Gripe: Poorly Edited Online Articles

[+ azdr0710]

check out this very short article:

 

http://www.kvoa.com/story/38443599/fire-chief-debunks-common-myths-for-lightning-safety

 

read through it from start to finish and notice the variety of problems.....rife with run-on sentences, your/you're confusion, grammar mistakes, singular/plural disagreement, and more.....the mistakes will pop out instantly as you read!

 

I'm a stickler for grammar and spelling.....(and I realize my writing style in this very post goes against that!!.....I do know how to write a proper letter when necessary, but prefer to write this way in this context.....)

 

do computers spew out these articles without human oversight?.....I did, in fact, write a note to the "author" (!!??) of this article expressing my concern......

 

sorry to grumble!.....but I'm embarrassed by this, to be honest......

Edited June 18, 2018 by azdr0710

[samhexum]

You're assuming there's an editor.

[rvwnsd]

It would not supprize me if the content was ritten by computer or non-native English speaker or in a foreign language and translated to English by computer in a foreign country. Computers can do alot but they can't yet replace Humans intelligence and learn. Things.

[Mhs]

check out this very short article:

 

http://www.kvoa.com/story/38443599/fire-chief-debunks-common-myths-for-lightning-safety

 

read through it from start to finish and notice the variety of problems.....rife with run-on sentences, your/you're confusion, grammar mistakes, singular/plural disagreement, and more.....the mistakes will pop out instantly as you read!

 

I'm a stickler for grammar and spelling.....(and I realize my writing style in this very post goes against that!!.....I do know how to write a proper letter when necessary, but prefer to write this way in this context.....)

 

do computers spew out these articles without human oversight?.....I did, in fact, write a note to the "author" (!!??) of this article expressing my concern......

 

sorry to grumble!.....but I'm embarrassed by this, to be honest......

Or maybe it’s an auto-transcription of something that was spoken aloud during a newscast?

 

Regardless of where it came from, I share your annoyance (and disappointment) with this kind of sloppiness. It’s also a sad fact of life in 2018 that writers and editors cost money, and more & more media sources are unwilling - or unable - to justify the expense of hiring people who can actually write.

Edited June 18, 2018 by Mhs

[Nvr2Thick]

Reporters for local TV news are often terrible journalists. The pay is very low, and the stations are often just looking to hire telegenic college grads. It's been a long time since all but the top colleges took grammar and writing seriously. News stories are developed in a couple of hours, and are based on two or three soundbites. My impression is that there are maybe one or two reporters with writing and journalistic skills on staff at any station or newspaper writing a few decent pieces. News is 95% filler written by and for people who communicate via text and social media post. It's not edited heavily because most stories have a lifespan of a day or less.

 

One of the trends in reporting that amazes me is the practice of pulling stories off of social media. If people are arguing about a topic in a Facebook group or a comments section a reporter will go with "People are concerned about ______" as a subject, with absolutely no research into the substance of a topic. As an example, one of our council representatives proposed a bill that generated a lot of controversy, much of which was centered around disinformation spread about fear-mongering falsely predicted consequences of the bill spread by business owners with obvious vested interests. Two local TV news stations picked up the story, quoting comments from Facebook and seeking interviews with vocal opponents, but they used a biased layman's interpretation of the bill instead of actually reading the bill's verbiage. I questioned one reporter as to why the bill itself was omitted from the story. She explained that it would have been too wordy and no one would understand it. I sent her a copy of the two short sentences making up the actionable component of the bill's text, and she countered with "it just didn't make a good story." It became clear that she had never bothered to look it up.

Edited June 18, 2018 by Nvr2Thick

[+ azdr0710]

Or maybe it’s an auto-transcription of something was spoken aloud during a newscast?

 

I think this is very much part of it....thanks for that suggestion.....I've seen reporters' spoken words from video news reports copied directly into an "article"......

[+ azdr0710]

I did, in fact, write a note to the "author" (!!??) of this article expressing my concern......

 

update: received a reply from the "author" of this article and she apologized and said she would "triple" check next time......

[Nvr2Thick]

I think this is very much part of it....thanks for that suggestion.....I've seen reporters' spoken words from video news reports copied directly into an "article"......

 

and newspapers publish online videos of their stories above the text for people who don't care to read.

[Kippy]

We live in an age where composing a declarative sentence is not only a rarity, it is an oddity!

 

Kipp

[marylander1940]

We live in an age where composing a declarative sentence is not only a rarity, it is an oddity!

 

Kipp

 

I we say an uneducated person wrote it, he'll call himself a "deplorable" and play the victim saying we're members of the coastal elite.

[+ Charlie]

Don't forget about auto-correct, which is probably responsible for many errors, including those in these posts.

[samhexum]

[+ José Soplanucas]

check out this very short article:

 

http://www.kvoa.com/story/38443599/fire-chief-debunks-common-myths-for-lightning-safety

 

read through it from start to finish and notice the variety of problems.....rife with run-on sentences, your/you're confusion, grammar mistakes, singular/plural disagreement, and more.....the mistakes will pop out instantly as you read!

 

I'm a stickler for grammar and spelling.....(and I realize my writing style in this very post goes against that!!.....I do know how to write a proper letter when necessary, but prefer to write this way in this context.....)

 

do computers spew out these articles without human oversight?.....I did, in fact, write a note to the "author" (!!??) of this article expressing my concern......

 

sorry to grumble!.....but I'm embarrassed by this, to be honest......

 

It looks like my writing.