Is this clear in your eyes? Any idea to improve it (the summary of a simple research paper)?

Forums: Latin Plurals, Grammar, Esl, English
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The Relationship between Media and Politics: U.S. and China

Abstract
In China, politics (of the ruling class) controls media, while in United States, media is independent of politics (of political powers).
Key words: relationship, media, politics, U.S., China

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Type: Question • Score: 4 • Views: 1,433 • Replies: 26

[+3] - JTT - 03/27/2013 http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/media?view=uk The word media comes from the Latin plural of medium. The traditional view is that it should therefore be treated as a plural...

@oristarA,

In China, politics of the ruling class controls media, while in United States, media is independent of politics.
Key words: relationship, media, politics, U.S., China

I removed the first parenthesis. On the second parenthetical phrase, I removed parenthesis and their contents. I like it better that way, though I see why your are trying to be consistant in the comparison.

I don't endorse the accuracy of the statements, of course.

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@roger,

Quote:

I don't endorse the accuracy of the statements, of course.

Good caveat, Roger. What could have led you to even this level of honesty?

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Since the word 'media' is a plural, I would be inclined to say 'media are independent'. I would be even more inclined, perhaps, to say 'the media' but I dare say that could be argued over. Of course they mostly aren't independent.

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@contrex,

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/media

MW

Usage Discussion of MEDIA

The singular media and its plural medias seem to have originated in the field of advertising over 70 years ago; they are still so used without stigma in that specialized field. In most other applications media is used as a plural of medium. The popularity of the word in references to the agencies of mass communication is leading to the formation of a mass noun, construed as a singular <there's no basis for it. You know, the news media gets on to something — Edwin Meese 3d> <the media is less interested in the party's policies — James Lewis, Guardian Weekly>. This use is not as well established as the mass-noun use of data and is likely to incur criticism especially in writing.

1 Reply

@contrex,

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/media?view=uk

The word media comes from the Latin plural of medium. The traditional view is that it should therefore be treated as a plural noun in all its senses in English and be used with a plural rather than a singular verb: the media have not followed the reports (rather than ‘has’).

In practice, in the sense ‘television, radio, and the press collectively’, it behaves as a collective noun (like staff or clergy, for example), which means that it is now acceptable in standard English for it to take either a singular or a plural verb. The word is also increasingly used in the plural form medias, as if it had a conventional singular form media, especially when referring to different forms of new media, and in the sense ‘the material or form used by an artist’: there were great efforts made by the medias of the involved countries about 600 works in all genres and medias were submitted for review.

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@contrex,

But it is instructive to look at the way defenders of the rule justify their position. Most simply point to the word’s etymology, but some devise synchronic explanations, comparting the word to pluralia tantum like trousers (the plural of trousum) or to British usage in sentences like “Manchester are playing Leeds” (“…and quite few of them are looking forward to it”). These arguments don’t deserve to be taken seriously, not just because they’re confused and irrelevant, but because they’re disingenuous: whatever arguments they come up with after the fact, the only reason anyone treats data as a plural nowadays is to show that they know it started its life that way.

...

As I said, this selective enforcement is typical of rules that have jelled into fetishes.

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4396

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I laugh at people who say 'stadia', however I say 'appendices', 'axes', 'crises', 'cacti', 'fungi', but never 'dogmata'. My school curriculum included Latin from age 11 to 16, and I have a grade C GCE O-level pass in the subject. I thought I had forgotten most of it, but it seemed to awake when I started studying modern European Romance languages. I feel slightly guilty when I say 'formulas' during discussions of spreadsheets.

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@contrex,

the only reason anyone treats data as a plural nowadays is to show that they know it started its life that way.

Quote:

My school curriculum included Latin from age 11 to 16, and I have a grade C GCE O-level pass in the subject.

Do you inject English into your conversations with other folks in togas, Contrex?

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Generosus equus non curat canem latrantem.

1 Reply

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

Since the word 'media' is a plural, I would be inclined to say 'media are independent'. I would be even more inclined, perhaps, to say 'the media' but I dare say that could be argued over. Of course they mostly aren't independent.

I was hesitated in whether I should use "media is" or "media are."

Google search results:

41,000,000 hits for "media is"
Only 14,800,000 for "media are"

1 Reply

@roger,

roger wrote:

I don't endorse the accuracy of the statements, of course.

Why? Explain please? I'm all ears.

1 Reply

@contrex,

You chose an improper tense.

1 Reply

@oristarA,

Quote:

I was hesitated

by ??? .

I think you meant "I hesitated ..., Ori. But I also think you know that. It musta been a typo.

But if you truly meant what you wrote,

I was hesitated in whether I should use "media is" or "media are."

then what you want is,

I was made hesitant in whether I should use "media is" or "media are."

Quote:

Google search results:

41,000,000 hits for "media is"
Only 14,800,000 for "media are"

You can probably safely use either for some time to come. There is a fairly large number of pedants, and people who are instructed/kowed by these pedants, who will continue to follow their misguided notions/prescriptions that Latin words brought into English also come fully equipped with Latin rules.

But why any sane individual would want to do so puzzles me. I guess it that same puzzlement that comes over me whenever some idiot plumps for something based in fantasy.

Here's a discussion on another silly prescription.

Quote:

The Word 'Hopefully' Is Here To Stay, Hopefully
by GEOFF NUNBERG
May 30, 201211:54 AM

There was something anticlimactic to the news that the AP Stylebook will no longer be objecting to the use of "hopefully" as a floating sentence adverb, as in, "Hopefully, the Giants will win the division." It was like seeing an obituary for someone you assumed must have died around the time that Hootenanny went off the air.

...

You wouldn't want to take the critics' hysteria [about any prescription] at face value. A usage can be really, really irritating, but that's as far as it goes. You hear people saying that a misused "hopefully" or "literally" makes them want to put their shoe through the television screen, but nobody ever actually does that — what it really makes them want to do is tell you how they wanted to put a shoe through the television screen. It's all for display, like rhesus monkeys baring their teeth and pounding the ground with their palms.

http://www.npr.org/2012/05/30/153709651/the-word-hopefully-is-here-to-stay-hopefully

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@JTT,

JTT wrote:

You chose an improper tense.

Do explain

1 Reply

@contrex,

You chose an improper tense.

1 Reply

@JTT,

JTT wrote:

You chose an improper tense.

Which one? And why was it improper?

1 Reply

@oristarA,

I am not willing to concede that the media are free from political influence. I have no idea what happens in China.

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@contrex,

You chose an improper tense.

1 Reply

@JTT,

JTT wrote:

You chose an improper tense.

curat is the 3rd person present tense of curare...

"A well-bred horse cares not about a barking dog."

It was good enough for Emmanuel Strauss. What's the problem with it?

1 Reply

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