My post here reminded me of a blog post I saw a few days ago. Unfortunately I can't remember where it was made now.
The (American) writer pointed out the use of the word "live" when describing watching a TV show at the time of transmission by the network, as opposed to it being recorded and watched some time later when more convenient. Most TV shows are recorded by the makers several days or months in advance of transmission anyway, so they aren't "live" in the usual sense.
Of course, some things, like sporting events, are transmitted as they happen and they are usually also described as "live". The author suggested that any possible confusion be avoided by the use of "live live" to describe the latter.
Has anybody here come across this apparent new use of the word?
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Yes I have, and I don't like it very much because of the ambiguity. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be another generally accepted term meaning "at the time of transmission".
There seems to be a third use of "live" in broadcasting, too, meaning "in front of a live audience". Very confusing!
In broadcasting context, in my opinion, "live" ONLY means "as it is happening, and directly transmitted." Any other use is a corruption of the word, but then I'm a prescriptivist.
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -J. Krishnamurti
Thinking further about this, obviously an event broadcast as it happens is "live". If the same event is re-broadcast, then it must become "live on tape (or film)". But many broadcasts are delayed for several seconds (to enable material to be censored if necessary) so are these shows then "live" or "live but taped"? If animated characters are inserted into the live broadcast, does this make it "live in part" since the animation isn't sentient?
Live music is a different usage again - I have many CDs of live music recorded in front of audiences and a few which claim to have studio songs recorded live in one take.
I watch very little live TV nowadays - Sky+ is such a wonderful thing - but we do use the word live for watching something when it is scheduled: Have you taped Eurovision, darling? No I watched it live.
Always watching recordings does mean you miss the feeling that the whole nation is coming together at the same time to watch the same thing. Maybe that is why the Royal Wedding was such an unexpected pleasure: it doesn't happen anymore that we all watch the same live event as it happens.
