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For goodness sake, HIRE EXPERIENCED COPY EDITORS

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Drip, Aug 12, 2016.

  1. 1HPGrad

    1HPGrad Member

    Tampa Bay Times ran a separate in print with this headline: 'African-American makes history' beside her photo. Easily could have put her name in the headline and included why it was a record in the cutline. Didn't see or hear much reaction about their word choice.
     
  2. toivo99

    toivo99 Member

    Here is what I have always done, and these seem to be decent rules to follow.

    1) Use names in headlines only if the names are well-known. (Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky, yes. Anthony Ervin and Simone Manuel, no.)
    2) To identify people who are not well-known, use the most important attribute. (In the case of Manuel, her achievement was noteworthy BECAUSE of her race, therefore the identifier was appropriate.)
    3) Localize if possible and appropriate. (So, in the case of Canadian heptathlete Brianne Theisen-Eaton winning bronze, it is appropriate to identify her as the wife of American decathlete Ashton Eaton. The vice versa would work for a news outlet in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan)

    I fail to see sexism or racism in any of these.
     
    JimmyHoward33 likes this.
  3. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    If she's not well-known, "USA's Manuel makes history" is the way to go.
     
    reformedhack and Bronco77 like this.
  4. Pilot

    Pilot Well-Known Member

    The lack of quality copy editor/designers is a major problem for our shop. Granted we're a 10,000 daily so we're hiring people on their first or second jobs, but we can't find acceptable copy editors. It's probably been five years since we've had more than one competent copy editor on our four-person staff at the same time.

    Give too much instruction and too many rules and they'll ignore common sense and follow them right off a cliff. Give too few and they'll butcher, as an example, 20 or 30 percent of each week's front page headlines.

    They're good people with great attitudes who have no idea what they're doing.
     
  5. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    I have seen a lot of complaints about this headline as well on a certain social media site that ends in book.

    image.jpeg
     
  6. BDC99

    BDC99 Well-Known Member

    Que? Because he didnt win but she did? Or am I missing something?
     
  7. BDC99

    BDC99 Well-Known Member

    Never mind. Ledecky was otherworldly.
     
  8. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Women read it as:

    MAN DOES PRETTY GOOD

    (Woman does a lot better)
     
    Bronco77, HanSenSE and BDC99 like this.
  9. Doc Holliday

    Doc Holliday Well-Known Member

    You mean women read the sports page?
     
    Bronco77 and Ace like this.
  10. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    Just for the narrative, not to see who wins [/olympicsonnbc]
     
  11. I Should Coco

    I Should Coco Well-Known Member

    Shhh ... they'll starting putting ads in sports again!
     
  12. studthug12

    studthug12 Active Member

    I don't get it
     
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