Research Paper on:
The Individual and Collective Consequences of Language

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
The human capability for language distinguishes us from other animals and, indeed, even defines who we are. Precisely how we acquire language and the opportunities and limitations this  acquisition entails, however, are highly debated topics. Once we rise above this debate, however, we come to realize that language defines how we come to know and interact in  our world, even why we believe or refuse to believe in the things that drive us both individually and collectively. Works  such as Lorimer and Gashers (2000) "Mass Communication in Canada" illustrate the phenomenal power of language. In todays world of mass communication, communication which is no longer subject to  either the limitations of distance or immediate presence of the speaker to his audience, indeed persons can now communicate with someone on the other side of the world at the  speed of light. Even more concerning is the power of one individual or organization to pass on their viewpoints to the world through the power of the modern media  (Lorimer and Gasher, 2000). This concern becomes even more riveting when we realize that authors like Berger and Luckman (1970) called them into question some three decades prior to  Lorimer and Gasher (2000). Berger and Luckman (1970) recognized even during the fledgling stages of the mass media that the potential existed to influence ideology, to spread a false  consciousness through the propaganda of the written and broadcast word. These authors recognized, in fact, that the societal mechanism for molding our every thought had been in place practically  since the beginning of our reign on earth, that society has a way of communicating its desires and demands on both the weak and strong members of its group.