On Tue, Jul 5, 2011 at 12:33 PM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote:
> Back when we had journalists who went to journalism school, they were > taught that regardless of the specific form of media, it had to cater > to those with an apx. 7th grade level of education. This is why on > those ultra-rare instances where a journalist reports on a story in a > North African or South American country, he/she must first give a > brief geography lesson, because it is assumed the average consumer > will not know where the country is. It is also why, when you watch any > news report, the story is told three times (i.e. "We go now live to > Bob Smith who is at the scene of a grizzly murder in Burbank..." "Good > evening -- I'm at the scene of a grizzly murder In Burbank..." "That > was Bob Smith covering that grizzly murder that occurred in Burbank > this evening."). The masses are assumed to be prepubescent, > semi-educated punks with no attention span and little to no interest > in life outside their respective bubbles. And judging from the state > of the union, one can hardly argue the point. > > So, of course ABC would feel the need to first educate viewers on a > pending big word. It would be practically unethical (by journalistic > standards) for them not to. > I do not grant that a Sunday Morning Public Affairs Show is the equivalent of a daily newspaper, and thus must restrict its vocabulary to the same mass level. Clearly, piling on gratuitous multi-syllabic adjectives is tiresome and gets in the way of communication (and now we are mirroring the thread on HBO breasts). But in the context of her show, which was a rather free flowing and abstract discussion reflecting on the 4th of July, (and not, for example, an attempt to report a breaking news story), I don't think her use was uncalled for. In trying to find out just how difficult the word in question is (fail), I did stumble upon the following ( http://www.impact-information.com/impactinfo/newsletter/plwork15.htm), which was a reading level analysis of major publications in 2005. The lowest was 9th grade level (note both the LA Times and the National Enquirer check in at the 12th grade level, while the fancy pants NY Times can only clock a 10th grade level). The point of the piece in which this is embedded is that, in general, mass circulation aims with a lower reading level (note the TV Guide and Readers Digest). Note: I would have been less unhappy if ABC News had simply told CA to stop using hard words in the future, and aim for a 9th grade reading level. I wonder if USA Today, had it simply been summarizing what CA said for its readers, would have added a footnote or parenthetical definition, perhaps introduced with a standard "since we know most of our readers have not mastered a high school education, our policy is to define all words not used by sports radio talk show hosts or Two and a Half Men characters"). *Grade Level and Circulation of Current Periodicals* *Periodical* *Grade Level* *Circulation* *Times of India* 15 2,144,842 *London Times* 12 619,682 *Los Angeles Times* 12 1,292,274 *Boston Globe* 12 707,813 *National Enquirer* 12 2,760,000 *Sydney Sun-Herald* 12 393,000 *China Daily* 12 1,000,000+ *Atlantic Monthly* 11 1,500,000 *Better Homes and Gardens* 11 7,628,424 *Atlanta Constitution* 11 606,246 *Cleveland Plain Dealer* 11 479,131 *San Jose Mercury News* 11 298,067 *New Yorker* 10 1,900,000 *New York Times* 10 1,680,583 *Washington Post* 10 1,007,487 *USA Today* 10 2,665,815 *TV Guide* 9 13,200,000 *The Sun (UK Tabloid)* 9 3,541,002 *Daily Mirror (UK Tabloid)* 9 2,148,058 *Harpers* 9 230,159 *Time* 9 4,114,137 *Reader's Digest* 9 12,212,040 Notice that: - Two magazines with the largest circulations in the world, *TV Guide*and *Readers Digest*, are written at the 9th-grade reading level. - The newspaper with the largest circulation in the world, the *Sun*, is written at the 9th-grade reading level. - *USA Today* is written at the 10th-grade level. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
