Words and music

Frank Luntz, wordsmith extraordinaire, has a day job as compliance professional, corporate consultant, pollster and political consultant to US Republicans. He came up with the concept known as dial technology, the mechanism that allows people to register their moment-by-moment specific and anonymous responses to a speech or presentation.

He takes it from there to select "words that work" and uses them in contexts such as politics and advertising, where language is of paramount importance, because "it's not what you say, it's what people hear".

That is why "oil drilling" has become "energy exploration", "global warming" has evolved into "climate change", and "gambling" has turned into innocuous "gaming".

Imagine that the advertised topic for a television programme had you home in time for watching it. It's partly the language being used that makes you decide whether to keep watching, zap, or tackle the ironing, when the advertising break comes on (or even before). It's rather like being called Ira Losco, rather than Henrietta Panzavecchia, when you are a rock-chick turned pop-icon, more beautiful inside than you are outside (and that is saying something).

Unfortunately, this is one of the things that a lot of people in the media ignore, perhaps because they think that other elements in the production will make up for this deficiency. That is why Word of the Week is 'enterdrainment', describing any passive form of entertainment that is so incredibly inane that it practically asphyxiates listeners', viewers', or readers' grey matter, seriously impairing their cognitive skills for the hereafter.

Non-fans of news bulletins, country music, chat shows, soap operas, anything involving dancing, most interviews, and reality television (that just about covers everything except Keeping Up Appearances and Star Trek) consider them as enterdrainment.

My younger friends tell me that Ira Losco replies to each e-mail they send her; and I've seen her with kids (the litmus test) when she thought that no adults were looking; I've seen her face light up as she sang my all-time favourite of hers, Spellbound, at a soirée. That is one of the qualities that make her a star; and probably one that got her selected for a Passju interview last Monday.

In the course of her conversation with the Great Unseen, Ms Losco was obviously not choosing her words; they just flowed out and probably gave the editor a headache because there were so many good clips from which to splice the final version of the interview.

In passing, she mentioned the 'alone' (not 'lonely') feelings that hit creative people sometimes, and the malevolent people who scent out anyone who is feeling low, just so that they can plunge him further down.

Fame has not gone to her head: and in the Bay Music Awards, she earned the coveted hat-trick of Best Solo Artist, Best Single and Viewer's Choice Awards.

Lilliput ('small world'?) on One used to have Mariah dressed as an airhostess, greeting viewers before their 'departure' to a specific (always different) country.

Then followed a documentary-cum-edutainment galore (clips of films, cartoons, etc.) and a vox pop with children who used to come up with the most amazing bits of logic ("there are no elephants in Malta because we have a lot of mice; didn't you know elephants are scared of mice?"), and a story with reference to the country being 'visited', with visual material as a backdrop.

The programme was rightly bumphed as a 'travel programme for children and adults' - an all-encompassing statement that is also being used to promote Nannu Spagu (well, Andrew Zahra is rather on the thin side), where the 'travel' bit is represented by a souvenir and a couple of statements. One hopes that the second series will have either the description removed, or the section brushed up.

One notes that last Skartoçç was replaced by another programme that has its own slot in the PBS schedule, but henceforth Parkinson will be moved to Tuesdays at 10 p.m. Could not something as original (read nostalgic) as the old Mission: Impossible series have been found as a substitute for a few weeks at least, until the time the satire was supposed to run?

The viewers who have left Wednesdays free for Parkinson will probably be rather irked at this; there will be L-Ispjun instead, then.

Weirdest media-related news for this week is from Sacramento, in California, where a radio station there launched a contest called "Hold your wee for a Wii". Contestants hoping to win the said console had to drink abundant amounts of water without going to the bathroom. A nurse did call and point out the folly of this; but those involved in the KDND's "Morning Rave" brushed off the concerns about this Jackass-style stunt.

Jennifer Lea Strange, a mother of three, died in Rancho Cordova on January 12, after drinking an estimated two gallons of water. The document issued by the Coroner's Office of the County of Sacramento states that she was declared deceased by the Sacramento Metro Fire Paramedics.

The preliminary investigation revealed no previously-extant medical conditions that could have explained this sudden death, which is being put down to water intoxication (hyper-hydration), which disrupts the body's electrolyte balance.

Mrs Strange had reported on air that she had a headache - for which she was not treated. KDND immediately suspended "Rave's" three DJs and seven other staffers for violating terms of their employee contacts; but of course, this will not give the children, for whom she ironically tried to win the apparatus, their mother back.

This incident ought to be a red flag to teachers who insist that children learn "discipline" and will only send them to the lavatories during recreation breaks.