For us here at Positively Writing, McWhorter misses a key issue: the culture of exceedingly casual communication. Because social media affects popular culture in such a massive way, its associated behaviors now exist well beyond its boundaries. Twitter-talk happens over dinner. OMGs become titles of television programs. Texting shortcuts creep into journalism.
Is that a problem?
Well yes, because this underlying culture impacts issues much larger than capitalization and acronyms. It's not about simply messy chatting; it's about messy thinking. And now the people who are paid to report news approach their work the way they approach communication with friends. It's not that communication with friends is careless but that there is less care taken with friends. 'If I misstate something, no big deal' seems to be the prevailing notion.
We're so disappointed with "the media" because we've seen so much evidence of this—in social media and elsewhere. And this evidence suggests that less care equals less accuracy.
And that's unacceptable.
Where do you get your news? A USA Today headline told us baseballer Barry Bonds said Detroit's Miguel Cabrera is "not as good as me." Simply not true (the quote). Bonds said Cabrera doesn't match him in MVP awards or statistics. And he was responsible enough to add the qualifier "yet."
If a universally acknowledged steroid-user (i.e., cheater) Bonds is more careful with his words than USA Today is, do they deserve your readership?
In another sports story, almost every prominent media source reported Indiana Pacer head coach Frank Vogel called the Miami Heat (the Pacers' playoff opponent at the time) "just another team." Simply not true. Vogel said his team is "competing for a championship and they (Miami) are just the next team that’s in our way." Even worse, the hometown Miami Herald exacerbated the error by saying Vogel "flip-flopped' when he simply restated his words. . . and they did this after acknowledging he was misquoted.
These examples raise the question (no, they do not "beg" the question) "Where is accountability?" Well, we think it's in the same place as accuracy: nowhere. As a culture we not only tolerate it, our lack of outrage or action indicates we don't care. So it happens more frequently. So it doesn't jump out at us. So it gets ignored even more frequently. Ugh.
When CNN and the New York Post disgraced themselves with their incomprehensibly irresponsible reporting on the Boston bombings, the social mediascape called them on it. Their response? They didn't apologize, they rationalized. And by giving excuses, they sidestepped accountability.
We freely admit that we here at Positively Writing are sticklers. We cringe when announcers misuse words and newspapers slant their stories with sly wording (we cringe a lot). We can't begin to list the number of times ESPN talking heads mispronounced the names of athletes that may not be considered mainstream (often soccer players). This is their only job—to communicate their subject matter—and they make outrageous mistakes with shocking regularity. We acknowledge we're in the minority and that precise language simply does not matter to most people. But we're appalled that news organizations seem to be leaning in that direction, too, because it doesn't suggest carelessness, but rather incompetence.
And are we really okay with incompetence. From any quarter?
We shouldn't be. We've all seen "the power of social media." It can literally create social movements that change societies. So let's create the "Accountability in Media" movement. Let's have a million people rain down their outrage when a newspaper or network blatantly ignores facts or tries to create a story that doesn't exist. If we create real accountability—and affect, say, employment—maybe we'll see a positive change. A change that can only benefit our culture and us. All of us.
Deal?
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