By Claire Theobald
Although journalists are, contrary to popular belief, still human beings and are therefore capable of error, it still remains the journalists duty to protect their journalistic integrity by ensuring that their writing is accurate and devoid of any obvious errors in spelling, punctuation, or grammar. That being said, most forms of print media are still riddled with errors of this nature to varying degrees.
Misspelling is a mistake that occurs commonly in any field of writing. However, misspelling, in some cases, can cause much larger issues. For example, if a name is misspelled it can cause confusion and often put words in the mouths of those who did not say them, leading to legal issues. Below is an example taken from the Annals of Internal Medicine:
Issues of grammar, although possessing less risk then a misspelled name, can serve to undermine the integrity of a piece. Below is an example of incorrect use of grammar taken from the children’s book “Mighty Movers: Emergency”:
Punctuation errors, although on the surface seemingly harmless, can change the entire connotation of a piece of writing. For example, below is an image taken from a parking sign (image at FailBlog) where the incorrect use of grammar changes the intended meaning significantly:
Incorrect information is perhaps the worst mistake any journalist can make. Presenting incorrect facts as truth can blemish even the best journalists stellar reputation, and news organizations are generally quick to recant any false statements in an attempt to preserve the publications integrity. Here is an example taken right out of history, where on November 3rd, 1948 the Chicago Tribune printed a story entitled “Dewey Defeats Truman” the day after former President Harry S. Truman won the election over challenger Thomas E. Dewey:
In short, although the occasional error is inevitable, the journalist should strive to produce writing without such errors as these sometimes innocuous mistakes can turn into a much larger problem.
I really liked your examples and especially the pictures you used. Also I totally agree that some people seem to have unrealistic expectations that journalists should never make mistakes and when they do we should crucify them. Everybody makes mistakes and I think that it's important to realize that journalists fall into that category as well.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I also think it's extremely important that journalists avoid making mistakes as much as possible, and that's where double checking your work is so important.
Good post Claire, keep up the good work.
The Truman with a newspaper on is a classic. (FACT:Harry Truman's middle name is S.)
ReplyDeleteAnd you're very right. Factuality must be striven towards, though perhaps it can never be fully achieved. To paraphrase the Dude from The Big Lebowski, new shit comes to light, and with the ever-changing nature of what is known, it is not always possible to be accurate. But towards accuracy we must always strive, in an endless Sisyphean battle.
Mistakes can be very costly too.
ReplyDeleteLike the one in the recipe book published by Penguin, which called for cooking ingredients
"salt and black people".
Although the ambulance example may appear odd to an American, it ISN'T grammatically incorrect. Being a Brit, it's the norm for us - and other Europeans - to say something like 'Going to hospital' rather than 'the' hospital, which implies a specific hospital that has been previously named/discussed.
ReplyDelete