mainstream media

mainstream media – sostantivo

MSM – sostantivo

lamestream media – sostantivo

 

That’s what the mainstream media do: they lie through omission.

Isn’t it strange that the mainstream media has failed to accurately cover this story?

A couple of years ago the MSM was ranting on about how blogging was going to be the death of professional journalism.

Not even our lamestream media would be foolish enough to say that all is well in Spain.

 

È istruttivo cercare il termine mainstream media su Google: tra le prime previsioni del completamento automatico ci sono bias, lies, fake news e propaganda. E i risultati per l’acronimo MSM sono molto simili.

I mainstream media non sono altro che i mezzi d’informazione tradizionale quali giornali, radio e tv, in contrapposizione ai cosiddetti alternative media, quei canali d’informazione nati e fruiti in rete. Mentre nei mainstream media lavorano di solito professionisti remunerati, negli alternative media ciò non è necessariamente vero; ma la distinzione tra i due non è poi così marcata, visto che oggi possiamo accedere a entrambi sul net ed entrambi si affidano in qualche misura al contributo di non professionisti. Piuttosto, il termine incarna l’atteggiamento di sospetto, spesso di aperta ostilità, nei confronti dei mezzi di comunicazione tradizionale, visti come troppo legati a governi e aziende e poco inclini a mettere in discussione lo status quo o dire la verità.

 

Origini del termine

 

Il termine mainstream media era praticamente sconosciuto fino agli anni ’80, quando iniziò ad essere usato dalla sinistra per criticare i conglomerati mediatici, mentre l’acronimo MSM si sviluppò nelle comunità online. La frequenza d’uso di entrambi è aumentata vertiginosamente con la diffusione dei social media. La variante spregiativa lamestream media, che gioca col termine lame per assimilare il mainstream a ciarpame, è apparsa all’inizio del secolo nel linguaggio della destra americana.

Traduzione di Loredana Riu

mainstream media – noun

MSM – noun

lamestream media – noun

That’s what the mainstream media do: they lie through omission.

Isn’t it strange that the mainstream media has failed to accurately cover this story?

A couple of years ago the MSM was ranting on about how blogging was going to be the death of professional journalism.

Not even our lamestream media would be foolish enough to say that all is well in Spain.

 

It is instructive to look up the term mainstream media on Google. The first suggested completions to appear are words like bias, lies, fake news, and propaganda. The results for the commonly used abbreviation MSM are very similar.

 

Mainstream media refers simply to traditional media such as newspapers, television and radio, as opposed to the many newer outlets produced for and consumed on the internet, sometimes referred to as alternative media. Those who work in the mainstream media are generally paid for their work, while those working in alternative media may well not be. But the distinction is far from being a hard and fast one, since all forms of media can now be consumed via the internet and all rely on input from non-professionals. Rather, the term has come to encapsulate a suspicious and often hostile attitude towards traditional media, seen as being controlled by vested interests and unwilling to ask hard questions or tell the truth.

 

Origins

The term mainstream media was practically unknown before the 1980s when it started to be used by leftwing critics of large media conglomerates, while the abbreviated form MSM arose in online message board discussions. Use of both terms has increased hugely with the rise of social media. The disparaging variant lamestream media, which puns on the idea that the mainstream is inevitably biased and worthless, appeared in the early years of this century in right-wing US political discourse.

 

WordWatch è l'osservatorio sui neologismi della lingua inglese curato dalla redazione del dizionario Ragazzini.

A cura di Liz Potter