How should a journalist look?

Picture bylines are a trick to make journalism more human. If you know what the writer looks like, the theory goes, you are more likely to relate the the writing. I prefer the reader to be thinking about the subject rather than the writer's dress sense, but that's me: I am old-fashioned.

The question arises, what should journalists look like. Should they be themselves (or does that risk alienating the audience)? Should they reflect the public's prejudice about what a journalist should look like (press card in the trilby)? Or should they look like they know their subject?

The Telegraph seems to have a jacket and tie policy, but Political Editor Andrew Porter goes one step further and actually looks like a politician

Richard Edwards is the Telegraph's Crime Correspondent and looks a little like a policeman. Well done, Richard. Spot on.

The Guardian seems to have a more casual photo dress policy which allows Music Editor Tim Jonze  to look like the musos he's writing about.

Steve Busfield is Head of Hedia and Technology for the Guardian and . . .  erm . . .  Sorry Steve, that shirt is not really saying Head of Media and Technology

Headline howlers

Classic headline howlers printed in the August issue of Word magazine included:

• Churchill flies back to front
• Prostitutes appeal to Pope
• Miners refuse to work after death
• Juvenile court to try shooting defendant
• Hospitals sued by 7 foot doctors

Language news

Irish police have discovered that Polish man Prawo Jazdy, wanted for motoring offences, is on their computer database listed at fifty separate addresses, The Irish Times reports.

In Polish, prawo jazdy means driving licence.

New words in 2008

Medal became a verb in 2008 (the team includes athletes who have medalled at Olympic, World and European level) while fail became a noun (that is an epic fail).

The New York Times gives us frugalista and recessionista.

Santa insanity

Stories with Santa in them are mainstream news this time of year:

• The Santa in New Zealand who said the f-word while trying to say thank you in Norwegian.
• The teacher who was sacked for telling pupils Santa doesn't exist.
• The bobcat who bit Santa in New Jersey (people take bobcats to see Santa?).
• The Santa who got a parking ticket on his sleigh (this is becoming a Christmas tradition).

Advertising: a warning from 1974

Advertising during recession works, although the beleaguered publishing industry is having a tough job convincing its clients.

This from Direct Marketing magazine 1991:
[The American Business Press (ABP) analysed] the severe 1974 to 1975 recession. Relying on questionnaires submitted by advertisers, the study tracked the sales and profits growth of 173 industrial companies between 1972 and 1977. The companies were divided into two groups: those that reduced advertising during the recession; and those that did not reduce advertising,

The study found that the companies that reduced advertising achieved minimal sales growth in 1974, suffered a sales decline in 1975 and increased sales by 70 percent during the five-year period. For companies that maintained their ad budgets, sales suffered no slowdown during the recession and grew 150 percent for the entire period. Profits showed a similar pattern. Most notably, the momentum gained by the steady advertisers during the recession helped them to grow at a faster rate in 1976 and 1977.

The original article can be found at Allbusiness.com.

Blogging stimulates new language

The word blog has spawned 214 derivatives according to Damp Squid by Jeremy Butterfield including:

• Blogger
• Blogosphere
• Blogospheric
• Blogospherical
• Blogroll
• Bloggerati
• Bloggocks
• Blogstipation
• Bloglish

Most irritating words

Oxford University has compiled a list of the phrases people find most irritating according to the Daily Telegraph, which also comes up with its own list based on reader response.

The research is published in a new book by Jeremy Butterfield called Damp Squid.

Oxford's most irritating are:

1. At the end of the day
2. Fairly unique
3. I personally
4. At this moment in time
5. With all due respect
6. Absolutely
7. It's a nightmare
8. Shouldn't of
9. 24/7
10. It's not rocket science

Latest news

• Frenchman delays train trying to fish his phone out of the toilet
• Wardens paint yellow lines round car then give it a ticket
• Jamaica puzzled by theft of beach
• Iran eats evidence of world-record sandwich

Great proofing errors of our time

McDonald's in the Australian town of Yass opens at 6am, apparently. They were so keen for us to know that they put up a billboard.



Many other examples at English Fail blog.

Google tests email drunks

Google is testing a new system to stop (or at least slow down) people sending embarassing emails while they are drunk.



If you try to email at a time of day when you might have been drinking, the system will only give you access if you can correctly answer a series of maths problems.

Seems like it could work, but you might want to check you can answer the questions while you are sober.

Spam journalism - watch out

Apple stocks fell 10% last week on an entirely false story that its CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack.

The story, apparently planted by an anonymous source, was rapidly denied by Apple and its stocks recovered.

It gained traction when it was picked up by two reputable blogs, iReport (run by CNN) and Silicon Alley Insider.

iReport's tagline is Unedited. Unfiltered. News. Unchecked, too, apparently.

Cnet's take on it ended with the comment: The public is less interested in us getting the story first as it is in us getting the story right. Hear, hear.

Automatic spin spotting

A web add-on that spots spin in news stories was launched yesterday to make the media more transparent, its developers say.



The New York Times reported that Spin Spotter will soon be enhanced to compare copy with the original press release.

Don't be too scared. It doesn't currently think that the 10 Downing Street website contains any spin. Could be a useful tool, though, if they get it working.

Fewer: the shocking truth

Tesco is changing its signs from ten items or less to up to ten items because of complaints from grammar activists according to UPI.

Pretty scary thought, eh, those grammar activists?



The Telegraph quoted a Tesco spokesman saying
The debate about what is right has been going on for years now, and I still don't think we know if 'less' or 'fewer' is correct.

Other news sources, including the BBC, implied that there was some doubt about whether the original signs were grammatically incorrect.

Let's set the record straight here and now:

Less if it is uncountable (less jelly, less custard)

Fewer if it is countable (fewer jelly babies, fewer custard creams... fewer items).

On this one, there is no doubt.

Laxative enforcement

An economics student at City University London wrote in his exam that the failure of Northern Rock was due in part to the laxative enforcement policies of the regulator.

This and other exam howlers were reported to Times Higher Education.

Knighthood awarded

Nils Olav the Colonel in Chief of the Norwegian King's Guard was knighted today at Edinburgh zoo.

The story was widely covered because Nils Olav is a penguin.

Many writers strayed from the traditional 5Ws model which is a shame because I am left wondering "why?" I cannot find the answer in any of these:

• BBC
• MSNBC
• Sky
• The Telegraph

The traditional news intro answers the questions Who?, What?, Why?, Where? and When? (the 5Ws). Modern web news often misses out the Where? and When? in favour of conciseness. But never miss out the Why? because it also tells the reader why they should read on.

It is a particular failing of the funny stories, but they still need a why, otherwise I might conclude the Norwegians are mad.

Birmingham photo blunder

Birmingham City Council (in England) printed nearly three quarters of a million leaflets showing a picture of Birmingham, Alabama (in America) according to the Mirror.

A council spokesman said: We accept that the wrong photo was used - but the text is correct, which is the main thing.