Spoken Communication and the Mass Media

This study attempts to come to an understanding of how mass means of communication have influenced and are influencing everyday communication with others. We have seen how very different models of speech, the information speech of the mass media and that of film dubbing, tend to merge into a model of Italian which is very imilar, though for different reasons. The resultant model is an Italian which is pronounced carefully but much more rapidly, in many cases accelerated. Acceleration is obtained by the reduction of silences within the utterance. Silent pauses are rare and of short duration. The tone of voice is rather high and the intonation is very varied, with frequent intonation peaks.