar to outsiders. Whether it is the law, the retail trade or the criminal justice system. For the newspaper industry, which is embracing and leading so much of the digital change in media consumption, a paper-specific term has become outdated and can cause confusion. And that’s why Newsworks has been championing the concept of newsbrands since our inception in May last year. And why it is catching on – not as a replacement for the word newspapers but as a complement to it.
It is impossible to know what words our grandchildren will use to describe the media landscape. Even the term brand may change its meaning. For many years it referred to red-hot wood, then markings on cattle, before being taken up by the world of advertising and applied to the likes of Coca-Cola and Sunlight soap.
John Lloyd, QI founder, knows a thing or two about the fluidity of language. While working on the Newsworks film and then our advertising campaign earlier this year, he became a convert to the newsbrands’ cause. “I now understand and fully support the vision to promote press, not as mere paper but as essential multimedia newsbrands,” he says.
Perhaps that isn’t altogether surprising. John is also co-author of The Meaning of Liff, the original dictionary of things there should be words for.
To give you a flavour, here are a few random entries:
Duntish (adj): Mentally incapacitated by a severe hangover
Foffarty (adj): Unable to find the right moment to leave
Kirby (n): Small but repulsive piece of food prominently attached to a person’s face or clothing.
I recommend the newly published sequel called Afterliff. Available from good bookstores. Why not Google it?