Pundit
Someone who offers their opinion via mass media
A pundit is a term originating with the Indian language, originally meaning a revered elder or a spiritual leader in Hinduistic matters, but has been adapted in the Western World as pundit, or occasionally pundette for a female person, to refer to a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), in the Western mass media. It is mostly used in its original meaning, to refer to a spiritual leader of Hinduism.
01Origins
The term originates from the Sanskrit term pandit (paṇḍitá पण्डित), meaning "knowledge owner" or "learned man". 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.
02Current 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. In the second half of the 20th century, Hannah Arendt, Jürgen Habermas and others gained a certain position in the US as public intellectuals due to the (over)specialization of US academics, according to Richard A. Posner
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. From Joffe's view, Karl Marx in Europe and e.g. in the US, Mark Twain were early and relentless pundits ante festum. 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.
The term talking head (in existence since 1964) 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".
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.
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 Klein, 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". The term is sometimes used dismissively by those that disagree with a pundette's position. Women described as pundettes, however, often embrace the term. More recently the term has expanded to include women commentators in a variety of fields, political views and races.
03Examples
Popular in the United States during 2007 according to a Forbes top 10 list:
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Pundit”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Secretary Kerry Chats With 'Morning Joe' Co-Hosts Scarborough, Brzezinski Before Appearing on MSNBC Program in New York (26159251312).jpg by U.S. Department of State from United States, Public domain
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