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Okay, welcome to the vocabulary lesson for the role of media 1 topic. Here we go.

This is an article by Noam Chomsky and the first word in this article is contemporary. The role of the media in contemporary politics.

Contemporary means modern or current, happening now in today’s time, in our current time. So it means modern or current or generally now. So contemporary politics means politics now. In the year 2007, 2005, 2008, you know, about this time period.

Okay and then next he has a phrase he says: we need to ask in what sense of democracy do we want this to be a democratic society.

In what sense means in what manner. And what he’s asking is in what kind… in what way do we want this to be a democracy, how do we want it to be a democracy. So in what sense means kind of in what definition, in what way, in what manner.

Alright and then the next sentence, he says: let me begin by counterposing two different ideas.

To counterpose is to compare, it means you compare one thing to another. You put them against each other. So he’s saying he has two ideas about democracy or there are two basic ideas about democracy.

He’s going to compare them, he’s going to put them against each other. He’s going to counterpose them. So to counterpose is to compare two things, put them against each other. Counterpose ,that’s counterpose. So he’s going to counterpose two different conceptions of democracy. He’s counterposing two conceptions of democracy.

Alright, conception means idea, but it means an idea about something. For example “a conception of democracy”. It means your ideas about democracy, or your theory about democracy.

So you don’t say, usually, I have a conception, right? We usually say I have an idea, I have an idea. We do say that in English all the time, but we don’t say I have a conception, not usually. We usually say I have a conception about democracy, I have a conception about this problem.

Okay so that means you’re thinking in a certain way about this topic. So, conception is an idea or a theory usually about some topic.

Alright, and then he says: one conception of democracy has it that democracy is where people participate.

Has it, has it. Seems simple, has and it, very simple, two words. But in this case has it means says or believes. So one conception of democracy, one idea has it that a democracy means everybody participates.

Has it, in other words means says. has it equals says. One idea says that a democracy is blah blah blah… one idea has it, one idea says. So basically it means says. But usually we use has it when a non-human is saying something, if that makes sense.

So, you don’t usually say I have it that he is good, right? You don’t say I say he is good. But we might say that public has it that he is good. So, it’s kind of not used for individuals, it’s used for abstract things that are communicating an idea.

So, has it means to communicate or sometimes it means to believe. So, to communicate or to believe something and usually not used as a single person but as some abstract group or idea. Believing is the subject for has it.

Okay, affairs. He said: one idea has it that democracy means people manage their own affairs.

Affairs in this case means lives, it means their normal life activities. Life activities are affairs. So I need to manage my affairs, means I need to manage my life activities. Now affairs does have other meanings, but in this case it means life activities or life issues.

Alright and we see the word means in that same paragraph, manage the means of information.

In this case “means” means methods or ways. The means of information means the way of communicating information, or the method for communicating information, the means of information.

This is not a normal way to say that, in fact, it’s a little bit formal. Noam Chomsky is an academic, he’s a professor. In fact, any of you who have studied language, you may know Noam Chomsky. He’s probably the most famous linguist in the world. Number one. He is a professor at MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Anyway, I’ll talk more about that in the commentary.

Okay next, he uses the phrase look up. To look up a word in the dictionary.

To look up means to look for and find, or to search for and find. So if you look up a word in the dictionary it means you search for it and try to find it. that’s pretty simple.

We see the word alternative. an alternative idea of democracy.

So alternative means another choice, right? Another kind or another choice, or another possible choice. An alternative idea means a different idea, right? Another idea… a different idea, another kind of idea.

Alright, and this idea says the public, people, must be barred from managing their own affairs.

Barred from means prevented. It’s one of those two word verbs, to be barred from means to be denied or prevented or stopped from doing something.

For example you might say “I am barred from that restaurant”. It means I can not go into the restaurant, maybe I did something bad in the restaurant, maybe I stole something from them, or I yelled and whatever. But they say: okay you can never come to this restaurant again, you are barred from this restaurant. Alright, to be barred from means you’re prevented from coming in.

He’s saying that some… one idea of democracy is that normal people must be barred from managing their own affairs. So they must be prevented from managing their own lives, important things.

Alright, we see the adverbs narrowly and rigidly controlled… controlled is a verb ,sorry. Narrowly and rigidly controlled.

So, narrowly controlled means in a careful way, in a very tight way, right? It doesn’t mean… you have many choices. You are narrowly controlled, it means you only get a few choices. The person who is controlling you gives you only a few choices. You are narrowly controlled.

Rigidly controlled means no flexibility, very tough, right? Very very tough. There are tough rules and you can not break them. So that’s rigidly. To do something rigidly means you do it in only one way, you can’t change, you can’t adapt. Rigidly.

Alright, and he said that may sound like an odd idea of democracy.

We’ve had this before, but odd means strange here, means strange. That may sound like a strange idea of democracy, that may sound like an odd idea of democracy. So odd here means strange.

He says: but it’s the prevailing idea. It’s the prevailing conception, it’s the prevailing idea.

Prevailing means the most common. Most common or the majority idea. So he’s saying this is actually the prevailing idea, it’s the most common idea about democracy.

The most common idea, the most prevailing idea in most countries is that common people, normal people, are not smart enough to manage important things, right? Educated people, rich people basically, have to control them somehow. That’s the prevailing idea of democracy. It’s the most common idea, it’s the majority idea, it’s the most powerful idea.

Okay, the prevailing idea. And then he says it is the prevailing idea not just in operation, but also in theory.

In operation means in use. How something is actually done. How it is done in reality, right? Not in idea. In theory means in idea, right? It means talking about it, thinking about it in theory.

So, “this is the idea in theory”, it means this is the idea people talk about, think about. But it’s also the main opinion in operation, meaning in actual use, in real life governments. Everyday in operation. So in operation is how something is actually done, and in theory is how you think about it.

Alright, and let’s see… he says: I’m going to keep to the modern period to talk about this issue.

To keep to something, it just means to stay with it, means… he’s not going to talk about the far past, he’s going to keep to the modern period. He’s gonna stay with the modern period only. So keep to means to stay with.

Alright, and then we see the word notion, he’s gonna talk about different notions of democracy.

Notion means idea, idea. And it’s very close to the word idea so you can say: “I have a notion”. It sounds a little strange. It usually means a small idea or an opinion, idea and maybe a little more formal. But you can say that, it’s very similar to the word idea. So, notion. A notion of democracy means some idea or opinion of democracy, so notion is idea, basically.

And then he uses the word, our final word, disinformation.

He’s going to talk about in his future articles, the problem of media and disinformation. Well, you know what information is, right? Information means… uh… you know, information, how do I tell… it means knowledge about things that happened. So, stories in the news, this is information. There is a war in Iraq, that’s information.

Alright, what is disinformation? “dis” makes it negative, negative information, what does that mean?

Well, disinformation in fact means a propaganda or lies, official lies basically, or wrong information. But it’s not wrong information by accident, right?

Someone writes an article, they make a mistake, for example. They make a mistake, but it’s an accident. They think it’s correct, it’s an accident. That is not disinformation, that’s not disinformation. It’s just a mistake. It’s wrong, it’s a mistake.

But if government creates a story, and they know it’s a lie, they know it’s wrong, but they tell the reporters, they tell the news, the news shows it to everybody. That’s disinformation, right? The people who created it know it’s wrong, they know it’s a lie, but they want to change people’s minds. They want to control them somehow.

So, it’s called disinformation… disinformation. Very similar to the word propaganda. Propaganda and disinformation are very very similar.

Alright, that is all for the vocabulary lesson. Listen a few times, it’s a short article, but there are some difficult words in there. So, listen as many times as you need to.

Alright, bye-bye.