The first words that hit me immediately in this week’s reading was the byline: “…explores the ways in which grammar can conceal and distort real meaning”. The way we say and hear things, influence the way we interpret them and thus, create a meaning based on what we think. But is what we think really the case? Either way, I think the media is the one who ultimately influences our thoughts and the decisions we make.
Through Lukin’s article, she uses the example of milk being spilt and demonstrates how even the slightest change to how it’s said transforms the complete meaning. “I spilt the milk” shows responsibility – choosing to “specify the agent involved” whereas “The milk was spilt” demonstrates passiveness. Lukin shows that even though both convey the same ‘truth’, they do not convey the same meaning, and thus, “the grammar of English – makes you choose”.
Like the article states, ‘truth is the first casualty of war’”. This made me remember Paul Byrnes’ article Over the Top where he enforces this notion of truth and war. In the article, we are provided with the insight into how the media changes the truth to suit particular situations that will appeal to viewers, and in turn, fulfill the purpose the media intends to pursue. The article presents the truth about video, picture and written reports from wars being unreliable with very few items of this nature being real and claims that it is the “public [who] hungers for war pictures [which] fuels the practice [of producing fraudulent coverage]”. Many battles were staged not on the battlefield, but here at home, some even in filming studios. Byrnes also uncovers the participation of the government using “fakery to encourage recruitment” and back up its decisions to conscript soldiers. One particular piece of footage of the landing at Gallipoli, which was actually shot at Tamarama Bay near Bondi, a few weeks after the actual landing, has been use in news reports every Anzac Day and even in a documentary, which the average person would accept as the truth. Byrnes describes the commencing scene of the film as “boats landing in glistening sunshine, the legs of the soldiers pound up the beach as Turkish guns pelt them with a deadly rain of bullets”. As you can see, this relates back to Lukin’s investigation of how grammar “is not about a system of rules, but systems of choice…grammar is our most important resource for creating meaning, and therefore, for creating our competing realities”. The way Byrnes uses the words “pound”, “pelt” and “deadly” demonstrate the dramatization and exaggeration the media exploits in order to gain the reaction they want from society – us.
As you can see, through Lukin’s investigation and Byrnes’ article, we can see the influence grammar has on our lives and its “infinite potential”.