The ability to speak and manipulate language well is truly an art. The use of slang adds additional depth and color to language, allowing for the articulation of deeper meaning and expression. With the emergence of digital media, we continue to see the manipulation of language aimed at making profit over good content on blogs and other websites. In this episode of The Axiom Amnesia Theory, Heit & Cheri talk about all aspects of “slangin’ language arts,” and challenge you to see through the attempts at manipulation.

Topics discussed include the rules of language, knowing language rules versus memorizing context, slang, learning a second language, language acquisition in the brain, how articles are written for AxiomAmnesia.com, goal of effective communication, B.S. writing guidelines, implied commentaries in news headlines, writing for profit over content, ads on articles and websites, lazy journalism, content theft via excessive quoting, the latest on Google and Facebook’s ad schemes, and more!

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Segment 1

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Discussion about the rules of language.
Heit & Cheri discussion knowing the rules of language versus memorizing the way things should sound.
Discussion about how tricky the English language is, with words that are spelled the same and pronounced differently–and vice versa.
Examples given are:

The bandage was wound around the wound.

The produce was produced by the farmer.

Discussion about the way we write versus the way we speak.
Discussion about the conjugation of the verb “be.” Example given is from the movie Class Act with Kid-N-Play:


Discussion about how some people judge people on the way that people read or write.
Discussion on keeping up with the “young folks” language. Heit explains that he used to keep up with it via the music, but the new music sucks now.
Discussion about use of the words “sucks” and “wack.”
Discussion about people explaining how English is used in their country. Mention of an Irish woman, who would explain the use of different words in her country versus in America:


Discussion about it being easier to familiarize yourself with the use of different English words across different cultures than if you were speaking a different language altogether.
Heit explains a situation where a friend from Poland said that he couldn’t understand the song “My President Is Black,” by Young Jeezy and Nas, because it contained too much slang.


Discussion about the effect of slang and more relaxed speaking on the ability of non-native speakers to understand speaking.
Discussion about learning a foreign language from someone who teaches you slang. Situations can occur where you are perceived as rude or people not being able to understand the language you’re using.
Discussion about the use of the formal versus the informal version of “you” in other languages.
Discussion about being upset while trying to speak a second language. You will be surprised how many words you know! Cheri explains a situation that happened with her at a bank in Mexico.
Discussion about rap freestyling and it being easier when you are not thinking about the words, but rather just letting them flow.
Discussion about language acquisition from the brain.
Discussion about speech-to-text programs. Cheri explains a situation of having difficulty using these programs in creative settings.
Discussion about speaking articles, then transcribing. Discussion about the way Heit & Cheri write articles for Axiom Amnesia.
Discussion about the “rules” of writing, like not ending a sentence in a preposition.
Communication is the primary goal with our articles and podcasts. Sometimes mistakes might occur, because we don’t have a team of proofreaders checking our work.
Discussion about these big news companies that have mistakes in them. They have the resources to turn out a better product, but they don’t.
Discussion about deferring to things like The Associate Press guidelines for writing articles. These are a bunch of rules that tell you the “right” way to write for publication.
Discussion about headlines that now make a claim, then follow it by “: Report” at the end of the headline. They are making the reader see the claim as true, whether this is the case or not. It is a subtle form of commentary that has no place if you are simply telling the facts of the news.
Discussion about situations where heresay is presented as fact in headlines.

hear·say (hîrs)

n.

1. Unverified information heard or received from another; rumor.

2. Law Evidence based on the reports of others rather than the personal knowledge of a witness and therefore generally not admissible as testimony.

Source: Free Dictionary

The information in the article isn’t even that important anymore. People just read the headlines and take them as fact.
Discussion about content mills that are simply out to get revenue from ad clicks. These days you have sites like YourBlackWorld.net, that also have other sites where you are inundated with ads. The sites carry very little on the order of original content. The goal of getting ad clicks is obvious because the ads are everywhere. They also use other sites to create backlinks between the sites in an attempt to boost ad clicks and site visitor numbers. It’s sad that they cannot even give their readers what they came for without all of the extra ads on the page.
Check out the highlighted area in the lower left. That is how much of the actual article you see as compared with all of the ridiculous ads on the site:



Discussion about the use of block quotes (often unattributed), to bolster the length of the article. Some of these blogs basically write two lines of text, then place a giant quote from another article. This is actually stealing when “writers” do this.
Discussion about the fact that both readers and publishers seem to like this. The readers don’t have to read, and the writers don’t have to write.
Discussion about Bossip and other sites having grown huge using the “block quote” model.
Why does Your Black World need so many websites? Huffington Post has different sections, but one website. It’s because YBW is using that old-school daisy chain internet marketing aimed at making them money.
Discussion about links on Huffington Post. There are a bunch of articles that are about a sentence long, then they direct you to read the article elsewhere.
Another annoying trend is when sites have “top 10″ or other lists and then put each item on a separate page to get more page clicks.
It’s not “just” a website, and it’s not “just” an article–it’s a brand for sale!
Discussion about the trend of placing ads in the middle of the article text.
Discussion about Google lightening the shading on the ads that show up during search so that you cannot tell the difference between the natural search results and the ads. Further discussion about the Facebook ads/promoted posts. It seems like the promoted posts don’t have the usual Facebook timestamp. That’s how you can tell it’s promoted.

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