RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

LANGUAGE IN RTV

Raša Popov

Editor in Belgrade Television

ТНЕ GAP BETWEEN WORD AND IMAGE ON TELEVISION

The language of radio differs from the language of television. The language of radio is permeated with categorical dramatisation and successive amalgamation, while the language of television is subjected to the principle of dramatic echo. In the case of both types of language the aim is to add to and improve on that which is bemg communicated. We continue to maintain this but as ever we аге ш despair as what we have unfolded from our bosom as the truth_no longer looks like the truth at the moment of comraumcation, This race for truth symbolised by that marveUous word but, together with its family of disjunctives, negations and supplementatives - than, and, well, so, neither, nor, along with the surprises contamed m the expression and yet - has had the effect of makmg every type of speech and language pass out of the domain of information and mto that of explanation. In television language the informative phase takes place inder the sign of dramatic echo, while the explanatory phase brings with it sudden, contrasting, shock polansations. As a whole, then, television language represents a kmd of unexpected polarising echo which chngs Uke a shadow to the other impulses with which the small screen bombards the eyes and ears of its viev/ers. In Ovid the nymph Echo lost her head on account of Narcissus, a young man with a double image who was so womed by this dupUcation that he too lost his head. Television language has the same relationship with the television image as Echo had with Narcissus, And in order to see how the television word and the television image have a fataUy Umiting effect upon each other, let us look at the classical legend and what it suggests. Narcissus was a vain, insensitive young man. in love with hiniself. The nymph Echo fell madly in love with him. Narcissus spoke to Echo and to many others but did not estabUsh апу reai communication. For this he was punished with a curse: he may kiss his beloved, but he may not win her.

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