Pundit

"Pundits" redirects here. For the Yale secret society, see The Pundits.
For other uses, see Pandit (disambiguation).

A pundit or pundette is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media.[1][2][3] They are often conservative. The term was coined in the 1990s to describe anti-Bill Clinton commentators who came to prominence on cable TV during the Lewinsky scandal.

Origins

The term originates from the Sanskrit term pandit (paṇḍitá पण्डित), meaning "knowledge owner" or "learned man".[4] It refers to someone who is erudite in various subjects and who conducts religious ceremonies and offers counsel to the king and usually referred to a person from the Hindu Brahmin but may also refer to the siddhas, Siddhars, Naths, ascetics, sadhus, or yogis (rishi).

From at least the early 19th century, a Pundit of the Supreme court in Colonial India was an officer of the judiciary who advised British judges on questions of Hindu law. In Anglo-Indian use, pundit also referred to a native of India who was trained and employed by the British to survey inaccessible regions beyond the British frontier.[5]

Current use

Josef Joffe's book chapter The Decline of the Public Intellectual and the Rise of the Pundit describes a change in the role of public experts and relates to developments in the audience and the media itself.[6] In the second half of the 20th century, foreigners like Hannah Arendt or Jürgen Habermas and others gained a certain position in the US as public intellectuals due to the (over)specialization of US academics.[7]

A pundit now combines the roles of a public intellectual and has a certain expertise as a media practitioner. They play an increasing role in disseminating ideas and views in an accessible way to the public.[8] From Joffe's view, Karl Marx in Europe and e.g. in the US, Mark Twain were early and relentless pundits ante festum.[6] In addition, the growing role of think tanks and research institutions like the Brookings Institution, the American Enterprise Institute and the Manhattan Institute provided a place for those dealing with 'big issues' in public language.[6]

The term talking head (in existence since 1964[9]) has derogatory overtones. For example, the judge in the David Westerfield trial in San Diego in 2002 said "The talking heads are doing nothing but speculating about what the jury may or may not be thinking".[10]

Punditry has become a more popular vehicle in nightly newscasts on American cable news networks. A rise of partisanship among popular pundits began with Bill O'Reilly of Fox News Channel. His opinion-oriented format led him to ratings success and has led others, including Bill Maher, Keith Olbermann, and Nancy Grace to express their opinions on matters on their own programs.[11]

In sports commentating, a "pundit" or color commentator may be partnered with a play-by-play announcer who will describe the action while asking the pundit for analysis.

To the pundette version of the term, according to Stephen Klien, Assistant Teaching Professor of Political Communication at the University of Missouri, pundettes "seemed to capitalize on a combination of conservative identity, confrontational rhetorical style and sexual attractiveness in order to gain media attention".[12] The term is sometimes used dismissively by those that disagree with a pundette's position.[13] Women described as pundettes, however, often embrace the term.[14] More recently the term has expanded to include women commentators in a variety of fields, political views and races.[15]

Examples

Popular in the United States during 2007 according to a Forbes top 10 list:[16][17]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Definition of Pundit". Merriam-Webster. 22 February 2024. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  2. ^ "Pundit". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  3. ^ "Pundit". Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  4. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pundit" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 649.
  5. ^ "pundit, n." in Oxford English Dictionary
  6. ^ a b c Joffe, Josef (2003). "The Decline of the Public Intellectual and the Rise of the Pundit". In Melzer, Arthur M.; Zinmann, Richard M. (eds.). The Public Intellectual, Between Philosophy and Politics. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. pp. 109–122.
  7. ^ POSNER, Richard A. (30 June 2009). Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline, With a New Preface and Epilogue. Harvard University Press. pp. 4–5. ISBN 9780674042278.
  8. ^ Dahlgren, Peter (2013). The Political Web: Media, Participation and Alternative Democracy. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 94. ISBN 9781137326386.
  9. ^ "Talking head Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster".
  10. ^ Dillon, Jeff, and Steve Perez. "Judge denies defense motion to sequester jury," San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 August 2002. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  11. ^ "Cable rantings boost ratings". Usatoday.Com. 3 October 2006. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  12. ^ Stephen Klien, "Ann Coulter's Inconvenient Gender: The Conservative Feminine Persona and Legitimate Public Agency", Proceedings of 2011 National Communication Association Convention
  13. ^ Hunter Baker, "Down Syndrome", The American Spectator, 19 August 2004
  14. ^ Susan Estrich, Sex & Power, New York: Riverhead Books, 2001, ISBN 1-57322-893-1, page 207
  15. ^ Daniel M. Gold, "Mixing It Up With the Charmer, the Flight Attendant and the Pundette", New York Times, 1 September 2012
  16. ^ Riper, Tom Van. "The Top Pundits In America". Forbes. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  17. ^ Riper, Tom Van. "In Pictures: America's Top Pundits". Forbes. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  18. ^ a b c d e Paul Farhi, "The Voice of Experience? Um, Not Exactly", Los Angeles Times, 27 May 2000
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