Media

All good journalists make mistakes. All good desk hands make typos. No mistake is acceptable, but some can be understandable. And some are simply not admissible even as oversights. One such confusable pair of words people invariably make mistakes with is affect vs effect. To affect means to have an effect on. Effect is usually the noun; effect as a verb means to bring about in an effective manner. In a less common usage, one can affect (show off) something in an ostentatious manner. Elementary...

A few days back a former colleague of mine called me up. She now works with a magazine, and seems to be doing well. She just has that one problem only — she is not quite sure whether she works with a specialty magazine or a speciality magazine. I don't blame her — not many people do. Someone told her the first is the American way of writing it, and the second British. She also looked up a few dictionaries, and ended up even more confused. Merriam-Webster differentiates the two this way...

Late last week, a Reuters creed about the US-Iran nuclear standoff appeared in a number of newspapers. The fourth para was: The first sanctions resolution seeking suspension of Iran's uranium enrichment program was approved by the Security Council in December. It took the United States and its partners several months of bitter wrangling to pass the resolution and the Americans, at least, are keen to avoid that kind of division this time. Bad and commonplace mistake. Resolutions are either...

This is a subject so oft-debated in our circles that it is beginning to lose its significance. The basic factors responsible for the virtual non-existence of environmental/wildlife issues in the news media are the same today as they were some years back. Recycling the same issues again would do nothing more than fill up space for Green Voice. It is time to take things further, to develop a strategy, and work on – not towards – it. The fight for news-space is not a battle, it is a game. It is a...

The language that you use will more often than not show your stand. Especially when the issue at hand is a contentious one. Let's see what the media reported on Day One. A Bureau report on ZeeNews.com said 'Pesticides in Coke, Pepsi brands again: CSE'. [ Link] Does that mean that there were no pesticide residues in the soft drinks in the 2003-2006 period, irrespective of whether someone found these contaminants or not? The first sentence says: Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on...

Here's a look at the front page of today's Times of India, Delhi edition. Today's lead has the same fault about inverted commas as it was with yesterday's anchor. Single quotes are used for quotations within quotations. Elsewhere, even if it is a phrase or just a word, double quotes are used. Incorrect use around artificial in the intro: Even as J&K governor S K Sinha instituted an inquiry on Thursday into the 'artificial' shivling scandal at the Amarnath shrine, TOI has obtained strong evidence...

Here's a look at the front page of today's Hindustan Times, Delhi edition. Today's lead (China quietly builds a barrage on Sutlej), like yesterday's, is more or less clean. The copy itself is fine, but the story has a major loophole — it does not have a source. That, any good reporter will tell you, is a cardinal sin. The story apparently is based on some satellite images, but nowhere in the copy are HT's readers told what is the source of these images. Officials of the ministry of external...

Here's a look at the front page of yesterday's Hindustan Times, Delhi edition. The lead (Delhi sees nuclear club entry by year-end) is clean. The header is better too. The headers for this developing story which appeared as "Nuke Bill passage on course" on June 28 and "Nuke deal faces first vote today" on June 27 would have been appropriate had HT been an American daily. Climbing down to the next story (More troops to plug border infiltration). It is quite clean too. But I have a problem with...

Here's a look at the front page of yesterday's Times of India, Delhi edition. It is a clean page. No, not spotless, but much cleaner than that of June 28. The lead (Road to chaos: Over 250 km to be dug up) has only one major bloomer: The city government clamps a ban on road digging from June 15 to September 15 as digging adds to muck on the roads and increases chances of sewer and drain blockades. A blockade is a barrier that stops people or vehicles from entering or leaving a place. A blockage...

Here’s a look at the front page of today’s Times of India, Delhi edition. Let’s start with the lead once again (We killed Rajiv, confesses LTTE). There's a bloomer in the first line itself: Fifteen years after a LTTE suicide bomber killed Rajiv Gandhi in Sriperumbudur, the Tamil rebel outfit on Tuesday admitted its responsibility for the crime and delivered a public apology. It should be an LTTE suicide bomber and not a. The second sentence of the intro reads: In an interview to a TV network on...