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Translating the media’s internal lingo |
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Written by asap
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Friday, 07 July 2006 |
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Americans want the inside skinny.
So Richard Weiner created a new guide to help everyone understand the language of media. Weiner’s book, “The Skinny About Best Boys, Dollies, Green Rooms, Leads, and Other Media Lingo,” has chapters on the language of different types of media and special topics, such as body parts and colors.
The title promises the skinny (inside information) about best boys (from the film business, an assistant or apprentice to the electrician or handyman), dollies (from film, a rolling cart for a camera), green rooms (from television, a room for guests to wait before going on the air), leads (from newspapers or television, the top story or the top of a story), and more.
“Even young people, who say they aren’t interested in the mainstream media, get so much of their language from an earlier period of time,” Weiner said.
Weiner, a longtime public relations executive who some credit with the marketing strategy behind the Cabbage Patch kids, previously had written a formal dictionary of media terms, but wanted to write something for the general public.
Some highlights:
RADIO
- A CLEAR CHANNEL is one of Weiner’s favorite terms. Not only is it the name of one of the nation’s largest media companies, but the term comes from powerful AM radio stations that were given a protected band of the airwaves that allowed their signal to be heard for a very long distance, especially at night.
ANIMALS
- The decisive moment when a television show starts to go downhill is called JUMPING THE SHARK.
- A LOBSTER SHIFT at a newspaper involves working the early morning hours, named from the number of printers’ noses who were lobster red, probably from drinking.
- DOGS are not just unattractive people, but what theater people call a small town.
- A BIRD is a communications satellite.
ODD TERMS
- A DINGBAT is decorative type used about an article in a magazine.
- A CHEESEHEAD once was slang for a stupid person; now it’s a Green Bay Packer Fan.
- Weiner doesn’t like cheesehead because it’s so close to CHEESY, which is something that is inferior or in poor taste.
BODY PARTS
Weiner makes it a separate chapter.
- A HEAD RULE is a horizontal line across the top of the page of a newspaper.
- A FOOTPRINT in telecommunications is the area on Earth in which a single satellite can be received.
- But a SOCK is a very successful theater show.
MAGAZINES
- Wall Street Journal insiders use PANTSFOLDER for any how-to feature, such as “How to Fold Your Pants in Luggage.”
- A WALLENDA at Newsweek is a senior — or high-flying — editor.
- At the New Yorker, a CASUAL means informal fiction or nonfiction articles.
- Variety (a movie business trade publication) uses TENTPOLE for a success.
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asap reporter Drew Digby is based in New York. | Only registered users can write comments.
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