This post has nothing to do with editing, but rather, being a journalist.

There are some days that I just get so frustrated with journalism. Whether it's the intense deadline pressure, the hours spent waiting for sources to call back or the editing stories from not-so-great reporters, I think journalists need a place to vent to other journalists about the frustrations in the industry.
Enter angryjournalist.com. In the Web site's "About" section, it seems that the creator made the site for up-and-coming journalists to vent about the bleak job market. Here's an excerpt from the section:

"I created this site for several reasons. In private conversations with friends I sensed that there is a growing angst among the upcoming crop of journalists entering the field right now. Journalism-school graduates have the odds stacked against them."

Facebook Sticker Errors

The growing communication device we call Facebook has created yet another application: stickers. While these stickers that one shares with friends or gives to oneself are often witty, cute, or artsy, some of the most popular ones are also grammatically incorrect.

While it probably does not matter to most that others are posting grammatically incorrect stickers on one anothers virtual walls, as a fan of words and an individual taking advanced editing, it really does bother me.

I know I don't always use correct grammar in Facebook conversations or those I have on a daily basis with friends or family, but why thousands of people are willingly participating in the sharing of grammatically incorrect stickers is beyond me.

Here are some examples that are most annoying:

1. Im not your ordinary girl - (672,757 shares) Why didn't the person just add the dang apostrophe?

2. friends is what completes my life - (583,613 shares) I don't even care that 'friends' is not capitalized because the overall sentence is just so incorrect.

3. those with bad grammar should be shooted - (150,357 shares) If one really does want to shoot those with bad grammar, they would definitely not share this sticker.

4. me and you is friends . . . - (129,310 shares) Why do people find this use of grammar acceptable? Please, I really want to know.

5. Well be the old ladies causing trouble in the nursing home - (75,802 shares) Again, add the apostrophe. It's important.

6. Your only as strong as the tables you dance on, the drinks you mix, & the friends you roll with. - (? shares) Why would one use the wrong 'your,' but take the time to insert the period? I just don't know.

NYTimes slide show takes narrative approach

The pictures used in this slideshow were taken in Grand Central Station probably in the 1950s, perhaps 1953. The photographer, a student at the time, never had them printed, only developed from film and put onto contact sheets. Whoever did the cutlines borrowed from the accompanying story and, for the most part, presented a compelling series of blurbs. Unfortunately, that editor needed to take another look or let another editor have a go at it, too. You'll see what I mean.

Dinner with Obama

Facebook has very much become an important way to communicate and at least one of our presidential candidates knows this. Thanks to my brother, who is a freshman at Suny New Paltz, I received a link referring me to a Barack Obama sight, that in conjunction with Facebook, Barack Obama himself says if "you" donate" any amount to his campaign, "you" will be entered into a drawing. From this drawing, four lucky people will be chosen to have dinner with the candidate himself.

The contest lasted one week and in the end, Obama flew the winners to Washington to have dinner with him so they could discuss the issues that were important to the winners.

Though the personal video message from Obama is now no longer accessible, if you go to the link you can watch a few minutes of the dinner he had with the winners.

Overall, I think this was a very successful strategy because he gave every American 16 year and older the opportunity to win a dinner with him. It didn't matter how much the person donated, for $1 they would have had the opportunity to win the contest and eat dinner with a presidential candidate.

Oh. My. God.

I don't know how it happened. Or why they did it. But a week ago today, Sports Illustrated began providing the greatest tool in sports journalism - unyielding access to its archives. That's 54 years of stories and photos that changed the way sports is covered. It's amazing to consider you can read every word that's ever been published in SI since it first issue on Aug. 16, 1954, until you remember that SI isn't the first to take this route. The New York Times a while began allowing complete access to its archives, which leads to looking up things like the first report of Lincoln's assassination:

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C00E0D91F30EE34BC4D52DFB266838E679FDE

What makes me wonder - and all the more grateful - is SI allows this entrance into history for free. Sure, it's going to raise their Internet traffic, but according to the following NY Times business article, it won't necessarily generate a whole lot of money.

"Industry executives say that although old articles attract less interest from advertisers than current ones, any increase matters at a time when many newspapers and magazines are struggling to hold onto print ad revenue."

But hey, who cares when you get to read about the greatest baseball player who never lived, Sidd Finch. See the story by the great George Plimpton: http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1119283/index.htm

SI Vault: http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/

NY Times business article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/17/business/media/17mags.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Citizen Journalism

When I, at the request of my friend, went to see Diary of the Dead on Easter Sunday, I hardly expected it to be as much of a comment on citizen journalism as it was on how to survive a zombie apocalypse.

The movie is filmed in hand-cam style and centers on a group of college students whose horror movie turned into a documentary. Throughout the movie, the popular media are portrayed as unreliable. They beat around the bush and give no important information about the supposed “virus.” By contrast, citizen journalists across the world are posting helpful videos online.

One of the students watches a clip on her cell phone of a girl in Tokyo who posted a video urging, “Don’t bury dead; shoot in head.” The film’s main character films the grisly deaths of his friends and finally himself in the hopes that the full truth will reach fellow survivors. After shooting the death of one of their comrades, his girlfriend, also filming, hands off the camera and says, “It’s too easy to use.” The point is that the camera is just as easy to use as the gun that was shot to spare his dead friend from turning into a full zombie. His partial post halfway through the movie receives 72,000 hits after only eight minutes, attesting to the incredible speed at which information travels today. In this era of widespread technology, people can get information from an incredible number of sources.

This movie, though far-fetched, is a testament to the power, influence and importance of raw, unfiltered content from everyday citizens capturing and discussing current events. Citizen journalism, though much of it is biased, plays a valuable role in keeping democracy strong, and is especially important when media outlets are unwilling or unable to put forth such blunt information.

Check out the blog of our own Dan Gillmor, an expert in grassroots journalism.

Denouncing and Renouncing

While perusing the New York Times, I found an opinion piece related to the role of the media in politics. This article details the game of denouncing and renouncing to which journalists subject public figures, exemplified by Obama being asked to comment on the racist remarks made by his pastor. The point is that the media make a circus out of these comments instead of focusing on more important issues.

Writer Stanley Fish says, “This denouncing and renouncing game is simply not serious. It is a media-staged theater, produced not in response to genuine concerns – no one thinks that Obama is unpatriotic or that Clinton is a racist or that McCain is a right-wing bigot – but in response to the needs of a news cycle…The odd thing is that the press that produces these distractions and the populace that consumes them really believe they are discussing issues and participating in genuine political dialogue.”

Even though candidates aren’t responsible for the remarks others make, sometimes asking for comment brings out elements of their own character and leads to a greater amount of honest discussion, such as in the case of Obama’s response to the issue of race. I heard about his pastor’s comments and was intrigued to listen to Obama’s entire speech. I found it to be an enlightening statement about a critical issue affecting our country.

On the other hand, sometimes media focus on incendiary remarks and their responses can throw more important issues to the wayside. Also, most likely not everyone will be driven to find firsthand information.

“Meanwhile, the things the candidates themselves are saying about really important matters – war, the economy, health care, the environment – are put on the back-burner until the side show is over, though the odds are that a new one will start up immediately,” Fish says.

From keeping up pretty well with the news, I still hardly know McCain’s or Clinton’s stances on most issues. I only know where Obama stands because I make an effort to receive his e-mail updates and go on his Web site. It may take more time than reading a news article, but at least I get the whole picture – what some news outlets aren’t giving me.

Director of NYT copy desks is taking questions

I always look forward to the days when Merrill Perlman, who oversees all of the copy desks at The New York Times, gets to answer reader-submitted questions for the paper. This is the week! She has some marvelous explainers already posted.

Headline? Oh, why bother

AP Beefing up Entertainment Coverage

Browsing Romenesko, I came across this article from a Hollywood blog about the Associated Press. I hope I am not the only one in the class who becomes aggravated with the amount of Hollywood coverage in the news - television news, papers, and 24-hour news networks like CNN or MSNBC. But this has disappointed me in a different way. Now, one of the largest (if not the largest) press wires is beefing up its already large entertainment coverage because, they claim, it is what their readers want and because it "makes good business sense".

Ugh.

While reading the Hollywood blog, I stumbled on a quote from the AP's Los Angeles bureau stating: "now and for the foreseeable future, virtually everything involving Britney is a big deal."

Personally, if I wanted more Britney, I would turn to TMZ or trashy magazines at the grocery checkout...

Religion and Newspapers

I was looking through Sunday's front pages earlier, and came across this one from Dolan, Alabama. Obviously, a lot of papers acknowledged the fact that it was Easter Sunday, which is not necessarily a bad thing. However, I'm not sure what I think about the huge banner at the top of the page that says "Happy Easter Sunday." Easter is a huge religious holiday, but is it the newspapers job to point out only certain religious holidays. For example, I doubt this paper will have a huge banner saying "Happy Hanukkah" later this year, or even "Happy Kwanzaa." It may sound like I'm blowing this out of proportion, but it is a newspaper's job to present the news. Clearly, I don't mind them saying Happy Easter as it is a major holiday in the Christian religion, but I think that if they are going to acknowledge Christian holidays they should also acknowledge holidays of other religions. Not everyone in this country is Christian, and not everyone who reads this newspaper I'm sure. Just because a certain thing is predominant in our country, doesn't mean that everything else should be forgotten or ignored.

Sunshine Week -- Is that what people really want?

Reading this information made me wonder if the
American people really put an effort forth in trying
to make sure their government is more open. We see
newspapers, magazines and news channels devote time to
celebrity news to satisfy the audience's palate. Are
these same people the one's who want the government to
be more open? With news outlets having to use more
time for other items instead of what many within the
business would feel is more important, time is spent
digging up who is staring in the next Incredible Hulk
movie. Among the access people want more of include
who lawmakers meet with and police reports from
certain neighborhoods. If a nightly news show would
attempt to show this, there is a good chance the
audience would turn it off. I wish these polls were
completely accurate but unfortunately I do not think
those taking the poll were really being honest to
themselves or with the poll.

Scott

Katie the intern punks The Sun-Times

The Chicago Sun-Times offered $1,000 to the best video urging Sam Zell NOT to rename Wrigley Field. Imagine the surprise when the winner turned out to be a team from the Chicago Tribune. This video explains the contest before launching into the winning piece.

Facebook taking over newsrooms?

Facebook is fast becoming a news tool. Yeah, this one surprised me too. The once-known site for social networking is now becoming a news alert site for many newspaper across the country.

In this Poynter column found on http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=134855, the writer looks at how news has evolved onto the modern forefront amongst today's youth.

Facebook is wonders among the youth movement -- which typically has low readership -- and newspapers are taking notice. The Chicago Tribune has an alert system set up so that members receive constant updates on news happenings.


News sites such as roanoke.com are even going as far as encouraging Facebook users to share the stories and multimedia they view in their original context.

The New York Times, which has more than 10,000 fans to its application, has more than 500 posts to its page and has thrived in the area of multimedia with its users sharing photos, videos and stories.

These applications, which have been bogging down many Facebook profiles since its inception about year ago, have created content for users to interact with the newspaper.

Users can test their knowledge about current events by playing the New York Times' News Quiz. They can test their brains against other users and rack up points. Who is on top of the leaderboard now? Add the application to find out.

Must-read story on future of editing

Okay, so my favorite line is "reporters who can't write are a dying breed," but the story's really about how the Internet is changing the editing processes at some (and eventually all, I'm sure) newspapers. Slate's Jack Shafer bases this story on a memo from Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr., who's no slacker when it comes to paying attention, and Managing Editor Phil Bennett. They rightly point out that a system that revolves around set deadlines is increasingly unworkable in a 24/7 news cycle where stories are being written and edited for the Web as they happen, not as they're needed for an arbitrary routine. They also call for fewer edits on stories, something I think is wise. What? Did I say that? I surely did -- because I think that well-trained editors should work as closely with the writer as possible, and that the more editors involved, the more potential for messing up the story. So I think ALL journalists should be good writers, and I think that those who devote themselves to editing copy should be really really good at editing copy. The combination of a good writer and a good copy editor is an awesome thing. But read this story, because if you're going into journalism at all, you need to appreciate all the ways in which the production process is evolving and how expectations have changed.

Editors sound off

Here are two brief interviews with editors from the West Valley View newspaper. The paper is based in Litchfield Park in the West Valley; it serves Litchfield Park, Buckeye, Tolleson, Goodyear and Avondale. The privately owned newspaper publishes for Tuesday and Friday to about 80,000 readers. The staff has eight reporters, three photographers and four editors.

Jim Painter, Managing Editor
West Valley View Managing Editor Jim Painter has more than 30 years of newspaper experience in the Valley. He began in 1977 as chief photographer at the News-Sun (now the Daily News-Sun) in Sun City. Eventually he would work at the West Valley View — first as a reporter, then an editor — a week after it published its first issue in 1986. In 1996 he took a job as senior photographer/reporter for the Arizona State University News Bureau, after which he did another stint at the Daily News-Sun before finally returning to the View as managing editor in 2000. A graduate of Eastern Illinois University, Painter also served in Army from 1971 to 1973 as a military policeman and medical photographer.

RIMRATS: Do you notice any trends in newspaper design? Or maybe in copyediting?
Jim Painter: I really haven’t noticed any new trends in design or copyediting. Copyediting will probably never change. English is English and while the rules of grammar and style may vary depending on which style the newspaper adheres to, copyeditors will always push for consistency in language usage among the writers on their staff.

RIMRATS: How has the paper’s page design changed since 1998?
JP: We went through one major design change after I returned to the paper in 2000. We added the rail along the left side of Page A1, changed the look of a lot of the headers and feature logos, and improved the quality of photo reproduction by increasing the line count (resolution) of the halftones.

RIMRATS: How does the Internet factor into the way news is delivered to your
readers?
JP: I think this question and the next one are related. Newspapers everywhere are looking at new ways to use the Internet and the Internet is probably where the future of newspapers lies.
The Internet allows non-daily newspapers to compete with daily newspapers in getting news to their readers in a more timely fashion. The Web also allows newspapers to use multi-media formats. Now, newspapers can act almost like radio or TV stations by posting audio and video recordings on their Web sites. Personally, I think that as time goes on and newspapers become more sophisticated in their use of the Internet, each paper — including small community weeklies — will become like extremely localized TV news stations, with lots of video news reports and even Meet the Press-style talk shows with local elected officials and other community leaders as featured guests.

RIMRATS: What do you think the future of newspapers looks like?
JP: Fewer and fewer people read ink-and-paper newspapers, while more and more people get their news online. I think newspapers are increasingly going to turn to the Internet as their vehicle for disseminating the news.

Cary Hines, News Editor
West Valley View News Editor Cary Hines has worked at newspapers for nearly 15 years, but not always at the editing desk. She started as a page designer in the composing department at the Oakland Press, a large daily in Pontiac, Mich. When she moved to the Valley in 1995 she worked for the Luke Air Force Base newspaper, what was then called the Tallyho, as the lifestyles editor. After taking some time off to raise a child, Hines joined the West Valley View staff as news editor in 2001.

RIMRATS: What are the most common style mistakes you notice reporters making?
Cary Hines: Some of the most common style mistakes are with addresses (such as abbreviating “road”); using “pour” instead of “pore” (such as “she will pour over the papers later”); using “compliment” instead of “complement” (such as “the colors compliment each other”); going hyphen crazy (such as “The girl is 3-years-old); and using “underway” instead of “under way.”

RIMRATS: Are there any entries in the AP Style Book you disagree with, or maybe your paper has different rules about?
CH: Every newspaper has its own style, but overall they all must conform to some sort of style to ensure continuity so that you can pick up a newspaper anywhere in the country and read it with the same ease you would your hometown newspaper.
Specific AP entries I would change if I could: “Adviser” (I just think it looks weird); “Cactuses” (come on, everyone calls them cacti); the whole “Cancel, canceled, canceling, cancellation” entry (just put a double L in all the words, why just the last one?); and the dateline section (Why doesn’t Orlando stand alone? Same goes for Albuquerque).

RIMRATS: Do you find that most reporters understand how to use grammar correctly, especially ellipsis, the dash and semi-colons? Or do you notice reporters not using these kinds of punctuation because they don’t understand how to use them?
CH: One of the most common grammar mistakes is the misplaced modifier. For example: “Because of its rich history, the family chose Washington, D.C., for their summer trip.” “Rich history” is modifying “family,” not “Washington, D.C.,” so therefore, the sentence is saying the family is rich in history, which could be true, but probably isn’t the intention of the writer.
Recognizing gerunds is another tough one for most writers. (Wrong: “The team moving to Goodyear will promote economic growth.” Right: “The team’s moving to Goodyear will promote economic growth.” The team itself won’t promote economic growth, but the team’s moving will.

Brazilian newsrooms aim for accuracy

Reading a recent article on Poynter (http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=137822), I came across what newspapers in Brazil are doing to improve accuracy throughout its newsrooms. The RBS group, which owns eight newsrooms in Brazil created a database listing the most common errors put out by newspapers. Through that database, editors will now recognize common mistakes and fix them before they go into the next day’s newspapers. The group created a packet, which is filled with simple but useful practices.

An online database application through which every correction published in the eight newspapers is recorded, explained and classified. With minor adaptations, the form is a Portuguese translation of the form the Chicago Tribune uses. Zero Hora, one of the newspapers involved in the project has a circulation of more than 175,000 readers. An internal campaign to encourage checking for the five most frequent types of errors is used:

Names
Professions/positions/ages/political parties
Dates/numbers
Geography
E-mails/addresses/Web sites/telephones

Fifty-three percent of the corrections published by Zero Hora in 2007 were classified under those categories.

The packet, made by Pedro Dias Lopes, has allowed several Brazilian newsrooms to take a step in accuracy in journalism. Due in part to his work with the manual, Lopes was named executive editor of zerohora.com.

A style many of you emulated

As I was doing my morning news rounds, I saw this front page and was struck by what a good example it was of a style many of you used in your midterm centerpiece designs. Thought you'd enjoy seeing it. Happy spring break!

Making sure your recorder doesn't fail...

I happened to come across this blog post that featured the above photo with the question of "what is the woman doing with all those recorders?"

Some of the comments on the post were pretty amusing, but I thought the picture overall told more of a story than just her incredible ability to hold six recorders at once. The reliance on recorders is so prevalent today and seems to be increasing by the day. While I recall in most of my classes the professors still preach jotting notes and such, it seems like a lot of those in the field have decided that to be an unnecessary measure.

But as someone who has had both a tape recorder and digital recorder fail -- I can definitely appreciate the tactic of bringing six different recorders to ensure a complete copy.

A proposition to "A Preposition Proposition"

Writer William Safire contributes to the New York Times Magazine's section On Language; if you haven't read it before, it's very well done. Each week the section looks at how our language is evolving, devolving or just changing in no particular direction. In the Jan. 13 issue, in a piece called "Of the Migrating Of: A Preposition Proposition," Safire questions of — the way we use it, the amount we use and whether or not the little two-letter word is even required in most sentences. He starts the piece: "I could of avoided this subject because it's not too big of a deal, but to observe these mistakes a couple times a day — and to see one as the headline of a full-page ad accepted by at least two major newspapers — makes me want to fall off of my chair." (Bold and italicized ofs added by me.) Think about it: How many times do we recklessly throw an of into a sentence? "Today's not that bad of a day." "How long of a lecture should I schedule?" "I spoke a couple of times." Take that last sentence, for example: "a few" would work just as good and it eliminates of.

The article goes into more depth, but the general point is that of is overly used in American writing and speech. And that's a heck of a point to make.

My challenge to myself and everyone else: Use of much less.

Too Good to be True

Talk about an oversight! According to an article in today’s New York Times, Love and Consequences, a book by Margaret B. Jones, is entirely fabricated. This “memoir” details the author’s life growing up as a foster child and becoming involved in gangs in South-Central Los Angeles. Jones, whose real name is Margaret Seltzer, recently admitted to making up the account. Now, the heat is on her publisher and news organizations that “helped publicize what appeared to be a searing autobiography.”

Mimi Read, a freelance reporter who wrote a profile of the author that appeared in the New York Times last week, said in her own defense: “The way I look at it is that it’s just like when you get in a car and drive to the store — you assume that the other drivers on the road aren’t psychopaths on a suicide mission.”

Read also mentioned that she contacted Seltzer’s fiancé and asked Seltzer to give information about Uncle Madd Ronald, her supposed former gang leader who was now in prison.

Read mentioned that “Ms. Seltzer provided a prison name and prison identification number, and a copy editor confirmed that the prison existed.”

Even though a copy editor checked that the prison existed, is that enough? What about taking it one step beyond and verifying the identification number of the prisoner? I wonder what other “facts” in that book could have possibly been caught early, thus helping to unravel her story before it was published, and before organizations embarrassed themselves by promoting a complete lie. Then again, you don’t expect someone to lie about his or her entire life story in print.

“She seemed to be who she said she was. Nothing in her home or conversation or happenstance led me to believe otherwise,” Read said.

You can never be too careful.

Seltzer could have made a great fiction author.

National Grammar Day

March 22 is National Goof-off Day. May 10 is Clean Up Your Room Day. Sept. 28 is Ask a Stupid Question Day.

Apparently, copy editors deserve a day, too.

March 4 is National Grammar Day.

I wonder if the Cronkite School is doing anything to celebrate? A potluck? No classes?

I'm sure the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar would support that.

If anything, support the organization and purchase this shirt off the National Grammar Day Web site:

A really long hed never makes for a really happy person

In the spirit of celebration of the end of our midterm today, where we had to write a 12-character count hed and a 25-character count dek, I stumbled across this really lengthy hedline on baltimoresun.com

"William F. Buckley Jr., 82, Dies; Sesquipedalian Spark of Right"

I think this may be one of the lengthiest obit heds I've ever seen, not to mention one of the most confusing ones. When I write obit heds at The Arizona Republic, we rarely rarely rarely ever have that sort of luxury of space to go hog-wild with using the word "sesquipedalian." What does that word even mean?! According to this blog, which further discusses the hed, it is from the Latin word for "a foot and a half." I don't know about all of you, but that hed is just a way to make the reader feel pretty stupid. (I know it made me feel that way!)

The essential fonts

Just happened to be looking around on digg.com and found this page talking about 30 fonts that every designer has to have. Just scrolling through them real quick, there's plenty of familiar faces -- some of which are barely distinguishable from one another. But I suppose the real key to a great design is the subtle differences, like the ones in some of these fonts.

It's always kind of funny to me when I'm looking for an original font somewhere and am going through the millions of different options... only to usually come back to one of the good 'ole basic fonts that's listed on this page.

Community Feedback

I just read an article that was posted on Poynter a week ago about news organizations seeking feedback from consumers. The article talks about a Spokane, Wash. newspaper that will be meeting in the town library with members of the community who wish to give their comments about the paper. Apparently the paper has a new ethics policy, and they want to see what people have to say because these days many people don't trust what they read in the paper or hear on the news. I think this is one of the best ideas I've ever heard in my life. OK, maybe not in my life, but it is a good idea. Newspapers are always talking about how they strive to figure out what people like and don't like so that they can start molding the paper that way. However, it doesn't seem to me like they're making enough changes. Obviously, things have changed, but there are still a lot of people out there who find the paper boring, and even worse, they question the credibility of some of the stories. By actually taking time to meet with citizens and hear what they have to say, the paper is saying that they really are looking to make the paper into more of what the people want. Another thing in the story that impressed me is the fact that the paper has an online feature called "The Transparent Newsroom" where people learn about the work journalists do so they can better understand where their news is coming from. I think this, too, is a great idea. Hopefully more papers will do what the Spokesman-Review is doing.

iReport taking over user-generated news

While YouTube is embedded in the souls of this generation as a good web site for user generated content of videos, CNN is trying a different approach in its new launch of its Citizen Media Web site.

The site, iReport.com, is set up for user-generated content the audience can submit photos and videos.

The network has already received nearly 100,000 news-related photos and videos from viewers, but has only published or aired about 10 percent.

But should CNN of all companies restrict the content that is being put up on its Web site. For credibility, I would say yes, and that's a major yes. If anything can be posted on the user-generated site, than what is to stop people from posting photos and videos of explicit behavior.

This could very well be the next Wikipedia. But if it shows us anything, it is that we have come along way in journalism, especially now where we can share things with our peers.

Here is the link to an article on Poynter:
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=32&aid=138326

Most of February Spent Figuring Out What the Heck to Call People

Of the 14 AP Stylebook updates I received in my e-mail during the month of February, 10 of them have to do with how to classify people.
It started Feb. 1, when the words “mentally retarded” showed up in headlines across the world after a couple of women, who were “mentally disabled” (now the preferred term), were blamed for a Baghdad bombing.
From there, the stylebook covered updates on “tribe, tribal,” “Asian-American,” “Latino,” “Chicano,” “indigenous,” “nationalities and races,” “Native American,” “African-American,” and “black.”
My questions are: Are we spending too much time trying to find racial and ethnic labels to classify and divide people, or are we just trying to be as factual and descriptive as possible? Are there points when the latter proposition leads to the former, and if so, what are those points?
Closing thought: as I keep getting these updates, I realize just how outdated the hard-copy stylebook I bought at the beginning of the semester really is.

Enthusiasm draws him in

I was on newseum, and as we are doing our centerpieces
for a page, I noticed this page and thought it was
very interesting. The use of the two pictures is in
your face. There is no question about what this story
is about. Not only is the story about the Alabama
country earning the Boeing contract, it is the entire
page save for some outer refers to inside stories. I
think the pictures are used really well. The airplane
is making a big statement. But I think the two men
embracing one another is even better. The enthusiasm
the men are showing makes me want to know why this is
such a big deal to them. I thought it was a great
front page for something that must mean a lot to the
area.

Posted for Scott