Newspapers Influence on Society in South Africa

I am writing a paper on xenophobia in South Africa. While researching this topic, I came across an article about the influence of South African newspapers on the issue. According to this article, South African newspapers have an anti-immigration bias. Articles that discussed immigration issues were usually conservative and used little factual information. The South African newspapers were also more likely to mention that a criminal was illegally in the country if they were black.

The part of the article I found most interesting was when it described the newspaper's bias use of words. A majority of the newspapers used the term "illegals" when describing immigrants that illegally entered the country. This term has a negative connotation and could be describing perfectly law abiding people who had to leave their country for completely understandable reasons, such as escaping political unrest.

The article also discussed how articles use sensational headlines like: "Illegals in SA add to decay of cities" and "Africa floods into Cape Town." The headlines often used aquatic or mob metaphors, such as "hordes," "floods," and "streaming."

Even though South Africa is a very different country from the United States, lessons learned there can easily be applied here. American newspapers should be weary about the effects of sensational headlines and their use of words.

Weasel Words

As all good journalism students know, bias should be avoided as much as possible. One way writers slip bias into stories is using "weasel words." According to Wikipedia,"Weasel words is an informal term for words that are ambiguous and not supported by facts. They are typically used to create an illusion of clear, direct communication." The term derives from the way weasels suck the yolk out of eggs, but leave the shell intact. Similar to the weasel-eaten eggs, weasel words look plausible, but are empty upon further analysis.

Araminta Matthews presents a good example in her article "What are weasel words?" Matthews describes an article about a elementary school professor convicted of sexual assault on several of his students.

"The very first article read something to this effect: 'The jury apparently believed the testimony of the three girls from [school district] today...' I forget exactly how the phrasing went, but I distinctly remember the first part of the sentence, 'the jury apparently believed.' Consider the tone of this sentence with specific regard to the use of the word 'apparently.' What opinion do you suppose the author of this story has of the conviction of this music teacher?"

In this context "apparently" is a weasel word because it has no basis in fact. It is used to devalue the girl's testimony and the jury's decision.

When writing or editing articles, it is important to watch for weasel words. Not only do they reflected poorly on the writer, but on the entire newspaper and staff. For more examples of weasel words, check out www.weaselwords.com.au

Future of copy editing

In class we watched a video about the end of the Rocky Mountain News. In almost all my journalism classes we have discussed the poor state of the newspaper industry. The internet and blogs are often considered the culprit for the sorry state of American newspapers. Why pay for a newspaper when you can find it online for free?

During this period of cutbacks and layoffs many are questioning the role of copy editors. The media journalist and blogger, Patrick Thornton, writes on his blog that the position of copy editor is outdated and obsolete. With blogs, there is no need to shorten stories or do page layout. He believes there should be some copy editors at newspapers, but more pressure needs to be put on writers to catch the majority of their mistakes and create their own headlines.

Self proclaimed "Web content guru," Karen G. Anderson, also writes about the role of copy editors during the age of the blog. From her experience as a writer and editor, she believes there will always be a need for copy editors. Computers will never find all the errors as well as a professional copy editor. She also questions the lowered standards for online content.

"Lack of copy editing in the world of web writing makes the 'old school' writer in me completely crazy. I think of my demanding copy editing professor at journalism school, Irv Horowitz, who used to tell complaining students that he wanted us to learn the craft at its highest level. 'You can always lower your standards later,' he'd growl.

Well, it's later. And we have. Does anyone (except us) notice?"