WGBH promotes its change of name

[Donna Halper]

On Oct 17, 2020, at 6:42 PM, Richard Chonak <richard@chonak.com> wrote:
>> WGBH has posted a briefing about the brand redesign that was launched in September.  In this video, the speaker says:
>>
>> "We are moving from the age of broadcast to the era of streaming. All of the things associated with broadcast are now going away."

I find the premise for this change somewhat bizarre, but that's a story 
for another day.  My big problem with the new name is this: because we 
are more international now, thanks to streaming, many programs or 
segments that were locally produced do wind up on YouTube or on the 
station website for the world to watch.  That's what I see as a problem 
with using "GBH"--  in England and other British-influenced countries, 
as any crime program will demonstrate,  "GBH" stands for Grievous Bodily 
Harm, and is widely used as a term for an assault.  I wonder if anyone 
at the US ad agency considered whether their fancy new identifier means 
something different in the US than it does overseas...

-- 
Donna L. Halper, PhD
Associate Professor of Communication & Media Studies
Lesley University, Cambridge MA