Neutral voice
Apr. 22nd, 2004 03:36 amI heard a linguist talking about blogs on NPR this morning. He wasn't opposed to them, but criticized them for not having a "neutral voice," like newspapers have. This, he argued, makes them less universally accessible. I'm a bit shocked that a linguist would propose something as ludicrous as a "neutral voice". All right: proper grammar, declarative sentences, a certain shared vocabulary lead to greater accessibility, but I think what he was really saying was this: "I've grown up with newspapers, so none of their stylistic quirks leap out at me. I did not grow up with blogging, so their informal tone [which he referred to as 'dinner-table'] strikes me as odd." His implication that blogs share a common voice is similarly striking; if anything, the decentralization of information that has come with the net has produced a profusion of styles. I view this as a good thing; while any one blog might exclude any given person, the totality is more all-inclusive than the standard journalistic mode.