Are We Being Spoken Down To?
SoonForgotten2
Posts: 2,245
And if so, is that a positive or a negative?
http://us.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/03/debate.words/index.html
On one hand, because it's a verbal medium I can sort of understand "dumbing it down" because it's not as if people can quickly re-read something if one doesn't understand it (and a lower level likely makes for a better soundbyte). On the other, shouldn't the American people be insulted that their intelligence is being insulted? And shouldn't we all be looking to raise the bar instead of lowering it?
http://us.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/03/debate.words/index.html
Debate analysis: Palin spoke at 10th-grade level, Biden at eighth
(CNN) -- An analysis carried out by a language monitoring service said Friday that Gov. Sarah Palin spoke at a more than ninth-grade level and Sen. Joseph Biden spoke at a nearly eighth-grade level in Thursday night's debate between the vice presidential candidates.
The analysis by the Austin, Texas-based Global Language Monitor said Palin, governor of Alaska and the GOP vice presidential nominee, used the passive voice in 8 percent of her sentences, far more than the 5 percent used by the Democratic senator from Delaware.
The analysis noted that the "passive voice can be used to deflect responsibility; Biden used active voice when referring to [Vice President Dick] Cheney and [President] Bush; Palin countered with passive deflections."
"It obscures the doer of the action," said Language Monitor President Paul Payack, an independent with no political affiliation.
The two candidates were nearly even in total number of words spoken. The normally voluble Biden restrained his tendency to ramble by uttering just 5,492 words during the 90-minute debate, versus 5,235 for Palin, Payack said.
In last week's debate between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain, Obama spoke 8,068 words during the 90-minute event, while McCain spoke 7,150, Payack said.
Thursday night's debate between the vice presidential candidates "was more collegial, thinking out loud as opposed to just hammering points," Payack said in trying to explain the difference. "It was a much calmer style."
His analysis ranked the candidates' speech on several other levels, too. Here's the breakdown:
Grade level: Biden, 7.8; Palin, 9.5 (Newspapers are typically written to a sixth-grade reading level.)
Sentences per paragraph: statistically tied at 2.7 for Biden and 2.6 for Palin.
Letters per word: tied at 4.4.
Ease of reading: Biden, 66.7 (with 100 being the easiest to read or hear), versus 62.4 for Palin.
The analysis said Abraham Lincoln spoke at an 11th-grade level during his seven debates in 1858 against incumbent Stephen A. Douglas in their race for a Senate seat from Illinois.
But higher grade level doesn't necessarily mean better sentence, Payack said. He pointed to Palin's second-to-last sentence in the debate, which the formula put at a grade level of 18.3:
"What I would do, also, if that were ever to happen, though, is to continue the good work he is so committed to of putting government back on the side of the people and get rid of the greed and corruption on Wall Street and in Washington," Palin said.
"When she said it, it sounded good, but on paper it's a completely different animal," Payack said. "It's like, what is that?"
But Biden had his own challenging moments, such as this 32-word gem, rated grade 15.6: "The middle class under John McCain's tax proposal, 100 million families, middle-class families, households to be precise, they got not a single change; they got not a single break in taxes."
Payack praised the usually longer-winded Biden for showing restraint here. "In a typical Joe Biden thing, this sentence would serve as a launching point to even more complex and convoluted statements. Last night, he was particularly reserved, and you only had to be a college graduate to decipher it, according to the readability statistics."
On one hand, because it's a verbal medium I can sort of understand "dumbing it down" because it's not as if people can quickly re-read something if one doesn't understand it (and a lower level likely makes for a better soundbyte). On the other, shouldn't the American people be insulted that their intelligence is being insulted? And shouldn't we all be looking to raise the bar instead of lowering it?
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Honestly I can’t see how intelligence is seen as a bad point especially after Bush!!!
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We want to relate to these candidates or something like that. Who knows, personally I would feel better with the smartest, most well equipped candidates.
Most people think being a veteran is a qualification especially if you actually served during wartime and especially especially if you murdered some brown people. hoooorahh
If for some reason I start to believe there is some hope I always remember that George Bush was RE-elected and that pretty much sums it up for me. The first time I can live with, but the reaffirmation pretty much sums up the level in which we operate as a nation.
Honestly.
I keep asking myself this question all the time as well..
I personally want the geniuses of the country steering this Love Boat right now..
As individual fingers we can easily be broken, but together we make a mighty fist ~ Sitting Bull
it's fucking astonishing to me that people are fascinated by candidates that are "just like me" ... all this "hockey mom" and "joe six-pack" talk ... sorry, I don't want Larry the Cable Guy running the country, ok?
The only thing it proves is that indeed, we DO need to fix our educational system in this country.
"I don't believe in damn curses. Wake up the damn Bambino and have me face him. Maybe I'll drill him in the ass." --- Pedro Martinez
But he did repeat things... a lot. Kind of "hey dumb asses, if you missed my point the first 2 times."
He was clearly head and shoulders more intelligent than Palin, but he seemed to definitely bring it down a notch to try and come across to "ordinary" people.
And he who forgets, will be destined to remember...
At the hospital where I work, we are required to write all of our patient education handouts, consent forms, etc. at a 6th grade reading level. We're not trying to win an election; we just want people to be able to understand what we're saying.
sadly, this is the sound biting of America ...
You need a clean sound bite, good visual ... so, why not do it 2 - 3 times to make sure they get the one that comes across the best.
There is a large portion of this country that will only watch the news to make up their mind on whom to vote for ... thus why people (candidates) have to sell their ideas in 5 seconds or less with wity quips and dramatic posturing.
"I don't believe in damn curses. Wake up the damn Bambino and have me face him. Maybe I'll drill him in the ass." --- Pedro Martinez
because people want someone like them to be president, and VP. Not some elitist brainiac. And look how good that's worked out for us
"When the stock market crashed [in 1929], Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed. He said, 'look, here's what happened."
So maybe he talks like an eight-grader because he actually is one.