There's a rule in radio scripting that repetition is wrong.
Sometimes in written speech repetition can be emphatic. But there seems to be something in the echoing of spoken speech, especially on radio, that makes use of the same word or phrase within a couple of minutes sound awkward.
So we don't say "President George W. Bush" more than once in the space of a paragraph or more. We change it to "Mr. Bush" or "the President" and so on.
Which is why the search for synonyms is part of the art. I once downloaded a programme to my Palm organiser to help me find synonyms quickly - I think it was after I struggled for days to report stories about the Iranian earthquake that didn't use the word "earthquake". Print journalism can use "quake" or even "trembler" but that is too much like slang for us.
I didn't use the software much - probably because the only usable alternative it came up with was "tremor" and that sounds a bit weak when tens of thousands lose their lives - and I'm not sure where it is now. So I guess I'm just about winning the battle on my own.
I was reminded of this challenge when I came across this review of .
It's funny, but a bit cruel because I imagine what the users of PAWs were mostly trying to do was avoid saying the same thing twice.
The world turns but we hang on.
The World Update presence in America's capital is very important to us, of course. We know that senior administrators and lawmakers rely on our global briefing of news and analysis as they head to the gym or their desks in the early morning.
They may not be numerous amongst our large audience across the US but they matter to us - to me - because they keep us playing to our highest level.
Inaccuracies and sloppy thinking will win us no friends amongst those who have to make tough decisions in the public service - knowing that, we take the greatest care with our facts and objectivity.
So it was of some concern to us when we learned that one of the Washington DC NPR stations had decided to drop all ´óÏó´«Ã½ programming in favour of classical music. (Nothing wrong with the music; I just spent most of Sunday watching documentaries about and listening to the music of . But the most powerful capital in the world needs the world's best news service, too.)
Fortunately, the American University station WAMU recognised an opportunity and seized it. From today we can be heard on WAMU on 88.5FM.
We hope all of our listeners who need to start the day with a clear and broad awareness of the main global news stories and what they imply will join World Update on WAMU.
And thanks to General Manager Caryn Mathes and her team for making a very good decision!
Richard Padro on Britishness, something the British government hopes to teach to schoolchildren.
Simply put, Britishness is an attitude. We like to believe that being born of the genetic structure of 1000 years ago gives those with white skin the banner to claim for themselves the title "British" but those that came to England later, who were born within the borders of the country, who speak with the British stoicism so long famous, who love to follow British football, who sing Rule Britannia with passion, and overall, are simply British by attitude. That is Britishness.
From Bob Hall in New York, on 1) Kofi Annan going home to Ghana and 2) on George Bush amongst the Congressional Lilliputians (Bob's views, not ours of course)
You think there's cheering in Ghana ? Roll down your window and you'll hear the happy hollering from here. 2.) Down and out Flat on his back and tied down, Bush is still GULLIVER, here and out there. God knows (sorry) he's not so big; the others are just a lot smaller.
From Aftab Khan in Singapore:
Everyday while going back to home after finishing my office (at 6PM our time) I listen to your show on my handphone radio. I like your voice and way of presentation of news. I have been listening to ´óÏó´«Ã½ world service for many years and can safely say that out of three channels i.e web, TV and radio, by far the coverage of ´óÏó´«Ã½ world service is more objective than the other two. The analysis on TV and web site has the typical streaks of western media bias; where as in radio it is very subtle and discreet, rather more objective. Just a bit curious: why does your organization has a different editorial and coverage standards for three media??
Thank you all, here's the address for more
One reason I'll never get a big head just because I work for the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is that I have a teenager at home.
She hardly ever watches ´óÏó´«Ã½ television - it's music channels, Aussie soaps and repeats of makeover shows on cable for her.
As for radio, I don't think she really knows the ´óÏó´«Ã½ does that.
What she does most of is sit in front of her computer listening to Napster and sending instant messages to her friends. And talking on the phone at the same time.
We've got software to keep her safe from the ill-intentioned so we feel relatively comfortable about this - it's not what we did as kids, but we probably would have done if we could.
Trying to break into the media world she and her teenage peers around the world have created is the task the creators of have set themselves.
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I used to admire people who could tell you who won the 1974 FA Cup Final (it was Liverpool, I cheated and checked) or who won Gold in the 1500 metres at the 1980 Moscow Olympics (Sebastian Coe, and I didn't have to look that up).
I wasn't envious, though. I thought they possibly needed to get out more. Why all the fuss about sports? I wondered.
But as my youngest son grows older, I'm recognising the value in meaningless sporting detail.
Of course I know the Bill Shankly line - the former Manchester United manager responded to a reporter who asked him if football was a matter of life and death with "It's much more important than that!"
What I mean, though, is the value sporting knowledge can have on relationship building.
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This is in response to Dan Damon's program that aired here on KWMU in St. Louis, MO, USA on 4 Jan, re. polar bears... Thanks for the interesting bit of information that there are more polar bears now than 50 years ago. Did not know that. Having googled around a little on the subject, I don't agree that this fact implies that the current concern for the species is unfounded. Polar bear populations were impacted in the 50s and 60s by hunting. An international agreement relieved that pressure, and their numbers rebounded. Yet today a new threat to their survival has been identified. If it has been established that their population is again waning, even though it is still higher than it was, why should we wait until the situation is critical? John, Imperial Missouri
Regarding Ashley, the girl whose parents gave her a hysterectomy and are giving her estrogen to stunt her growth. For about a year autistic girls have undergone the same ghastly procedure. Autistic boys have been chemically castrated with lupron and given estrogen to stunt their growth. Just more quackery in the name of a "cure." But we're autistic, less than human, and don't make the news. Jerod Poore, Saint Regis, Montana
Why do you give the Senlis Council airtime? They have a very clear agenda and their "facts" exist only to support them. USAID is building roads, rehabilitating irrigation and a whole bunch of activties in the south of Afghanistan. When are you going to question the Senlis Council's agenda and their "facts"" rather than run their agenda as one of your stories and then challenge donors and aid workers about what they really ARE doing. Sarah
Also, lots of good souls build schools in Africa. Why does Oprah's have to cost so much? How will it be any better? ...and could your correspondent possibly have sounded more star struck? Sarah Jackson
Can you post the web-site for the Student art outlet that you talked about on Tuesday, Jan.2, 2007. I can't find it under "stuart". Thanks. Here it .
| 10:00 UK time, Tuesday, 30 January 2007
