Geordie Shore

Why(Aye man)?

Television plays a huge role in society in the twenty- first century. Our opinions and outlook on life are greatly influenced by what we watch and hear on television. For years MTV has been at the forefront of crass and in your face reality TV. TV shows like ‘Geordie Shore’ are best known for their outrageous drunken antics, inventive dialect and x rated sex scenes. While initially the behaviour on these shows may seem shocking, people continue to tune in week after week for their fix of trash television. 

While society thinks nothing of the hour long episode and its significance, viewers are influenced by others and are unaware that they’re changing their dialect. The reality show first aired in May 2011 as a British Protégé of American reality show, ’Jersey shore’, but is it a realistic representation of the Newcastle population? The cast of Geordie shore only account for a small minority of the population in Newcastle. This show should not discourage you from visiting Newcastle because as the series continues, people hope there will be a more accurate representation of the area. It would be disappointing to see outdated stereotypes pervade. During the first 30 seconds of the opening credits of the show we are able to see the positive regional representation, for instance the iconic landmarks of Newcastle and the Geordie accent has also been seen positively by some. 

The Aziz Corporation completed a survey of regional accents and evaluated their effectiveness and success with regards to employability. Although the ‘Geordie’ accent did not rank highly for being successful in business, it was considered an anomaly of the study as it came out highest for trustworthiness and was quoted by the Aziz study as being, ‘warmer, caring and wrap your arms around you sort of accent’. Newcastle welcomed this survey as it represents a positive connotation towards Geordies unlike the false reality show portraying them as they stagger out of a club: unaware of their name, with unbuttoned clothes and unable to stand without someone else’s help. This positive connotation of the Geordie accent being warm and welcoming was regarded as best for working in a call centre and many companies moved their call centres to this area. Maybe the Geordie shore lot can finally get a real job! 

Many viewers already struggle to understand the common colloquialisms used by Geordies such as ‘Canny; ‘way-aye’ and ‘barine’; but the Geordie shore cast have now taken existing words and conducted a semantic shift often offering a negative connotations. For as long as I can remember the noun ‘mortal’ was defined as a human being. Its original meaning seemed scientific and now is somewhat unintelligent as it is defined as consuming a health- threatening quantity of alcohol, it doesn’t seem to make any sense. This relates to Jean Aitchison’s theory of attitudes towards language change, this is the case of the ‘damp spoon syndrome’ where she evaluates that language change is due to laziness. Aitchison states ‘the only truly lazy speech is drunken speech, where alcohol affects coordination’. Not alone in this, respectable linguists such as Lynne Truss are also haters of this emerging phenomenon. Even when these Geordies are sober they spread poor language through social networking sights like Twitter where the younger generation might get the mistaken idea to thinking this language is correct. 

Furthermore, the term ‘tash on’ has been reformed to mean ferociously kiss a recently acquainted male or female. Taking a prescriptive view to this myself along with other linguists such as John Humphrey, I believe that the English language once connoted beauty and culture and therefore feel that the changing of language loses its aesthetic value. Our language is starting to decay. Aitchison’s prophecy appears to be spot on with the decrease in beauty language increases with vulgarity. Geordie Shore cast members contribute to this. However, it would be almost impossible to communicate in modern society by using English of the 1700s.

A major downfall to the English Language is allowing technology to advance carelessly in our modern age. It’s a common thought that today’s younger generation are programmed by what they read and see on the internet. Geordie shore has brought the technology of computers for example incorporating ‘hashtags’ onscreen during the course of the show. This kick started the twitter hype of hashtags ‘#hmme’, along with other meaningful words that would puzzle the older generation. Hashtags are the perfect way to spread the topics presented and increase viewings by attracting intrigue. Social networking is subconsciously influenced by what others read.  Hashtags are broadcasting single words which users are now using as part of their own speech. Like most other things in the world, once one does it-everyone’s doing it. The way these words have caught on can be described like an S-Curve like the linguistic Chen and Bailey identified. Originally, the word ‘#keemon’ was used by Scotty Timlin which he originated from the word ‘come on’. Therefore, Scott saw the potential to use his social status and create a new word. The implementation of the word came from numerous teenage boys by hash tagging ‘#keemon’ on their photos or tweets. The word began to spread to a clothing brand which teenagers could wear and can now even be used as a synonym for cool. Furthermore, Jean Aitchison’s describes it as an infectious disease. She said that bad English is spread between people like the transmission of germs and it is spreading out of control.  However, the viewers of Geordie Shore have naturally generated their own community and their uses of the words in the programme have almost created a Cryptolect.  This case of communication is used amongst viewers which can mislead others, especially parents. ‘#Hmme’ was first introduced by heartthrob Garry Beadle (Gaz g shore) this is now used at the end of a comment when they know someone is lying, it even has a hand action!

                                 Gary's hand action imitating Pinocchio growing nose.

Without this word being challenging enough to interpret, they take it one step further to a non-verbal signal. The social distance between adult and youth is widening. These mischievous and self- assured terms are sculpting viewers to believe that the casts reckless way of life is acceptable and desirable again supporting Aitchison’s theory of the ‘infectious disease’.

These TV shows are popular worldwide and reach a huge audience, the message they send out could eventually lead the viewers to cultivate a false depiction of the real world. While most people who see some scenes from these shows occasionally could be shocked by the content regular viewers will eventually come to think of these behaviours are socially acceptable. This show displays no sign of being cut in the near future, meaning the city of Newcastle will continue to be subjected to further embarrassment thanks to eight mindless ‘Geordies’.