The apparent purpose of a talk show is to provide a neutral platform where conflicting voices can make themselves heard. The talk show participants and their effectiveness are supposed to decide the outcome of the debate. The hard fact, however, is that it is the host who makes the decisions and not the participants. The power of language makes the expression ‘objective journalism’ an oxymoron.

To quote William Shakespeare, “All the world is a stage, and all men and women are mere actors.” In these words, there is not only poetic beauty, but something of more practical value. The various roles one plays are decided primarily by power relations. So, he is the same man who acts as son for his parents, father for his children, subordinate for his boss, master for his servant, husband for his wife, friend for his neighbor, etc. As he deals with different people in these roles, his needs and the amount of freedom he can take advantage of vary considerably. The choice of language also varies accordingly.

In a given situation, we may intend to dominate, be subservient, polite, aggressive, or assertive. Easier said than done. Sometimes the result of our communication can be the opposite of what we wanted it to be. It can occur due to various factors such as age, gender, maturity, perspective, race, social and cultural background, voice quality, accent, and of course language skills. How one interprets the substance of a communication segment is also a function of all of these. This can be illustrated by the example of the plight of the people of North East India. Although they are no less talented than people in the rest of the country, they find it difficult to impress the mainstream. It is partly due to its oriental appearance and partly due to the attitude of most Indians of “all that is – west is – beautiful”, the attitude itself being the consequence of India’s colonial background. The most striking aspect of this observation is that it is the language barrier in the form of discomfort with ‘Hindi’ that makes the people of the Northeast less powerful. (Nikita Doval in The Week)

Elements of language, such as spelling and pronunciation, can be indications of power. The people of Great Britain, a formidable political and economic power in the bygone era, naturally take pride in the fact that English is their mother tongue. They understandably believe that what is spoken in England is ‘standard’ English. Explain why they would consider the Oxford or Cambridge dictionary to be superior to Webster’s.