Week 6: Chapter 7, 'A word's worth'.

Reading: Chapter 7 - A word's worth in The Daily Miracle: An introduction to Journalism / David Conley & Stephen Lamble. Melbourne, Victoria. Oxford University Press, 2006. 3rd ed.

• At what educational level of readers should newspapers be aiming? Do you think your main metropolitan newspaper is hitting the mark? Why or why not?

I think the education level of newspaper readers should be almost irrelevant. Although people need to be able to read to get any use out of a newspaper, a newspaper should essentially use the most basic, easy to understand and clear language to convey its message.

There is room for more sophisticated writing, editorials and opinion pieces often need to use more sophisticated language to make their point.

The Newcastle Herald is a very popular paper. It serves the entire Newcastle and Central Coast regions and has a circulation of approximately 153 000 people Monday to Friday and 225 000 people on Saturdays.

I think the Herald actually does a good job at reaching as many people in its demographic as possible. It may sometimes lack in quality, sophisticated journalism as that of a paper like The Australian, but overall it serves its purpose of providing news to the people of the Hunter and Central Coasts. The education level of a Herald reader could be anywhere from late primary school onwards.

• To what extent do you think reporters should be able to interpret news events and inject their thoughts into news stories?

This question is directly mentioned in the text under the Style and substance sub-heading. "A journalist without style is a journalist without substance, and a journalist without substance is, in effect, not a journalist".

There should be a house style at most publications, this is only to ensure the paper is consistent throughout and flows well.

Injecting thoughts into the news should be left to the opinion columns. Newspaper news should be simple, flow well and avoid cliches and unnecessary adjectives.

• English is a growing and ever-changing language as new words evolve and old ones fall into disuse. What then of the idea of a global language? Does it really matter that our language is being tainted with Americanisms and US spelling?

Newspaper journalism should be the highest example of Australia's style and prose. Americanisms and US spelling is never acceptable in Australian newspapers. News Limited produced a generic industry standard on usage to satisfy the aim of keeping readers comfortable wherever they are, be it at home, or traveling overseas.

Australia has a unique style and history all of our own, we should preserve its uniqueness.

• Based on your own experience and your reading of newspapers, do you think newspapers have a serious commitment to accuracy?

In terms of usage, Newspapers seem to be very accurate. I don't think I've come across a spelling mistake or poor grammar, although I've probably missed the poor stuff. In other areas, I'm not as convinced. Journalists are increasingly under pressure to work faster, with less staff and to produce a product of an increasingly high quality and standard. Accuracy when working under such conditions is bound to happen. Following up and checking sources to ensure accuracy will surely suffer under these circumstances.

• What would you do if you made a serious mistake in a story you wrote but no one contacted the paper to complain?

You have to fess up to your mistakes. Even if no one reported the mistake, people still appreciate when somebody honestly owns up to stuffing up. We're all human after all.