Synthetic personalisation is the process of addressing mass audiences as though they were individuals through inclusive language usage. It developed from

critical discourse analysis Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of discourse that views language as a form of social practice. CDA combines critique of discourse and explanation of how it figures within and contributes to the exi ...

(CDA), a branch of

sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural Norm (sociology), norms, expectations, and context (language use), context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on languag ...

concentrating upon how power is articulated.

Norman Fairclough Norman Fairclough (; born 1941) is an emeritus Professor of Linguistics at Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University. He is one of the founders of critical discourse analysis (CDA) as applied to sociolinguistics. CDA ...

, credited with developing the concept, calls it "a compensatory tendency to give the impression of treating each of the people 'handled' ''en masse'' as an individual. Examples would be air travel (''have a nice day''), ndrestaurants (''welcome to Wimpy!'')" (2001: 52). The use of second person

pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not co ...

s contributes significantly to the process of synthetic personalisation within the

mass media Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets. Broadcast media transmit information ...

. It is extremely common to encounter constructions such as "See you after the break" on television shows prior to commercial breaks. (This example is also common in Paddy Scannell's concept of Broadcast Sociability.) Mary Talbot (

995 Year 995 (Roman numerals, CMXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * 17 May - Fujiwara no Michitaka (imperial regent) dies. * 3 June: Fujiwara no ...

2003) used the concept in her work on a ''synthetic sisterhood'' in teenage girls'

magazines A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combination ...

, analysing the linguistic devices (''

pronouns In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the part of speech, parts o ...

presupposition In the branch of linguistics known as pragmatics, a presupposition (or PSP) is an implicit assumption about the world or background belief relating to an utterance whose truth is taken for granted in discourse. Examples of presuppositions include ...

s'') constructing a simulated friendship between reader and producer. Using a variety of

sociolinguistic Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on language. It can overlap with the sociology of l ...

concepts, including positive politeness, she comments upon the

ideological An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied prim ...

implications, such as

patriarchy Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males a ...

References

*Fairclough, N. (2001) ''Language and Power''. 2nd ed. Essex: Longman. *Talbot, M. (1995) "A synthetic sisterhood: false friends in a teenage magazine" In: K. Hall and M. Bucholtz (eds) ''Gender Articulated: Language and the Socially Constructed Self.'' New York: Routledge. pp. 143–65. *Talbot, M., K. Atkinson & D. Atkinson (2003) ''Language and Power in the Modern World''. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Sociolinguistics {{sociolinguistics-stub