Global
Journalism Review
The
media at war in Iraq
Adam
Christie takes a sideways look
'Rooftop journalism', eminent former BBC
television correspondent Martin Bell has written, is not the same as 'real
journalism'. Bell means that reporters standing for hours doing 'two-ways' with
studio news presenters cannot give as good a picture of any occurrence as those
who have been finding out exactly what has been going on.
The latest volume,
Embedded: the media at war in
and Timothy Carlson - interviewed more than 60
journalists and broadcast production staff who were in
May 2003.
Apart from a brief introduction, they have let the
transcribed interviews speak for themselves. While the individuals' accounts are
fascinating, Katovsky and Carlson have
revealed a -
primarily American media - a relatively naive and insular. The stories the
reporters tell are of the details of the conflict, rather than the bigger
picture. Few, if any, appreciated, as embedded reporters, that individual unit
commanders would probably have no more idea of the 'bigger picture' than they
wood.
Consequently, their stories are about individuals, small units, those
in
One organisation which does emerge from the accounts extremely
creditably is the BBC.
Initial
reactions
Embedded documents initial reactions to the conflict, but -
like so much of the television its contributors produced - it is quite vacuous,
a missed
opportunity and would have been far strong by being more analytical,
providing a stronger context and being more critical.
A far shorter
collection of essays published in the summer 2003 edition of The Journalists'
Handbook, admittedly written by other interested observers
as well as another
BBC journalist Catherine Wyatt, probably contributes more to the wealth of
wisdom.
Embedded is raw material; unfortunately others' perspectives –
produced equally quickly - have quickly revealed that it is narrow,
disappointing and
an opportunity missed.
Embedded; the media at war in
Timothy Carlson, The
The Journalists' Handbook, No 73, Summer 2003, Standfirst Publishing,
Adam Christie shoots and
leaves
The Daily Telegraph probably paid greatest homage to Lynne
Truss's surprise best-seller when, in December 2003, its picture editor chose to
run a cute
photograph of a baby panda. Only the timing could explain why a
sub started the caption: 'Eats, shoots
and leaves'.
The surprise
commercial success of the book in the
punctuation.
She admits
that she has become dogmatic, didactic, pedantic even,
in pursuit of misplaced apostrophes, but her guide to using commas and her
pleading for
the retention of the colon and semi-colon are admirable. The
book is not quite flawless. Ms Truss will probably upset some die-hard,
experienced sub-editors by confusing punctuation and
style towards the end
of the book.
Newspaper design - with columns and
keeping the use of upper-case characters to a minimum - is based on visual
perception, so that papers are easy,
comfortable and
quick to read. Ironically, typography developed before scientific psychologists
started measuring such factors.
Language, especially in the use of words, may
be continually evolving, but its grammatical foundations must remain constant if
we are to understand one
another. Grammar has changed far less than
words.
Nuances
Lynne
Truss documents changes in the nuances of punctuation marks, between different
languages and as printing technology has developed, but she does
acknowledge
that underneath all that, the basic sentence structure of subject, verb and
object has remained constant.
Some may have mocked her - by omitting
punctuation. Even without full stops and capital letters, those columns were all
based on such sentences. The
reader was obliged to read slowly, playing the
puzzle of trying to 'place the point'.
That more people around the world use
English as a second or third language than any other is a perspective which
increases the importance of precise
punctuation for accurate and effective
communication.
Any practising sub will confirm that typography's evolution
continues too. Some believe that
colons and semi-colons are difficult to read on computer
screens and
therefore should not be used 'online'. Others fret about using dashes and
brackets. Should on-screen quotemarks be double or
single?
Such discussions are largely absent from Ms Truss's otherwise
excellent contribution to the important and continuing debate about
global
communication and the English language.
Nevertheless, most of her
observations should not be new to any working journalist. However, as one
training centre has reportedly had to introduce
remedial English classes for
its students, that hope may be optimistic.
For those with experience -
whether they are in broadcasting or in print, subs or reporters - taking a few
hours to review existing practice will be
time well spend. For newcomers or
those with aspirations, with Harold Evans' Essential English, this book really
is compulsory reading.
Eats, Shoots and Leaves, Lynne Truss, Profile
Books,
86197 612 7