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.
1 comment:
Maybe they don't have which/that, who/whom or it/they problems in Portugese! Would be worth learning the language. :-)
Post a Comment